Two stories from my own family history experiences today. Both are examples of how we can sometimes get the best help from unexpected sources.
First - One of my grandfathers was born in Sweden. Several years ago, a friend and her husband were serving as missionaries in Sweden. They met a woman who offered to help doing family history research. She told the woman about me and got contact information. I emailed a copy of my grandfather's family group sheet, showing him as a child. I thought I had that information correct, but thought she could help find the next generation back. She responded almost immediately saying that I was missing a child. Sure enough. She sent screen shots from the ArkivDigital, which is the Swedish data base. It turns out that my grandfather's oldest sister, Selma Karolina, had died at the age of 2, just before the birth of the next child. Her cause of death was a fever, probably scarlet fever. Because they went on to have nine more children, and because the loss of that first child was probably so difficult, it would appear that the younger children knew little about her.
I contacted a cousin who is also working on family history and asked if he was aware of the this child. He went through his "Swedish box" and found a handwritten note about a child that died, but did not know enough to have added it to his tree.
Now the family is complete. An unexpected offer of assistance from an unknown person in another country turned out to be the key to finding a lost child. On our next trip to the temple, my husband and I made sure this child was sealed to her parents.
With this story, we also took a minute to talk about working with foreign records. We looked at translate.google.com, which is an easy to use translation program. I have found it especially useful in figuring out the column headings on foreign documents. The translation is word for word, so sometimes long sentences or paragraphs can be confusing, as colloquialisms and nuances of meaning are not caught. It has been of huge help on many occasions.
Second - Many years ago, long before computers were around for genealogy work, I had sent to the city of Williamstown, Vermont, asking for any records on Jedediah Bacon. He was as far as I had gotten on that line. Normally, I would get a letter back saying they had found nothing or that they could send me a copy of what they found when they received a check for whatever amount they charged for such things. In this case, however, I received a big manila envelope. When I opened it, I found a letter from the woman who had done the search. She recognized the name I was working on and was a descendant of his brother. She sent a copy of a presentation that was made to the Williamstown Historical Society about the family. It was packed full of stories and genealogy that greatly expanded on what I already knew. Among other things, I learned about Jedediah's father Edmund, who was a Revolutionary War soldier. He is listed in the DAR database as a patriot. My first patriot connection!
To me, the remarkable thing was that this woman spent the extra time needed to make me a copy and to send it to me. This happened in mid-1970's and the presentation notes had been from 1952. She had to have searched through her files, or files at the library, to find it. I was extremely grateful.
We read a couple of the stories from the presentation. My favorite was about how the apple cider had turned hard over the winter when it froze and it had quite a "kick" when they drank it at the spring meeting.
Working on family history may seem like something we do on our own, but in reality, it is very much a cooperative venture. Without the help from other researchers, our journey would be so much harder. Be grateful for those times when you get to connect with such giving people. And be one of the givers yourself!
It makes the whole journey so much more joyful.
NOTE: Next Sunday, July 3rd, will be the final class. We will start a new class, probably in September. Anyone who wants to sit through it all again is welcome to do so. More information will be announced once everything is set.
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