This is the second post in my series about records that are not online, and perhaps never will be.  In preparing to start compiling my portfolio for certification, I decided on the family I want to write about: my paternal grandmother Ruby Chase Reed, her father Henry Hickox Chase and his mother Mary Ann Hickox Chase.  Each of them have fascinating stories, and I'm fortunate to have lots of original records that I received from my grandfather's estate in 1974.  In looking over the records, I realized that I didn't have some basic information - such as wills or probate records.  So I wrote, and then called the Manistee County Probate Clerk to see about getting those. 
     I had known that Henry Hickox Chase died in the Traverse City State Hospital in 1940; what I didn't know was that the Manistee County Clerk had a treasure chest of papers, waiting to be discovered.  She described it on the phone as a packet of guardianship records, and just said that there were "lots" of papers.  It would have cost me $1 per page to have them photocopied, so I emailed my cousin (who lives in Benzonia County, the next county north to Manistee County), and asked if she could do me a huge favor and go the courthouse to take digital photos.  She and her husband drove down that very afternoon, and took 75 digital photos of the papers, some of which were too fragile to be photocopied.

     Courthouses all across the country are filled with papers like these!

     As I said, I'd given up on genealogy.  Permanently.  Or so I thought.  Through the 1990's and into 2000, I refused to get interested, even when I saw books on Genealogy and the Internet on my library shelves.
    In 2003, my 99-year old grandmother, who lived in Michigan with her daughter, my Aunt Ethel, was beginning a long, slow decline.  Aunt Ethel called and asked me if I could do some online research into assisted living or adult family home facilities in their area.  Being the librarian that I am, I immediately went to the Library of Michigan website.  I did find a state-wide review of facilities, and was able to give my aunt some names and phone numbers of places to check out.  In the process of exploring the library website, I noticed a sidebar that said, "Search the 1870 census index for Michigan."  Immediately I thought of my great-great grandfather Stacy Clay Thompson, whom I'd never been able to find, either in Pennsylvania, where he was born, or in Michigan. 
     So, not expecting much, I typed his name into the search box.  In seconds I had my answer - 14-year old Stacy Thompson was living in Blair, Grand Traverse County (where I never thought of looking for him), boarding with another family and attending school.

     To say that I was impressed was putting it mildly!  Immediately I thought, "Ooooohhhh - this has possibilities!"  So I plugged in another name, that of another great great grandfather, Marshall Jackson Chase, who (according to family notes) had taken his small family from Ohio to Michigan in the 1850's.  Once again the search found him in seconds - living with his wife Mary Ann, their two children George Carlos and Florence, and his sister-in-law and niece, Louisa and Eva Catlin.  I had no idea they ever lived in Lansing.

     It didn't take me long to swing into action.  I knew I needed an up-to-date genealogy software program, so I went online to read some reviews, and chose Legacy Family Tree, because it was available for download immediately, was user-friendly and a reasonable price.  I decided early on that I would be entering all my information from the beginning, using the binders of original records and family papers that I'd collected.  I subscribed to Ancestry, and started reading online genealogy newsletters.
     I was on my way!

     I've come to the point where I've decided on the families I'm going to write about for my portfolio - for the kinship determination, and for the conflicting evidence report.  In the last few days I have been looking through the binders I've compiled on those families, and I've had the startling realization that there are big, black, gaping holes in my research.

     What?  I don't have a death certificate for my great-grandfather Henry Chase?  I do have my handwritten transcription  of the death record I found in Manistee County, Michigan when I visited in 1983 (odd, because he actually died in Grand Traverse County), and I also have extensive medical records from the Traverse City State Hospital.  But not his death certificate.
     Off goes an email to the Grand Traverse County Clerk.

     I can't believe I never thought of obtaining the will and/or probate records for several grandparents and great-grandparents.  Probate records for Ruth (Prosser) Chase MIGHT give me information on her daughter Edna Strunk, who was living in New York at the time of Ruth's 1915 obituary, and hasn't been seen since. 
     So I'm writing a request to the Manistee County Clerk for those records.

     A will for John Hickox, who died in Medina, Ohio, in 1835, might reveal the names of his grown children by his first marriage.  It might even reveal names of siblings back in New York, which would enable me to figure out where in New York he lived before coming to Ohio.
     The Family History Library in Salt Lake City has Medina County, Ohio, wills on microfilm; next time I order film for a client I'll order a couple of films for myself, as well.
    
     Yes, it's past time for me to start treating my own research as I would my clients'!