Back in the late 80’s when I was first starting to do family history, I had a burial mystery that I couldn’t figure out. It began start with my parents, then grandparents. Nothing seemed right with my maternal grandmother’s burial, and I had a mystery around my maternal grandfather’s death, as he seemed to have died young, and I didn’t know how, and nobody talked about it. I found out that he had committed suicide, which was why nobody talked about it, but why had he done it? At the time I didn’t realize how they tied together. This is the story of the death and burial of my maternal grandparents, William and Augusta ‘Gusty’ Westphal. By early 1932 Augusta had been having health problems for about year and had an operation for gall bladder and appendicitis, but did not to survive the operation. Shortly after, on Saturday, March 26, 1932, she passed away at the age of 51 years, 1 month and 17 days. She would be buried three days later on March 29 at Saint Paul's Lutheran Church Ceme...

Mob tars and feathers revenue agent during Whiskey Rebellion 1794 Down the Rabbit Hole I don’t know what gave me the initial thought, whether it was the word "revenuers" or the Whisky Rebellion, let’s just say that one or the other led me down a very interesting rabbit hole. The Whiskey Rebellion was one of the first challenges for our young nation to face. It occurred in western Pennsylvania in 1794 when the farmers there had difficulties transporting their crops across the Allegheny mountains. It was much easier to distill their grains, producing whiskey that could be transported over the mountains. Eastern distillers, who produced much more whiskey did not like competition that the western distillers presented.  At the same time our young United States government needed money. So Alexander Hamilton As the first Secretary of the Treasury, attached a tax to whiskey. The tax on the western farmers was higher than that charged to the eastern distillers. Needless to say, people...

kellytf via pixabay.com: Public Domain Have you ever discovered something shocking in your research? I've found terrible tragedies, murders, accidents, and such, but not often something that blindsided—jolted me physically. To be "blindsided" means to be caught completely off guard by an unexpected event, particularly one that is harmful, distressing, or leaves you unprepared to react, according to Dictionary.com. Google adds that the term originated in sports like football—referring to a blindside tackle, a hit delivered from outside a player's field of vision. I shouldn't have been shocked to find Alexander Hamilton (not the famous one) in this place and time as a slaveholder, or to see his name in the 1850 Slave Schedule in Grainger County, Tennessee. But my research there so far had turned up little evidence of slaveholding, so I'd neglected to seek out those records. I'm not alone—few other researchers on Ancestry, FamilySearch, or WikiTree had li...

Dorothea-Lange-Florence-Thompson-and-her-children-in-a-pea-pickers-camp.- Nipomo-California.-March-1936; courtesy of PBS Until you begin the hunt, you never know what you'll find . When I began a research report for my great-grandmother, Nancy Jane Booth, (my mother's father's mother) I thought that I knew all about her from previous research. So I was shocked to see a Newspapers.com hint about a Sheriff's sale in Hugoton, Kansas. I knew that they had briefly lived there with their daughter's family, but had no clue they ever owned property there. The text isn't that interesting, but the details matter, so here is a transcription: (First published June 29, 1917) Notice of Sheriff's Sale Notice is hereby given, that in pursuance of an Order of Sale issued out of the District Court of Stevens County, Kansas, on the 13th day of June, 1917, an action wherein J.D. Newcomer Company, a corporation, is plaintiff, and Samuel McBee and Nancy McBee his wife, are defend...

Probably a Seattle Middle School--June, 1954 When a picture speaks a thousand words, are you listening?  Are you following the obvious pathways as well as the subtle hints that whisper in the shadows? Recently, SKCGS received a large box of photographs that had been stored in a shed beyond the demise of the people in the photos. We have taken on the task of sorting and identifying snapshots and looking for people who are researching the families involved. Do you love solving mysteries? We're looking for volunteers; write to resources@skcgs.org with your offer of help. Some of the photos are beyond snapshots.  The image above is obviously a school photo; a stamp on the back is for the Perkins Studio, 507 North 68th St., Seattle 3, WA. There is nothing that tells us which school it is so we have to put on our observation hats to try to solve the mystery. Stamp on back of the photo "June 1954" is written in white in the lower right corner of the photo.  In the lower left c...

Photo: Spider web with morning dew by  Ivicabrlic , courtesy of Wikimedia Commons The children's book Charlotte's Web came to mind this month, as more and more obituaries appeared in my hints, each adding to the web of information which solved mysteries, one tiny bit of information at a time. In that wonderful story, Charlotte has to work hard to create her web, even learning to read and spell in her effort to help the children save their pet pig.  Sometimes I see a family as a jigsaw puzzle , with really oddly shaped pieces, like a puzzle with a few missing bits. But  weaving a web better describes the work : find and snag the image of the obituary or news article, transcribe and link all the people named, then figure out who was NOT named and why. It's also interesting to see what facts are missing, such as previous marriages and divorce. The author of each obit worked as hard as a politician's speechwriter, stressing what they want remembered, while glossing over wh...