This
time of year, regardless of a person’s faith, everyone puts together a wish
list of what they would like to receive or see happen during the holiday
season. Sometimes it is as simple as Ralphie repeatedly pleading for a Red
Rider BB Gun while others are more complex or impossible to fulfill. This list,
my genealogy wish list, leans more toward the latter while I hope that some
will turn out to be as simple as Ralphie’s request. So here it is:
- Redcross/Beverly Marriage License:
This is the last remaining piece that we need to definitively prove our
genealogy back to the Monacan records. While we know where it should be
and have seen the document listed in the indexes of the local courthouse,
the actual marriage license has disappeared and no one knows where it is.
There are some theories however but it is going to take a lot of time and
significant effort to either prove or disprove them.
- Monacan Nation Membership: We don’t know if
this is going to be possible without the aforementioned document but we
need to at least give it a try. Maybe the index will be enough as it is
still a state document but we just don’t know. Everything else is in place
we just need to pull all the documentation together, pay the application
fee, and see how things pan out.
- John Uttley’s Service Record:
While I have been able to track down when he was sworn into the
Philadelphia Police Department and I have found his badge number and
highest rank achieved (that was a long couple weeks of calls), there is
little else that I can find regarding his service. During this research
process, I found out that all the old police records were destroyed and
that nothing is left but a basic database of names, badge numbers, and
ranks. Maybe there is a copy somewhere… let’s hope that is the case.
- McKannan Arrival Date:
The original surname was McKenna. First name was William. Arrival was
during the potato famine. This shouldn’t be challenging at all. This is
going to take more luck (maybe luck of the Irish) than anything else as
all existing leads have proven very little and, if anything, have created
more possible links than verifying any. It’s a long shot but I am going to
keep pushing and sorting through records.
- Percy Teaford’s Service Record:
While I have been able to find a good amount of information regarding my
grandfather’s service in the Navy during World War II, I haven’t been able
to get any additional information on his service in the Narberth Fire
Department. This is one of those things that is just going to take time
and me driving over there to see if they have any information. It would be
interesting to read about this.
- Autocar: Both my
great grandfather and my grandfather worked at Autocar in Ardmore. While
the factory is long gone I am curious to know if the records are still
floating around (if they survived the fires just before the plants
closed). I have reached out to the current incarnation of the company but
have yet to hear anything. It would be nice to have an answer as to
whether or not the employment records even exist.
- Jacob Teaford’s Story:
The second first generation to be born on this continent (before the
founding of the United States). We know very little about him. We have
more details about his father, the immigrant, and the generations since
but he has remained a mystery for years. Heck, we can’t even figure out
who was the mother of his son Jacob from which I am a descendant. He is
the reason why we are green dot bastards and it would be nice to fix that.
- Nicolas Love’s Parents:
We have the names from his recently discovered death certificate but we no
little else about them. We can’t find a record of their marriage and we
can’t find any census records. While there are theories, like many other
areas of the tree, we have yet to prove any of them no matter how probable
one seems.
- Maiden Names: This is always an issue in anyone’s
tree as even death certificates of siblings can differ from one to another
about their mother’s maiden name. This is just going to take more digging,
marriage record research, and looking at census records for possible
clues.
- Revolutionary War Ancestry:
There seem to be more and more connections found whenever I spend some
time working on the tree. Many of them are confirmed but some connections
remain tenuous at best. Even today I made the interesting discovery that
my 6x great uncle was the inspiration for the movie “The Patriot”. It
would be nice to confirm them all and have those findings verified by the
Sons of the American Revolution. Shocker, more paperwork!
- The Yeagle Connection: I reached out to that side of the
family before but the connection didn’t last beyond the scope of our brief
conversation over the phone. While I don’t know what thoughts may have
been going through her mind, it would be nice to reconnect and find out a
little bit more about this line that has been largely forgotten about by
my family.
- Organization (Not Just Lists): All of these things need to be organized both physically and digitally. Right now there is a mix of physical and digital records spread across a couple of computers, ancestry.com, shelves of binders, and books tabbed for the relevant passages. Eventually, they will all be pulled together, organized in binders, and uploaded to the tree so that everyone can benefit from the work that has been put into this continuous search for answers.
Some
of the records are nearly impossible to find as they are either confirmed as
missing or destroyed. Some of the things on my wish list are just a matter of
me finding the time to commit to the various projects. In all reality, I would
be happy just to fill in a couple of these pieces of information and have
everything available so that the entire family can learn and appreciate where
we come from. So, let’s see if I can be good this year and at least get a few
of these things checked off!
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