An Unusual Story

-

Chance and Skill Intertwine

Editor's note: Recently this story was submitted to society@skcgs.groups.io and several of you read it and commented.  It is such a great example of stating the problem, showing the methodology and resolving with that touch of serendipity we all desire, we felt it needed to be presented here.





I had an unusual story to share that I thought this group would appreciate.


Research Question: Find a Missing Half-Sibling

My mother knows of my interest for genealogy and research and mentioned to me in February her friend has been searching for a half-sibling for a long time and maybe I could possibly help her. My mother is 80 and her friend 74.


Skimpy Information of a First Marriage



My mother's friend Linda shared that her father was married before he married her mother. She discovered this after he died 35 years ago. Her father's brother shared a newspaper clipping of an article written about the wedding with a photo of the couple seated at a table on an Army base.  No date visible. All it had was their names and the bride's maiden name and town she was from.


Building a Tree

 Her father was in the Army in the early 1940's.  I started out with a search for the maiden name with the 1940 census and found the likely family. Started a tree and located the young bride's mother's obituary in 1973 listing her with a married surname of Smith living in Kansas. I then located a Kansas 1960 census that shows the matching name and a daughter, oldest child, with the same surname as my mother's friend's father!


Using All the Records



Reaching Out to Family

 I now had the name of the half-sister! I did more research and found lots of information and kept adding to the tree. My hope was to find someone within the family that could get her a message. Sadly, everyone I connected with had little knowledge of who she was or connections to other family members who "might." I kept searching. Last week I identified the half-sister's Facebook page. I sent her a friend request and message and waited. No response. 


Waiting.....

Chance Intervenes

Then the strangest thing happened.  I work for a large company and a customer from Florida called in to my department.  After helping him for a few minutes I saw his wife's name in their customer file. I recognized the name. It was the half-sister's daughter's name. I was talking with her son in law! He was so very kind and when I embarrassingly shared my story of looking for his mother-in-law, he shared that she passed away due to Covid last year. What are the chances I would receive a random call from the one person I was desperately trying to locate? Living in Florida? I was shaking I was so excited! 

Family Reunited

My mom's friend was sad she never met her sister, but happy I found 2 nieces. I think I should buy a lottery ticket!


Sande Lien

Sande Lien was born and raised in Olympia, Washington and now resides in Maple Valley, Washington.  Her maternal heritage is Hispanic from several generations in southern Colorado.  Her paternal heritage is Norwegian from early immigration to Minnesota and North Dakota.

Sande has honed her genealogical skills researching the large families on both sides of her family tree.  She uses online sites, Google, DNA and "Facebook stalking."  She has solved several mysteries and is always looking for a new challenge.  

Thank you so much for sharing!

Comments

  1. MarciaApril 7, 2022 at 3:47 PM

    What a great story! A nice reward for persistence and alertness! Also inspiring for that extra effort. Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking for a Needle in a Haystack? GAME CHANGER at FamilySearch

-
Image
Generated with Bing ImageCreator (AI), March 13, 2024 Where is YOUR Needle, Your Missing Record? Genealogical Proof Standard When we use the GPS (Genealogical Proof Standard) as our guide, we all know that "exhaustive research" can be both tedious and exhausting. Is life long enough to search page by page through all the counties where all the members of a family might have lived, paid taxes, bought, leased or sold property, made a will or died intestate? It is possible that the new Full Text Search at FamilySearch will  eventually  allow us to do just that. It has been estimated that 75% or more of the records at FamilySearch were browsable but not searchable; the only indexes those found in the records themselves. Those records are certainly attainable by using those indexes and browsing to the record of interest, but the process is tedious, often frustrating, and slow. And once found, the record must be read and transcribed to be useful. This new Full Text Search tackles a...
Read more

What's the Question?

-
Image
We genealogists are often told by experienced researchers how important it is to begin with a research question. I resisted doing this for a long time, but now that I use a series of questions to guide my research, the search is more focused and actually finds more of the history of the family I'm investigating. I use a Google Doc as the  research proceeds, where I keep the question(s), the plan, timelines, checklist of resources to search, etc. all in one place. I've seen others use spreadsheets in the same way, perhaps splitting up things in tabs (Excel or Google Sheets). I prefer a document because I add source citations as I find them and I can begin writing up the case right there in the doc as the hypotheses are proven. Specific Questions in Previous Successes As beginners we often have no clue how much and what details we already know about a person, event or relationship, so it's hard to specify what we want to know. But when looking back at successful research, it ...
Read more

Help Save This Abused and Neglected Cemetery

-
Image
Screen capture from Google Maps History In an exchange of emails this past week in both the main SKCGS group, and in the Washington-State-Genealogy group, many facts were revealed about the history of the I.O.O.F. Comet Lodge Cemetery, also known as the Old Burying Ground, the Georgetown Cemetery, the Graham Street Burying Ground and maybe more.  FindAGrave sums it up this way: "Since it was established in 1881, the Comet Lodge cemetery site has been whittled away to less than half its original 5 acres. Records are sketchy but it's safe to say that some 500 pioneers were buried here, atop unknown numbers of native Duwamish people. New burials ended in the 1930s. Since then, homes and streets were built on top of many of the plots as the neighborhood around the cemetery grew.  "Upkeep and ownership of the cemetery bounced between the city, civic groups, relatives of Comet Lodge residents, and nearby neighbors. For years, much of the property was allowed to deteriorate int...
Read more