I love reading genealogy mysteries, and there are more and more of them being written, so that I can hardly keep up! But it's rare that a genealogy mystery makes me think about it for days afterward, applying the deeper lessons in the book to my own research.
Such a book was The Lost Ancestor, by Nathan Dylan Goodwin.
Such a book was The Lost Ancestor, by Nathan Dylan Goodwin.
The story is fascinating, and takes place in the present, and in the past. Present-day genealogist Morton Farrier (with his own family history puzzle to solve) is hired by Ray Mercer to find out what happened to Ray's grandmother's twin sister, Mary Mercer, who disappeared in 1911. The story switches back and forth, from Morton's detailed and meticulous research, to back in the past, where we find out what happened in Mary's life that led to her disappearance.
What impressed me the most, and what I found myself thinking about for days afterward, is how events and conversations and emotions that occurred in 1911 that were not recorded led to events that were recorded. In Ray's telling the professional genealogist about his grandmother Edith and her twin sister Mary, we have no idea that there was any sort of rift between them. Edith goes for an interview to be hired as a housemaid at Blackfriars Manor, but Mary is hired instead. Why? It's the conversations and emotions that lead to events, that Morton eventually tracks down.
In thinking of "reading between the lines" in my own ancestors' lives, I can think of two good examples. My mother Mary Elizabeth Stoelt was born on 2 August 1931, to Arnold and Bessie (Randall) Stoelt. Records give the facts of her birth, and of Bessie's death five months later, on 20 December 1931. Bessie's mother, Claudia Grace (Thompson) Randall died just two months earlier, on 27 October 1931. And curiously, in the obituary for Claudia Thompson Randall that was published in the Manistee (MI) News-Advocate on 28 October 1931, there is no mention of her daughter or granddaughter. The only survivors listed were her husband Herbert and son Ray.
Why?
It's not in the records, but in oral tradition, told to me by my mother's stepmother, Ervilla Stoelt, who heard it from her husband Arnold, who was there at the time. Apparently shortly before Claudia died, Herbert came to visit Arnold and Bessie. There was a huge argument, and Herbert shouted epithets at his pregnant daughter Bessie and stormed out of the house. Although Herbert died in 1946, when my mother was 15 years old, he never made an attempt to see or visit his her.
The other example is a lot farther back in time, and involves emotions, conversations and events that I can only guess at. In June 1880 my great-great grandmother Rhoda Prosser Jones was living in Hillsdale, Michigan with her second husband, Henry Jones, and her two children.
What impressed me the most, and what I found myself thinking about for days afterward, is how events and conversations and emotions that occurred in 1911 that were not recorded led to events that were recorded. In Ray's telling the professional genealogist about his grandmother Edith and her twin sister Mary, we have no idea that there was any sort of rift between them. Edith goes for an interview to be hired as a housemaid at Blackfriars Manor, but Mary is hired instead. Why? It's the conversations and emotions that lead to events, that Morton eventually tracks down.
In thinking of "reading between the lines" in my own ancestors' lives, I can think of two good examples. My mother Mary Elizabeth Stoelt was born on 2 August 1931, to Arnold and Bessie (Randall) Stoelt. Records give the facts of her birth, and of Bessie's death five months later, on 20 December 1931. Bessie's mother, Claudia Grace (Thompson) Randall died just two months earlier, on 27 October 1931. And curiously, in the obituary for Claudia Thompson Randall that was published in the Manistee (MI) News-Advocate on 28 October 1931, there is no mention of her daughter or granddaughter. The only survivors listed were her husband Herbert and son Ray.
Why?
It's not in the records, but in oral tradition, told to me by my mother's stepmother, Ervilla Stoelt, who heard it from her husband Arnold, who was there at the time. Apparently shortly before Claudia died, Herbert came to visit Arnold and Bessie. There was a huge argument, and Herbert shouted epithets at his pregnant daughter Bessie and stormed out of the house. Although Herbert died in 1946, when my mother was 15 years old, he never made an attempt to see or visit his her.
The other example is a lot farther back in time, and involves emotions, conversations and events that I can only guess at. In June 1880 my great-great grandmother Rhoda Prosser Jones was living in Hillsdale, Michigan with her second husband, Henry Jones, and her two children.
Just three years later, in June 1883, Mrs. Henry Jones was found along the railroad tracks outside of town, with a fractured skull. The Hillsdale Standard reported it as "A Sad Case of Suicide," although the coroner's jury in the case seemed a little puzzled that her stockings (she wasn't wearing shoes) were not soiled.
As a result of reading The Lost Ancestor, I'm now trying to imagine the conversations, events and emotions that led to Rhoda Jones' death. Although the verdict was suicide, I am leaning toward the theory that she was murdered. What were the conversations in that house? Does the fact that Henry Jones remarried in October 1883 have a bearing on it? What happened to her youngest daughter, Mary Almeda Jones? Why did her son Charles Douglas Prosser flee to Chicago?
Just as Morton Farrier solved his mystery using just the records he found, without having any idea of the conversations, emotions and events, if I look for the records, eventually I will find the truth of what happened.
Just as Morton Farrier solved his mystery using just the records he found, without having any idea of the conversations, emotions and events, if I look for the records, eventually I will find the truth of what happened.
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