Who'd a thunk it? (finding "out of place" records)

June 20, 7:52 PMAlbany Genealogy ExaminerMeri Rees

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                                            Out of Place Family History Sampler

While teaching a genealogy class at McHenry County College in Crystal Lake, Illinois many years ago, a student remarked, "The records are out there.  They may have been misplaced or ended up in some remote, illogical spot but, they are there. You just have to keep searching for them."  I have thought of that statement many times over the years and chuckle each time I find family history records seemingly out of step with its setting.

Today I visited the old fort in Fort Johnson, New York.  The fort was built in 1749 and was the home of William Johnson and later passed on to his son, John.  John then later moved to the "big house", Johnson Hall, when his father died in 1774.  Because the Johnsons were considered traitors due to their allegiance to the British, their property and belongings were sold at auction in 1777 after the Johnsons had escaped to Canada.  I do not know who purchased the home at auction nor do I know the names of subsequent owners.  I do know that Fort Johnson history says that throughout the nineteenth century the house passed through many hands until in 1905, it was purchased by Brigadier General John Watts DePeyster, a Great-Nephew of Lady Mary Watts (wife of John Johnson), and given to the Montgomery County Historical Society. 

When visiting, the history of the fort then deals primarily with the Johnson family. Focus on the possessions that belonged to the Johnson family and the restoration of the fort to the way it would have been when the Johnsons occupied it all points to the Johnson family. Imagine my surprise then when I entered one of the bedrooms and found two genealogical samplers hanging on the wall having nothing to do with the Johnsons. One sampler was of a Stephen Collins and his family.  The sampler shows two wives and several children. It lists birth dates along with some marriage and death dates. This family information dates back to the mid 1800s.  Although records are easily accessible for this family, imagine for a second if they were not.  I can just see, in my minds eye, researchers futilely searching for the Collins family; never thinking that the records they searched for would be in a home dedicated to a family named Johnson.

Stories abound in genealogical circles that witness the truthfulness of this principle. A few come to mind.  One is of a woman who had been frantically searching for her family history for years.  One day, driving in the country her car broke down.  The only home nearby was an old farmhouse.  She walked up to the door and asked to use the phone.  The owners let her in and offered her a drink while she waited for the tow truck.  They offered her a seat in the living room.  A book on the coffee table caught her eye. It turns out the book contained genealogical records for several generations on the family she had been looking for. 

Another story comes from a friend of mine who also had been searching for the dates of a particular family member.  She knew the name of the ancestor and knew where he had been buried.  After driving some distance to the burial site [which turned out to be a big field] she walked out into the field and fell down in frustration, clinging to the grass.  As she stood, she pulled the grass up revealing a piece of stone.  She started digging with her hands until enough stone appeared to show the name of her ancestor and the death date she had been desperately been searching for.

My own search for a great-great grandfather took me to a county courthouse in Macon, Georgia.  The clerk graciously allowed me to go into a room filled with old court records.  I was given an index to look through.  There, in front of my eyes was the name of my ancestor along with the number of the court record book that held the court proceedings.  The book, however, was missing from the shelf.  I looked high and low for the book, thinking it may have been misfiled.  I could not find it until when I had given up and was ready to leave, I accidentally knocked a pile of books off of a table.  The book I'd been seeking was in a stack of books on the floor.

The words of my student so many years ago are true.  "The records are out there...  You just have to keep searching for them."