52 Ancestors Week 12: Loss

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 12's theme is "Loss." Loss is universal. There are many ways to explore this theme, whether it's the loss of a loved one, a livelihood, freedom. You could take a research-based angle on it and talk about the loss of records where your ancestors lived.

This was supposed to be my attempt to parody the "Lost" logo.

    Last week, I brought you a story about what could only be described as an agonizing loss. Check out the blog here if you want to read the details! Bring plenty of tissues! Rather than talk about something incredibly depressing two weeks in a row, let's move onto talking about how something was lost ,but, was eventually found by your friendly neighborhood Wikitreer.

Jeremiah Felker and
Elizabeth Fellows

    The loss of records is incredibly annoying to any genealogist. I joke on Twitter that hell for genealogists would be getting the entire 1890 census in their hands but the pages would be blank! Most of that census burned in a fire and joins the ranks of four-armed Grimace and the lost episodes of "Doctor Who" as things that may never see the light of day ever again. Fortunately audio bits and select clips of the latter survived! Four-armed Grimace is better left to the eternal dustbin of history. I digress! I think some people questioned my imagination at that point. I'm surprised no one blocked me because that got dark really fast. I honestly could have gone darker if I really tried. Play "Cards Against Humanity" with me and find out. ;)

    It may come as a surprise to readers of my blog that my 3rd great-grandfather's family is notoriously hard to research. There are all kinds of records for Jeremiah Felker. But, not so much for his family. This is manly because the records for his grandparents went up in smoke. There was a fire in his home town of Raymond, New Hampshire which burned most of the records kept in a insecure and very flammable building. Lost in the blaze were details about his father, Elias and other members of the family. 

    

    The loss of records usually means you, as a researcher, are going to have to do some serious detective work. Sometimes records can be unsalvageable because of various events like fires and floods. However, there is always a loophole. You can always find a way around a roadblock and that's exactly what I did. Don't worry. I kept it ethical and in the style of a certain dark knight. ;)  The answer is always out there and sometimes it's even right under your nose!

      Let's look at Elias Felker for a second. His profile on Wikitree needs a little bit of work, doesn't it? That's because there REALLY wasn't much to go on when I came across it in 2017. I'm not going to blame my cousin who created the profile. He told me himself that Elias's past is a bit of a mystery and he only put up what he and another researcher found about the man.

Not much to go on....

    All wasn't completely lost because even the most hard to research person is bound to leave what we call a "carbon footprint". Despite having appearances in court and even a Find a Grave entry, there were several breadcrumbs left behind that I've been able to find with the help of some very awesome and talented people.

    My friends and I worked hard and found him in the 1840 census living in Epping, New Hampshire. To date, that's the only census I've been able to locate for him and according to my cousin, it was only four years before he died. This was confirmed by the page on Find a Grave. 

    There is a record of an Elias Felker who fought in the War of 1812. But, I am unsure if this is legitimately the same man as the one I am researching. The record does not give me a lot of information because it was just a name on a slip of paper. For all I know it could be his autograph on a napkin. Besides, if he was born around 1800, he'd have been 12. I suppose he could have been a drummer boy. It's hard to say and I'm skeptical. More research into that particular document is clearly needed.

    At least the next source I found held some water. His marriage to Polly Brock in 1820 proved to be a little more helpful. The record stated they got married in New Hampshire. That didn't give me a lot of information and for a while he was a brick wall. Not all was lost! It did confirm that he was indeed married to her while having an affair with Martha Smart in the 1830s.

    The brick wall was smashed about a year later when I was talking to a friend of mine who wanted to talk to me about Jeremiah's death certificate and she asked why the document listed  "Joseph Felker" as his father and not Elias. I was never really sure. Laura suggested that we look deeper into it and look up who Joseph Felker was. It couldn't hurt. So, we looked around records in New Hampshire that were online and came up with the following.

    Joseph was born in Barrington, New Hampshire around 1760 and was married to Sarah Spurlin. That didn't help me much. We needed to find the connection between him, Elias, and Jeremiah. The 1800 and 1810 censuses had him living in Barrington, New Hampshire. Barrington and Epping were only twenty-six miles away. Was he Elias's father? It's possible.

    Laura and I did a reasonable exhaustive search for Joseph Felker in New Hampshire records. It turns out that he was the only Joseph Felker IN New Hampshire at the time and in those towns. The smoking gun that sealed the deal was of course Jeremiah's death record. It wasn't a typo or an error. It was legitimately his grandfather. That's some serious early 20th century shade there, guys. Though, I kind of get it. Jeremiah would have been what? Ten when his father died? Chances are good Elias didn't see his son in his formative years. He and his mom moved around New Hampshire a lot as she was married to three men. It's fun to speculate what the relationship could have been. Is it the truth? It's hard to say because the fire destroyed a TON of records.

Love that smokin' gun!

    With the death certificate and various other records my friends and I found, I am remind of what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in "Sherlock Holmes" and it's definitely true in this instance. "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth".

    A reasonable exhaustive search and even the "WANDER method" helped to prove that Jeremiah's grandfather was most likely Joseph Felker of Barrington. There were no other Joseph Felkers in the area and even some of my mother's Thrulines pointed to some DNA matches who descended from his other children. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen. But, DNA does not lie. Thrulines at the fifth great-grandparent level has always been shaky to me. I would take that evidence with a grain of salt and do research before accepting it as gospel. That's all I can say. 

    I did manage to find Elias's probate record in Epping, New Hampshire. A man named Samuel Plumer was named executor of his estate and there were many issues with his assets. The estate needed to be divided and taken care of and there were several issues regarding its distribution since the next of kin (like Jeremiah) were not available. Jeremiah was like 10 at the time of his father's death so we can give the poor kid a break. Either way, the parents were listed and that made me happy. You can read the entire saga here on Familysearch.

    I suppose the point I am trying to make with this post is that even though some records are lost to time, there's always going to be a way around the missing documents. Don't give up easily because somewhere there's bound to be a smoking gun that links person a to person b. The truth is waiting to be discovered. You just need to find a way around it and not let the loss of records deter you from your goal--finding what you need to find. The genealogical proof standard worked here. If you want to read about it, click this link.

    According to the standard, I checked all the steps. I conducted a reasonable exhaustive search, cited sources , found the evidence reliable and contradictions were resolved. I then made a sound conclusion at the end of the work. In a way, that all reminds me of my research methods in college. Who would have thought those 8 AM classes would have paid off?

 See ya next time!