I sometimes wonder if man discovered how to make fire completely by accident. Was some observant caveman walking along with a cool new rock, dropped it on another rock, and happened to notice that it created a spark which caught the nearby grass on fire? Even though it was an accident, it was still a great discovery, but it never would have occurred if that caveman hadn’t been particularly observant.
I hate to admit it, but some of my best genealogical discoveries seem to have been happy accidents. I wasn’t looking for them, I just happened to be looking in the right direction at the right time. I call this ‘Genealogical Serendipity’ (because I like the way it sounds). I’ll give you a few examples.
My family shared the rumor that we were descended from a famous Puritan minister. We weren’t; but could not understand why it was such a persistent rumor. My great-grandfather, Frank Mather had the right last name, but for eight years we looked unsuccessfully for his parents to see if we could find the link to the famous Mather family.
Back in the day, I borrowed books from a “by-mail” library. I wanted a particular book because I was certain it would solve the mystery of Frank’s parentage. As luck would have it, that book was out of stock so they sent my second through fourth choices instead. I pored over books number two and three word by word. I wasn’t going to bother with the last book. I was out of time, the books needed to be shipped back the next day, and this fourth book was loose pages wrapped together with string. It was an obscure church history. However, I still had one night to “flip through it”.
I had just decided that it was late and I could read no more, when I started to put down my last page, I saw my great-grandfather’s name! As it turned out, once that connection was made, I found over 300 relatives in that one book! After eight years’ search, I found my long lost relatives completely by accident in a book in which I never intended to search!
Once, my sister, Cindy and I had just started going through Italian microfilm at the LDS Family History Center in Bangor, looking for our Giordano great-grandparents. The first Giordano we came across was a ‘Baja’ Giordano of the wrong age to be our great grandparent, but the name struck us as odd, and since it was our first ‘Giordano find’ we printed out the page. Well, it turned out that ‘Baja’ was none other than our great Aunt ‘Rosa’!
I learned three things the day we discovered “Aunt Baja”: 1. Never assume!, 2. “collect” people of the same surname, and 3. be ready for accidental discoveries.
Genealogists talk about coincidences but what we don’t usually say is that they are not quite accidents. Like that caveman, you have to think about your family, and be ready to notice when something amazing happens! The key is being open to discovery.
Editor’s note: This regular column is sponsored by the Aroostook County Genealogical Society. The group meets the fourth Monday of the month except in July and December at the Cary Medical Center’s Chan Education Center, 163 Van Buren Road, Caribou, at 6:30 p.m. Guests and prospective members are always welcome. FMI contact Edwin “J” Bullard at 492-5501. Columnist Nina Brawn of Dover-Foxcroft, who has been doing genealogy for over 30 years, is a freelance genealogy researcher, speaker and teacher. Reader e-mails are welcome at ninabrawn@gmail.com.
