What is something I had to dig a little deeper than usual to find? How about...EVERYTHING?! Okay, maybe that's a little dramatic, but sometimes I definitely feel like I dig and dig and dig and never find anything worthwhile. I've written about many of these experiences on this very blog.
Where was Nettie Pearson between 1945 and her death in 1968? I've tried tracking her son (he disappears, too), inquiring with the St. Clair County Historical Society (St. Clair County is her last residence listed on the Social Security Death Index), and looking for any variation of her numerous names (Nettie M. Pearson McClure Hudson Miller Reed Johnson), all to no avail. Neither my mother nor my aunts and uncle were even aware of her existence, so I am currently waiting on her son's merchant marines records in the hopes that I may find a clue to her whereabouts as well as more information to flesh out his lean biography.
The additional list of ancestors who just seem to disappear into the ether without a trace is a lengthy one: Leona (Green) Terpinitz, Jennie Grace (Terpinitz) Lambert Amey Johnson, Thomas J. Pearson, John Field and his son, William Field, just to name a few. For the last three, it seems unlikely I will ever find a date of death. Even if there were death records, they were almost certainly lost in fires or floods or perhaps thrown away by a descendant who didn't care to know about the past. It is likely the best I will be able to do is approximate a year of death based on last known records. The possibility of finding a complete family Bible is a pipe dream.
Speaking of Bibles, anyone happen to have one lying around for the Green family of New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois? No? How about a suggestion as to another way to determine Thomas Green's parents? No obituary, death record, or even Civil War pension file has revealed the answer. The lone sister I have been able to confirm, Louisiana (Green) Adams, has been of no help. She lived a long time and had many children and a lengthy obituary. The obituary gives no clues, and the death certificate is, as of yet, undiscovered.
How was Emma Katherine Green already a Pearson when she married George William Pearson? Well, I did manage to unearth the truth of that one through deductive reasoning. Pearson children born well before her marriage to George, the marriage of her divorced mother to a Pearson, and various records for her children - individually, they prove little, but if you put the pieces together, you come to the conclusion that she was married to her stepdad's son, John Winston Pearson, before marrying my great great grandfather, George William Pearson. Sounds like an episode of Maury or Jerry Springer, if you ask me...
I could probably go on forever, but I won't. If you've read this far, don't take my frustration as an indication that I don't enjoy digging. I certainly do, but if I'm going to dig every which way but up, I'd like to eventually hit pay dirt. These "adventures in genealogy" don't always lead to success, but if it's important, you'll keep on digging anyway.
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