Challenge:
In 2007 I started down my genealogy journey. While leading up to this time I had often asked questions and documented stories, I had not even thought of a family tree. I enrolled in a continuing education class called “Write Your Life.”. (In a future post I will discuss my experience in this class and give an over view of the resources we used.) Ultimately, this class helped me find focus and organize what I had gathered so far.
The depth and breadth that people go through for their research is amazing. I am inspired by so many yet I find my time restraints limit just how much I can do. I get frustrated when I see examples of peoples research, their trees, how they have all this information organized. I have to remember many have been doing this for a lot longer than I have, gathering this amount of information does not happen overnight.
After getting encouragement from my husband, I signed up for Ancestry.com. I immediately became excited about all the information I had just by entering my grandparents and great-grandparents names.
Out of both my Biological and Adoptive families and both my husband’s lines I would say 79% has been smooth sailing when it comes to items already being well documented. I am currently proofing to make sure the items provided through hints are accurate and linked to the correct person.
21% of all the individuals have proven to be a challenge whether its locating the individuals parents, place of birth or proof that they were actually born has been frustrating. I won’t even go into the fact that the majority of my family names are very common therefor the duplicates of names makes it harder to sift through.
One such challenge was finding my Grandfather George Walter Green’s father. I had always heard him called Henry. The only thing I knew was that he had a lot of children and when his wife Olive Mae Bixby Green died very young he remarried. Both my grandfather and his siblings had passed so I did not have anyone I could ask.
I immediately received hints for Olive Mae but none listed a spouse. I moved forward on Olive Mae’s parents but it bothered me that I was no closer to finding my great Grandfathers name and information.
One of Henry’s hints kept popping up for the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center Obituary Index. I was unsure if this was even him because the name was William Green. I sat on the hints for a while trying to decided. Then I found a hint that lead me to a Henry Green who was buried in the same cemetery as Olive Mae. As I began to look at his information I soon realized that the dates were off. I had always been told Olive had died first.
The other clue that this was not the right person was he would have been married to another women, having children at the same time he was suposed to have been married to Olive. Yet the hint showed my grandfather linked to this man as his father.
I was a bit saddened to think that my Great Grandmother Olive had all those children and a husband that was married to someone else at the same time. I never accepted these hints in hopes they were wrong.
Then one day I was reading through my Grandmothers wedding scrapbook. In it was a newspaper listing that listed all the individuals at the wedding. I was so excited as there were names that I could put to faces in the wedding party. It also listed the Bride and Grooms Parents. And there it was my key to unlocking and solving the mystery of my Great Grandfather. Had he turned out to be a cad?
The name takes us back to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center obituary Index and an Ethel Sipes. Turns out that Great Grandfathers name is William Henry Green. While married to Olive he went by Henry. Not long after she passed he moved back to Northern Ohio to the area where his father was born.
This discovery led me to Fountain Cemetery, in Fostoria, Hancock Co. Ohio and his grave.
William Henry Green was born September 17, 1883 in Attica, Lapeer, Michigan and died February 9, 1950 Toledo, Ohio. Knowing this little bit of information opened up an entire line on my grandfather family tree.
Overcoming challenges and tearing down those walls is quite fulfilling. Research, do not be afraid of the skeletons that might come out but always verify facts. I would have accepted that my Great Grandfather was married to two women at the same time if that is what the facts said. What I call my first genealogical challenge was finding William Henry Green and through researching I was able to find the correct Henry Green.
It is rewarding to accept a challenge and in the end have the facts to put with the ancestor.