The First Word #23: Negative Search Results Leads to Old Friends

    Last week I spent five days in Salt Lake City. I had grand visions of the records I would locate, the great new leads I would discover, the holes in my research I would fill. I spent hours before the trip combing the online catalog, creating a list of films and books to look at when I finally arrived at the shining front doors of the genealogical Mecca. But the research gods had other plans for me.
    I spent the first few days searching through those books and films for Thomas C. Mitchell and his wife Angeline. For a long time they have been my favorite research subjects, but lately they have been more trouble than they are worth! I’m sure you have some ancestors like that too. (Maybe even some living relatives, but that’s an entirely different subject.) In particular, records of their marriage elude me.
    I flew into Salt Lake City very early on Wednesday morning, so when I arrived I had a nice breakfast to get my energy up. I went to the library for a few hours and started looking through the books on my list. After lunch I dove into the films. Over the next couple of days I scrolled through film after film and read through piles and piles of books. Much to my chagrin, I never found a single new record about them, let alone any clue to their marriage. I am beginning to think that Thomas and Angeline got married in the backyard by someone who had the audacity to not record their nuptials!
     The trip wasn’t without any discoveries, I did find something new completely by accident. I found out that one of Thomas and Angeline’s daughters, Mary, was married four times, the last time in Iowa. I stumbled across this tidbit of information while searching the FamilySearch.org digital records database. I don’t know for certain yet, but I believe that Angeline’s maiden name is Higdon. In this document, Angeline’s maiden name had been spelled differently (“Hoegdoen”) but by searching creatively for “Thomas C. Mitchell” with spouse “Angeline” (omitting her maiden name), I spotted this record in the list rather quickly. This piece of information didn’t do much for my main research plan except that it gave a little more weight to my theory.  I have also pieced together a Hidgon family group from the correct time and place that might be related to Angeline, but  I have not found a record yet that links her directly to them.
    Thursday night I took a break from research and I found myself wandering through the dusk to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s rehearsal night, which they open to the public. If I were to imagine what Heaven sounds like, that would be it! As I left, the temple to the east of the tabernacle was lit up and beautiful and I stopped for a photo, which I promptly posted to my Facebook page.
    After three days of finding next to nothing, I found myself extremely frustrated. I decided not to go back to the library and instead focus the remainder of my time on a couple of writing projects I had underway. I spent a lot of time at a local Starbucks using their internet connection, writing and of course, on Facebook. The temple photo I had posted on my Facebook page garnered a comment from a friend Craig who happens to be friends with Julie, another old friend of mine from college who it turns out now lives in Salt Lake City! Julie and I hadn’t reconnected on Facebook yet, so in seeing Craig’s comment on my photo she immediately sent me a message and we arranged to have breakfast together. It also caught the attention of Danny another long lost friend from college who stopped by to see me on his way through town. It was really great to see them and catch up.
    Despite all of the frustrations of not finding the ancestors I intended to find on this trip, I did keep a log of all of the films and books I looked through. The next time I’m planning a trip to the library, I can refer to my log and see exactly what titles I already searched in and more importantly, for what names. This log will keep me from repeating my research, as I have found myself doing on previous trips. Even if I didn’t find Thomas and Angeline, I now know more accurately where to continue my search. More importantly, however, my trip turned out to be more of a weekend to reconnect with the living, instead of with the dead.

The First Word #15: Healing Relationships for Better Genealogy

Time is a funny thing. It just slips away and is gone before you know it. I don’t know what happened to the whole month of June for instance. I woke up the other day and my calendar said July 1st and I said, “Holy cow, where did June go?” As I get older, time seems to go by faster. My kids are already growing up, the number of years I’ve been alive is getting bigger at an alarming rate and I swear an hour or two is removed from my day every night while I am sleeping. Surely, there are only twenty-two hours in the day anymore!

I think of the shortness of life when I look how many of my “older” family members are passing away. There aren’t too many left “above” me in the tree any more. My family wasn’t that large to begin with! I only have 4 first cousins to start with! I know many families that have dozens. One of my maternal grandfather’s brothers and sisters died in May, Carl Businger. I remember as a child going to Uncle Carl’s house for a party on the 4th of July, eating watermelon in their back yard, then walking to the golf course nearby to watch the fireworks.

I was never very close to that side of the family. My mother has been semi-estranged from her family and after she moved us to Wyoming, we lost almost all contact with her family. Since my mother lost contact, so did I. When I became an adult and began researching my tree, her parents had already passed away and my already tenuous connections with any of her aunts and uncles had diminished even more.

I find it foolish and unnecessary that families can be broken apart and consequently much family history is lost as a result of one “break in the branch.” I would have loved to have had my grandfather’s siblings’ perspective on so many things. What could they have told me about him? About their upbringing? About their aunts, uncles, cousins? What stories have been lost now because of the grudges and wounded pride that happened before my time?

Stories are lost everyday that will never be pieced together, no matter how much research is done. My paternal grandfather, Karl Miller, was full of such stories. He told me about one time when he was painting a house with a bunch of other guys. One guy was standing on a ladder and his feet just happened to be at the same level as a window into the house. My grandpa took some paint into the house, reached out the window and painted the other man’s shoes! If I asked any number of people who knew my grandfather they would all have a story of his antics! These peeks into his practical joker personality are lost every time someone who knew him passes away. Then all that’s left of him are the names and dates and places that make up so much of the genealogical record.

That’s where part of our jobs as family historians come in. We have an obligation to interview those who are still living. Ask them about those who have already passed away, those who are still alive, and themselves. Videotape the interview or make an audio recording if they will let you. At least write these stories down and share them with your family.

Even in the time since I began writing this article I got an email from an aunt in Ohio letting me know that another member of our family has passed away. Uncle Ivan Stearns was a dedicated genealogist in my family, mainly researching the Businger side, which is my mother’s line. So, my point has been made again in my own family. I never had a chance to talk to Ivan. We had written letters a few times but never had the chance to meet. He’s on “that side” of the family that I’ve been apart from due to “bad blood” so long ago.

Are there similar situations in your family where someone has moved away, lost contact or been otherwise separated because of some fight or other disharmony? I encourage you to attempt to repair any relationships that have become lost or strained. These relationships are important for your genealogy, but more importantly, also for a more satisfying life being connected to your living family tree.