It seems like eons ago, but before my health and life
intervened and stomped upon my genealogical pursuits, I had told you about my
mysterious great-grandfather and BlackSheep ancestor, Arthur B. Alexander, who disappeared back in
1927, leaving his wife and two daughters in Hobart, Oklahoma. I had always
taken Arthur’s disappearance in stride since his mother, Lucy Zook Alexander,
had also eluded my grasp for many years. I was beginning to attribute the
entire lineage to genetics in a wanderlust sort of way.
Not anymore. I found Lucy!
I celebrate this Fabulous Friday post with sheer joy and
yes, a bit of rapture, at this new development. I’ve found people with
accompanying documentation back in the 1630s before. How I could not have found
my own great-great grandmother was just plain silly. Sheepishly, I admit that I
had given up finding her. However, I had forgotten two very important tenets of
genealogy
1. There IS
a reason it’s called REsearch. Another blogger said this in a post I read
recently, and it’s a huge, huge reminder of why we do what we do. It’s
particularly applicable to those of us from the snail mail days, the dial-up
modem racing to Compuserve era, and the countless backroom favors granted by
the friendly county clerk brigades. This grand experience of tracing our family
history has come so far, and changes faster than my teenager’s moods. So much
information is “out there” now, and we must not forget to check again – and again
– and again – to re-research those ancestors and brick walls we have put aside
for another day. I had done this with my Lucy, wondering if I would ever find
out what happened to her.
2. Let your ancestors speak to you. I don’t
necessarily mean in a creepy, horror movie kind of way, although I have heard
some interesting “coincidences” over the years. Recording old family stories
may not just be for the preservation of the interviewed and cherised relative, but it may lead
you directly to the information you seek. We’ve all heard about the “three immigrant
brothers”, the “Cherokee Indian blood” we might have, and countless other
genealogical myths. I’ve been fortunate to have communicated with relatives
well into their 80s and 90s who have not only shared information and answered
many of my questions, but have done so with uncanny accuracy. Not all of our
elders are capable of this, but apparently mine were. Still, I have always
taken their “reminiscences” with a heavy grain of salt, at least until I have
the certified document to prove it.
Lucy’s grand-niece, or Aunt Eva, as I have
always called her, told me time and time again in our many letters back and
forth that Lucy was buried in LaHarpe in Hancock County, Illinois. Lucy’s other
niece told my cousin during a personal visit that Lucy was buried near Augusta,
Illinois, also in Hancock County. I could find no information online to verify
either one of these ladies’ stories, and had yet to travel to Hancock County
personally to try to obtain any record of Lucy’s death. It was partly due to
not knowing when Lucy had died, or if she had died at all or had been involved in a divorce. I had only been able
to pinpoint a time period of between 1900 (after the census was taken) and 1907
when Lucy’s husband, Charles, was married again and living in Oklahoma. Lucy
had disappeared sometime during that seven-year period. Seven years can be a
very long time in genealogical terms, and I couldn’t make a case one way or
another. Yet it stuck in my head that both of these ladies repeated the
information they remembered.
On a break the other night from doing a little
client work, and I thought of Lucy again.
Imagine my shock when I saw this entry (without the photo - wink) the
other day at www.FindAGrave.com: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Alexander&GSfn=Lucy&GSbyrel=all&GSdy=1901&GSdyrel=in&GSst=16&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=51282211&df=all&
You also might have heard my squeals of delight
when I came upon this item shortly thereafter: http://hancock.illinoisgenweb.org/cemeteries/pulaski/pulaskicemetery.pdf
Several page rotations, neck
stretches, and 104 pages later, I found Lucy Alexander – listed along with her
mother, Louisiana Mick Zook, in a cemetery plot owned by Charles Alexander. My
cousin, Mary Elizabeth, was sweet enough to travel to Pulaski Cemetery and take
these photos the next day, and sent them on so they could be posted online.
There was my long-lost Lucy, right where those ladies said she would be.
So, remember to RE-search, and then
research some more. And listen to your ancestors. They
just might be trying to tell you something...fabulous.
