Honoring Our Ancestors
Flea Market Rescue
by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak
It's been a few months since I've written about an orphan heirloom rescue, so we're long overdue! For the uninitiated, this is when folks like you write to me about family treasures they've found--maybe at an antiques store, on eBay, or (shudder!) in a dumpster-- that don't belong to their own families. I do the detective work to locate descendants of the original owner and the person who wrote kindly returns the item to the "rightful owner." Then I share the research trail so others can do the same, or perhaps, pick up a tactic or two for their own research. You can find plenty of earlier orphan heirloom rescues on my website.
An Approaching Epidemic?
Cathy Larsen's submission caught my eye for several reasons. First, the surname was comparatively unusual. That's promising because I'd rather deal with unexpected spellings than have to sift through thousands of candidates. Second, it was fairly contemporary since dates mentioned were from the early 1900s. At most, I would probably only have a generation or two to cross to find a likely recipient.
And third, it was a classic example of what I fear may become an epidemic in coming years--family items being casually discarded after a death in the family. This is even more likely to occur when the deceased lives far from their hometown--and who knows how many millions of us have retired to Florida, Arizona, or some other sunny spot far from where we were born and spent most of our lives.
Family History for 25 Cents
In this case, Cathy explained that her mother had purchased a bundle of documents with a rubber band around them at a flea market in Lecanto, Florida. For a whopping twenty-five cents, she left with a stranger's baptismal record, birth announcement, 5th birthday card, and commencement program, among other items. She made the purchase out of curiosity, but didn't know what to do with them after she'd read them. Fortunately, she told Cathy, who wrote to me and explained, "I'm a genealogist and I'd love to have these items if they had belonged to someone in my family. They might be just the thing somebody is wishing for."
To the SSDI
Since this is such a contemporary case, I'm going to play a little coy with names in the interest of privacy, but my first step was to look for candidates in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). Knowing that the papers had surfaced in a Florida flea market, it was a logical guess that I would find an entry in recent years--and sure enough, I found a gentleman matching all the details in the documents. He had apparently passed away in Florida in 1999.
Going Backwards to Move Forward
I now had additional confirmation of his birth date which was in 1914, so I decided to locate him in the 1930 census. I often do this in an effort to "surround and conquer"--that is, to find the names of others associated with the individual.
I was hoping to find some younger siblings I might be able to contact, but the census showed him to be an only child. So much for that avenue of research. But the census did reveal one important fact; apparently he went by his middle name of Robert. This tidbit of information would turn out to be very helpful.
Looking at Bob!
With this fresh knowledge, I did a general search at Ancestry.com using the middle name and up popped a photo of Bob! If you haven't explored it yet, Ancestry.com recently added a U.S. School Yearbooks collection. Lest you think there's no chance anyone in your family is in there, I'll just point out that the collection already includes a pair of Smolenyaks!
As luck would have it, Bob's yearbook was in this new collection. In fact, his photo is even signed "Just Bob." This gave me even more incentive to find his family. Until now, he had been a few biographical details, but now, he was looking up at me from the page!
The Role of Rootsweb
At this point, I decided to check out the RootsWeb site for Bob's home county of Oneida, New York--and I was in luck! Volunteers associated with this site had transcribed and uploaded countless details from years of vital records and obituaries. I found a reference to the marriage of Bob's parents and to the death of his father, but sadly, I also found a reference to a 1995 obituary that appeared to be for a child of his. How could I tell? Because the volunteers had troubled to list the names of the parents of the deceased. So either Bob had a cousin of the same name or had lost a son four years before he died.
Back to Ancestry.com
Now I had the name of a likely son of Bob's, so I decided to enter it in the U.S. Phone and Address Directories, 1993-2002 and the U.S. Public Records Index. There were several entries, and better yet, something else I was hoping for--listings for another fellow of this same surname at the same address. A grandson perhaps?
I e-mailed Cathy and asked her to follow up with this possible grandson. A little later that day--BINGO! It was Bob's grandson. Cathy was delighted to report that he was a genealogist, so we know the items will be appreciated and well cared for. He told Cathy that a lot of his grandfather's personal effects were sold when he passed away in Florida. That's the bad news, I suppose, but I take heart in what he shared next. Apparently, this was the second time a complete stranger had made the effort to return items to him. Someone else had sent him a bunch of pictures, including some of himself that he had never seen before. So there are more rescuers out there!
What's Next?
After this rescue, Cathy wrote, "I hope this unlikely story will encourage someone else to take a chance and let you try to find a home for other heirloom orphans." And I hope so, too! In fact, starting with the May/June issue of Ancestry Magazine, I'll have a new column called "Found," so I'm on the prowl for even more orphan heirlooms than before! If you have any, please submit them through my website.
I can't tackle every single one and sometimes they require a lot of time, but just when you least expect it, you're apt to hear from me! Let's work together to get more family treasures back into the right hands!
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, co-author (with Ann Turner) of Trace Your Roots with DNA: Using Genetic Tests to Explore Your Family Tree (as well as In Search of Our Ancestors, Honoring Our Ancestors and They Came to America), can be contacted through www.genetealogy.com and http://www.honoringourancestors.com.
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Copyright 2006, MyFamily.com.
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