When I started tracing my family history, I made the beginner's mistake of not double-checking all the family stories I had grown up with. A major (and relatively recent) one was that my grandfather and three brothers had immigrated together to Canada. Never questioned it, or even looked for the documentation, as I'd heard it from several family members. But, one day, I was at the Ellis Island website tracing a friend's family, and for some reason decided to put my grandfather's name in the search engine. And there he was, not the returning WWI soldier in the early 1920s I thought I might find, but a young boy alone (not a brother in sight.....) in 1910. And the aunt he was headed for led to lots of other answers ~ including why I couldn't find my great-great-grandparents' death records in Scotland.... they died in Perry NY, him in 1906, her in 1913.
So.... that raises the question ~ if I could travel back in time and ask various ancestors one question, in the hopes that the answer would chip at a brick wall, who would I time travel to visit and what would I ask?
So many possibilities.....
Nancy Batchelder appears in Salem MA in 1810, marries Lincoln Stetson (whose ancestry was easily traceable back to Plymouth Colony), has three daughters (only one of whom lived to adulthood), and then dies in Salem in 1857. Her age is consistent in census and death records, always a nice plus ;-) On her marriage and death records, her father is named as John and she is supposedly from Billerica MA.
I've traced several other women named Nancy Batchelder to rule them out. I've looked extensively at lots of women born in nearby towns ~ anyone named Nancy, Ann, Hannah, or born near the dates working back from her supposed age at death. There's no John Batchelder or other possible family in Billerica (or other nearby towns) to put her in. She's not listed in the big late 19th century Batchelder family history.
If I could just have a few minutes to ask her who her parents were.....
Around the same time (1815), John T. Sears appears just down the road in Danvers MA, where he also marries someone from an established local family, Betsy Wilkins. They have a couple children and then John T. dies at sea, with the death recorded in Marblehead. Unlike Nancy Batchelder, John T. Sears appears in the big Sears genealogy ~ but the author cautions that he stuck John T. in an almost random family, with no real evidence that he belonged there. Like with Nancy Batchelder, only one of John T.'s children had children, so there aren't that many people looking for him.
Years later, Betsy and John T.'s grandson would ask about John T.'s origins ~ which gets recorded in a second cousin's family history papers this way (hand-written note my addition Photoshopped in.....):
If only I could just ask him which family (if any) in the the big Sears genealogy he belongs to....
Occasionally, someone hides origins from more children..... a man showed up in Middletown CT, called himself Anthony Sizer, and said he was from the Azores ~ or maybe he wasthe son of a well-to-do French couple...... Again, he marries a woman from an established local family, Sarah Tryon, and they have a dozen children. His original name was supposedly de Zociura ~ which a distant cousin has been told by Portuguese speakers likely just means 'from the Azores.'
If I could have a few minutes to ask him what his name really was.....
Edward James Arthur appears in records first in Galashiels, in the Scottish Borders, in 1867, when he marries Jane Keddie. He died in 1903, having spent much of his life at this pub across the street from his no longer extant house (he died after a little too much New Year's eve at another pub.....):
One other intriguing bit for Edward James Arthur. When he dies, the newspaper notice says "American papers please copy." Since I haven't found parents or siblings for him, I don't know who I should be looking for, or where in the US. The one person I know of in the family who immigrated to the US (his granddaughter, my grandmother) was a young school girl in Leith and twenty years away from her trip across the Atlantic.
He consistently says he was born in Ireland on various records (the 1871 census says Fermanagh). On his marriage record, he says his parents are Edward Arthur, a bookseller, likely still alive (as the record should say deceased if he isn't alive) and Mary Hood, also possibly still alive. I've found no trace of Edward the bookseller or Mary Hood in any other records ~ and having a family name that is also a first name makes searching less than easy.
If only I could ask who the American papers please copy was meant to reach.....
Francis McGee was likely a famine immigrant ~ and too poor to make it to the US, so he settled in Edinburgh, where he was a fish hawker/costermonger. He married Helen Cassidy and they had seven children in fourteen years before Helen died. From the few records Francis appears in, he was likely born in either Donegal or Fermanagh. On his death record, his daughter says Francis's father's name was Bernard McGee, but no mother was listed.
Whitehorse Close, where the McGees lived in 1861 (it's been spiffed up lots since then......historic pictures as well as here and here):
If I could just ask Francis when and where he was born.....
But my winner is......
Elizabeth Little, who married Edward Arthur, son of Edward James Arthur and grandson of Edward Arthur the bookseller (no, my family wasn't creative with names; Elizabeth Little's mother was also Elizabeth Little), has a different kind of dead end. On her birth record, instead of a father's name, says illegitimate. Turns out, that entry is not that uncommon in many Scottish mill towns of the mid to late 19th century ~ I've seen a couple parishes in the 1860s/1870s where 1/4 to 1/3 of the births have illegitimate instead of a father's name. [It was a little less common in th New England mill towns, but it was still not that unusual.....]
Church session records have no further details. The poor law records for that area aren't extant. Her three siblings have similar birth records. No father listed on her marriage or death records. Major dead end :-(
Shankendshiel, near Hawick, where Elizabeth Little was born in 1864:
If I could just ask one question ~ I'd ask the older Elizabeth Little who the younger Elizabeth Little's father was.... when I do a fan chart, this leaves a huge gap in my tree :-(
Which ancestor would you visit and what question would you ask?