It's been a while since I've had a chance to blog about family history, but that doesn't mean I haven't been hard at work! This is my self-proclaimed "Year of Research" and I plan to keep up with it as much as I can.
Last month I finally got up the nerve to cold call a bevy of distant cousins. I'm usually reluctant to do so because it feels too much like a sales pitch: "Hello, I'm your cousin, can I come to your house and dig through your personal belongings?" I know that's a bit of hyperbole, but in a very rudimentary way that's what family history is - digging through other people's stuff. Sometimes that stuff is boxes of old photos. Sometimes it's their memories. Either way, it's very personal and can be uncomfortable - especially when it's a relative stranger.
My usual plan of action is to send a letter - and I did a few of those last month as well. I find a letter allows you more of a chance to explain yourself, as well as provide proof of your connection. Most often I try to print of a photo of their direct relative to illustrate my legitimacy.
Out of all the people I called and wrote to, the first one was actually the closest on the family tree. I called my dad's first cousin, who is now 86, asking about family photos. She was unsure of what she had, but we made a plan for me to call back in about three weeks (which is coming up next week). I should mention here that my dad has about 40+ first cousins, the oldest being 90 and the youngest being my aunt, who is almost 58.
Next up was a call to a very distant relation: my grandmother's second cousin. She and I had spoke about six months ago, but lost track of things and I needed to re-connect. Her father had been interested in family history and had a lot of relics of the Gruver family. Last summer when visiting Elgin, Iowa, I saw a dray cart his family donated to the local museum. It was dated from 1873 and used by my great-great-great grandfather, William J. Gruver, when he worked for the railroad. Again, she said she'd begin preparing some photos and I'd touch base later.
Third in line was a letter. This wasn't to a direct relative, but instead the executors of the estate of my great-grandmother's first cousin. How's that for tangential!? My great grandmother, Leone (Kerr) Shaffer, had three cousins by her aunt, Lulu (Kerr) Rothlisberger. The Rothlisberger siblings never married and all lived to an advanced age. Helen and Hazel both died about a decade ago, both in their early 90s. Their eldest brother, Earl, died in 2007 in his centennial year. Sadly, I never met Earl. Even though I knew of him and was very much interested in family history at the time, I didn't make the leap from "knowing of him" to "knowing him."
It's now seven years out from his passing, but knowing he had no direct descendants - no children or nieces and nephews, I became curious about what happened to his estate. Where did the family documents go? The family photos? I got a pit in my stomach. If no one with a family tie was there when he passed, were his belongings thrown away? I began to envision priceless photos of my ancestors being placed on the curbside.
To find out what happened, I went to the newspaper archives. Earl didn't have much of an obituary published, so I resorted to the legal notices. If you're ever wondering about the heirs to a long-lost cousin, keep tabs on the legal notices in the paper around their death. While descendants aren't always listed, the executors are and they are often close family or a close friend who would have the connections to family. Finding Earl's probate notice, I saw the names of his executors, looked up their address, and shot off a letter. I asked them what happened to Earl's estate, if they had anything from it, and where family photos would have gone. Since they were in charge of his estate they could eat least tell me they were destroyed, donated, of given to a family member.
A few days after it went in the mail I received an email saying they had donated a bunch of photos to the Elgin Museum. I also learned that the executors knew my family well (Elgin is a small town). Of the couple the husband used to be babysat by my grandmother and the wife was a native of Toledo, Iowa, where I currently live. I also made another connection: my mother was named after his older sister. Small world!
Since that correspondence I've emailed the Elgin Museum asking about their records. I anxiously await their reply.
There are a few more contacts I made, but this posting is getting rather long. One contact not chronicled here has led to plans to visit Volga, Iowa, next weekend and meet the widow of my great-grandfather's cousin. She's nearly 96 and I'll be visiting with her and her daughter. Hopefully I'll have a blog in a few weeks with photos and information from that journey.
Until then, the research continues!
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