sub FindRecord
{
    my ($self) = shift;
    my ($key)  = @_;

    my $ref = \{$self->{$key}};

    if (defined $ref->{path})
    {
         my $path = $ref->{path};
         foreach my $bit (@$path)
         {
              $ref = $ref->{$bit};
         }
    }

    return $ref;
}

# ...
sub SomeFunc
{
    my ($self) = shift;

    # ...

    ${$self->FindRecord($key)} = $value;
}