52 Ancestors Week 13: Nearly Forgotten

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 13's theme is "Nearly Forgotten." I remember early on in my research when I discovered that my great-great-grandmother lost two infants between censuses. With the exception of their death records, there was no other trace that they existed—no tombstones, no obituaries, not even birth records (likely because they died soon after they were born). Who in your research has been nearly forgotten? Another angle you could take: using a record that was nearly forgotten. Feel free to be creative with this prompt!

Not gonna lie. I was tempted to make a parody of the "Lost" logo.

When you have a large family, a ton of pictures can get lost in the shuffle. Cousins take one picture. Some cousins take like thirty and you never hear from them again. What do you do? Well, you hope that someone somewhere has a picture of that family member and that they're willing to share the picture with you. That's a big if. But, now you can take a picture of a picture with your phone. So, there's really no excuse WHY you can't share that picture of great-grandma Josephine or someone.

Jeremiah Felker and Elizabeth D Fellows

Readers may remember me talking about my 3x great-grandfather, Jeremiah Smart Felker. He's the man whose whole life might as well be a Lifetime original movie. Let's recap in the fastest way possible.

1. Born out of wedlock in 1838 in the town of Raymond, NH.

2. Grandfather sued his father for parental rights.

3. Fought as a Union soldier in the Civil War.

4. married Elizabeth Fellows  in 1863.

5. Son Wilfred Felker and daughter in law, Gertrude Stevens have a MESSY divorce. So, he ended up raising my great-grandfather, Austin.

6. Died in Haverhill, Mass in 1918. Grandfather Joseph Felker was listed as his father on his death certificate. Ouch.

Still waiting for that phone to ring, Hollywood. 

Now we're ready to talk about the picture. I acquired it recently and the story definitely falls under the "nearly forgotten" category. A few weeks ago, I thought I would see if I could find something about Jeremiah from 1890. Genealogists know that the 1890 was destroyed much like certain 1960s era Doctor Who serials. Long story there. At least with Doctor Who we have surviving audio for all of the serials. Thank goodness for 1960s British nerd culture.

Hello, 1890 census substitute. How are you?

I ended up finding the 1890 Veterans schedule from Haverhill and sure enough Jeremiah was there. That was no surprise. I knew he had to have been on there somewhere. I went back to my search results and I see "photo hint". I was like "What?" I clicked the link and looking at me was that picture you see up there.Someone had uploaded a picture of Jeremiah and Elizabeth. I was blown away! I looked at who uploaded it and it turned out one of my 2nd cousins did.

Right away, I messaged him on Facebook. To say I was excited was an understatement. This was huge for me because I have three Civil War soldiers in my tree. John Sargent Fisher, Jeremiah Felker and David Stevens. I'm honestly hesitant about Mr. Stevens actually being a Civil War veteran because Stevens is an incredibly common last name. That could be any David Stevens in history. I would need to see some concrete proof before I can say definitively if he fought for the Union. I digress. I had a picture of John Sargent Fisher. I didn't have one of Jeremiah. This was so huge and so exciting!

I asked my cousin how he came by the picture and here's where the "nearly forgotten" comes into play. His aunt (My first cousin once removed)  had a box of old photographs she had given him. She didn't know who was who. So she tossed it to him and luckily some pictures, like the one above, had notes. He sat on the pictures for a while and suddenly decided to scan and upload onto Ancestry. Life got in the way. People have lives and all that. He almost forgot about uploading and apologized. It's okay, though. It's online and now I can share it with everyone.

After plastering the photograph all over the Internet, I posted it to my personal Facebook page and thanked my cousin for his help. I also sent it to various DNA matches who have Jeremiah Felker and Elizabeth Fellows as a MRCA with me. I felt that was the right thing to do. One of my mother's cousins commented and said she might have a better quality picture and asked me if I'd like to see it. Why does the like button only work once? Of course I want to see it! I said please and thank you. 

There's a Popeye joke here....

Once I commented, I got an e-mail from one of the people I sent a message to. One of my DNA matches asked me if I wanted to see a picture of Wilfred Felker. I was like "YES! SEND IT!" Well, he did more than just send that picture. He sent a ton of them. But, here is Wilfred Felker. From what I've been told, this picture was taken at his beach house near Plum Island. That has to be sand at his feet. I wish I could see more of his face. But, this will have to do unless my cousins find a better version.

The moral of today's blog is to never forget to put pictures online and tell your cousins about them because he'd be interested in pictures. Wow, that's a very specific moral, Chris. It works, though! I'm not going to complain. My cousin may put up more pictures sooner or later. I'm anxious to see what he has because I have a sort of wish-list. I know I shouldn't be greedy. But, is it too much to ask for a picture or two of Antoine Legault and Lucie Cadran? Maybe even Gertrude Stevens? I don't want to get too greedy. I'll take what I can get. Even if it's Gertrude's pet hamster. (She probably didn't have a pet hamster.)

Another moral of the story is to be nice to those who have the pictures you are looking for. Always be courteous and nice to those who share. Good things come to those who wait. You just need to be patient. Hopefully, I get some pictures soon. And if you have pictures, please share them with the world.

I said it before and I'll say it again. I love getting pictures of family because it really puts a face to the name and dates you put into your favorite family tree software. 

See ya next time!