A story by my wife, Joanne
When I first started to do my father’s family history, I had very little information. But I did know from family stories that my grandfather, John James, was a two year old when their family emigrated from England and settled in Colorado. Because my father was born in Colorado in 1912, I decided to check the 1900 Federal census for his family. It turned out that the family was living in Goldfield, a town which was a booming settlement of 3,500 people, with many of the men working in the gold mines— including my grandmother, Charity’s 20-year-old son. I knew that she was the mother of 15 children and that they came to America, and Colorado, in 1887. It was a surprise that her husband was not listed in this record and she was listed as being married for four years with a last name of Fuller. I searched for a death record for my grandfather in Goldfield, but could not find him there. I remembered from classes at the Ogden FamilySearch Library that cities in that period usually published City Directories. With that in mind, I searched for him in the 1888 City Directory for Colorado….and there he was. He was not living in Goldfield but in Leadville, where the silver/lead mines were booming. He was not listed in the 1889 nor the 1890 directories, but Charity was as Mrs. Charity James. I said to my husband, “We have to take a three day trip to Leadville, he’s buried there.” We hopped in the car and drove over the Rockies to the two-mile high city. We were able to locate both of their graves with help from the Lake County Public library in Leadville, which housed all of the records. Imagine my joy when we not only discovered his grave but also a small grave inscribed: Katie, 21⁄2 year old daughter of Sampson and Charity James, who died in 1890. I had already found their family in England and 14 children…now I had found the missing 15th missing child. The 1900 census record identified the birthplace of the last child, Ethel, as Colorado, but I had not been able to find a record. I often try to put myself in the place of the one asking questions and the one giving the answers. I’m sure that when the census taker asked Charity about the birthplace of her children she said, “They were all born in England except for the last one, thinking of Katie, not Ethel.
If you’re stuck on your family research, think outside the box and use a Timeline to discover the ‘whole’ family. Then, if possible, embark on an adventure and see what you can find.
While looking for Grandpa James, by accident we discovered Katie.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—are known to be “big on genealogy.” So when a Florida family had to dispose of their deceased parent’s genealogy books, they naturally thought of the Mormon neighbor. However, not all Mormons are “big on genealogy.” So the neighbor hauled the small stack of books into the local FamilySearch Family History Center at a Church meetinghouse. Kirk Lovenbury, thanked the woman, and then set the books aside while he continued working on another project.
About an hour later another woman showed up. She had never been to one of the Church’s meetinghouses before, but thought the Mormons might be able to help her with her genealogy. She outlined her ancestry back to a rural Iowa county where her research was stuck. As she spoke, Kirk kept saying to himself,
“Where have I heard that name before?” Then it hit him: the new stack of books.
The fourth book down was a history of the visitor’s Iowa county. It not only gave information about her ancestors, but it outlined their ancestors back to colonial times.
You have to understand that most FamilySearch Family History Centers have very small book collections. Even more rare is a Florida center with books about small Iowa counties. Even rarer still is a woman coming to a center an hour after the book she needs in particular has been donated to the center.
“A miracle had taken place right there in front of me,” Kirk says.
We call that, Serendipity in Genealogy. Used with Kirk’s permission.
Serendipity is common to invention as well, when necessity is mother of inventions