

Still, there must have been something in that picture that reached out to me, because like a bag of forbidden Halloween candy, I kept stealing back to take a peek, picking up pieces of information here and there, studying them intently, looking for clues, trying to discover who Catherine Good Lynch really was.
I discovered that she had married George Washington Lynch in Seneca County, Ohio on December 17, 1852. I learned that the family had moved to Crawford County, Illinois in 1874, before moving to what was then Greer County, Texas. (A boundary change later would put the county in Oklahoma.) Catherine and George had run a general store in Mangum, Oklahoma. She was the mother of four children, her second eldest, a son, was my great grandfather. I learned that she had died of typhoid fever in November of 1900, and was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Mangum.
But knowing these few details was not enough. I wondered, who were her parents? Did she have siblings?
Through the census, I discovered three Catherine Goods in Seneca County. None was the correct age, but they were close enough to make me take a second look. Eventually I settled on Catherine Good, the daughter of Joseph Good. I narrowed it to this Catherine because of the family’s close proximity to the Lynch family farm. When I had finally discovered Catherine living in Crawford County, Illinois in 1880, I found that both of her parents had birthplaces in Virginia, and only Joseph’s daughter, Catherine fit the bill. But how was I to prove it?
Joseph had not made out a will, but he did have an estate. It was my first look at probate records, and while the clerks in Seneca County were helpful, there was nothing in the microfilmed papers to suggest a relationship between Joseph and Catherine. I began to collect names of other Goods who might be siblings, then reading the obituaries of these “maybe siblings” to see what I could find. I came up empty handed. Finally, one night as I drifted off to sleep, I thought, “What happened to the land?” For Joseph, who was a farmer, had farmed the land right up until his death in 1873.
The probate record, mentioned nothing about land. By chance, I had made an Internet connection with a woman who did title searches in Seneca County. I posed the question to her in an email. She wrote back asking me for details of the land Joseph had owned. She told me she would take a look.
Finally, one day, she wrote me that she had found the land, and noticed that there was a court case attached to it. This made her curious, and she said that she would see what she could find. A few days later, she called to tell me she had the case file, but in looking at a list of the heirs, Catherine was not mentioned. I was crushed. I had been so sure that Joseph Good was Catherine’s father. About 20 minutes later, she called back and said she had found “something.” She would not say what, but asked if I could meet her at her house later in the week. Without a moment’s hesitation, I said, “Sure.”
On arriving at her home a few days later, she handed me a sheet of paper. On the top it read, “Statement and testimony of Susannah Miller.” It began as follows: “My name is Susannah Miller. I am one of the defendants herein and oldest daughter of Joseph Good, deceased. I was present when my father and my brother in law, Willis Morse, came to my house in Cass County, Michigan where I now live in September 1871 and heard my father give directions to said Morse in writing into a book he had for that purpose, the amounts he (my father) had paid on advancement to his children respectively and in number the amounts and items, and some of which I know to have been advanced viz: “
Susannah’s deposition went on to list her siblings, the children of Joseph, and the amount of money he had advanced to each child. The fifth name on the list, made my heart race. “To my sister Catherine Lynch $50.00.” Catherine had not been listed as an heir, having sold her share of the estate to a nephew-in-law, Dennis Blue before moving west. Dennis, anxious to get his share of the estate, which had been sold at a sheriff’s sale, was getting set to close the deal when Susannah and two other siblings, brought suit to halt the proceedings, thus the reason for Susannah’s deposition.
It had taken three years of tracking down leads, and in the end, my happy dance resulted from a generous, knowledgeable friend, a court case, and a $50 debt. It was as simple and as complicated as that.
Until Next Time – Happy Ancestral Digging!
Written for the 65th Carnival of Genealogy - The Happy Dance. The Joy of Genealogy
© 1 February 2009, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder
© 26 January 2009, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder
© 22 January 2009, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder
© 19 January 2009, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder
I came out of the womb a serious, anxious child. The world scared me from the first. I preferred my mother’s presence to that of anyone else, feeling warm and safe with her. But you can’t stay in the cocoon of a mother’s love. There is a world, and you are expected to live in that world.
Very early then, I began to collect laughs. I decided as a small child that a person was safe to be around based on frequency and style of laughter. If you didn’t pass my laugh test, I wasn’t spending any time with you. My Aunt Marion passed this laugh test with flying colors.
Funny, I don’t remember any specific conversations with her. I remember being in her basement where the family was living while their house was being built. I remember her decision to push my cousin’s twin beds together one time when I was spending the night, much to my delight. I remember warm, fresh from the oven peanut butter cookies tasting like heaven as we ate them in her sunny kitchen, but mostly I remember her laugh.
Aunt Marion -Thanksgiving 1951
It started at the back of her throat and came bubbling out her lips. It was really, more of a giggle then a laugh. It was delicate. It was feminine. It made you smile. It punctuated sentences, or sometimes marked the beginning of one. It was infectious and drew you in, especially if you were a serious, anxious little girl. It was unique and part of my earliest childhood recollections.
My aunt died this past Sunday, leaving the world a lesser place with only memories of her unique little giggle. She will be missed.
Until Next Time . . .
© 12 January 2009, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder
© 12 January 2009, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder
© 7 January 2009, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder
Okay, proving that geneabloggers are just as warped as your average person, several memes are going around the geneablogger universe right now. One instructs – “take the first sentence from the first post of each month. You will end up with only twelve sentences. Post those twelve sentences.” Well, okay then.
January 2 - Other Voices of Genealogy - My writing style tends to be a casual, slightly irreverent style of prose.
February 1 - Web sites to check out - Aaarrrggh!!!!! How in the world did it get to be February already?
March 2 - Pension File Stories: Louisa Ish Smathers, Disappearing Woman - “I am nearly 48 years old, a housekeeper…”
April 1 - A look back — on Women's History Month and beyond - When my sister and I were young, we would play make-believe games.
May 1 - Part II: Pomerania - War and Consequences - The people of Pomerania knew that the Russian Army was rapidly advancing on them.
June 2 - One SuperPower to Go - Please! - Over the past couple of days, I’ve been thinking about what superpower I could appropriate that would help me most in my genealogical snooping.
July 1 - Delete is NOT an option - Okay, this post is only for those of you who maintain blogs on this newspaper website or those of an affiliated newspaper website. The rest of you can go do something else - sleep, eat, start a third world country.
August 4 - 7 Days, 7 Requests - Inertia is defined as the resistance to motion, action, or change.
September 1 - Our Family Treasure - For 102 years, various members of my family have been responsible for keeping the documents that my great grandparents Leo and Emma Schrader brought with them when they immigrated in 1906.
October 1 -Geneablogger Gnome makes a visit to the Desktop Genealogist - The little fellow below came for a visit to the Desktop Genealogist blog via email for my participation in Terry Thornton’s “Getting to Know You Challenge. "
November 4 - Some Final Thoughts on This Election Day - I just read a piece in the New York Times which said that the election with the largest voter turnout happened 100 years ago, on November 3, 1908 when 66% of the registered voters showed up at the polls and elected Ohioan, William Howard Taft, the Republican candidate, as President.
December 2 - Today I cannot write - Last night, big fat flakes of snow traveled softly to the ground.
So there you have it. My twelve sentence review of my blog. I’m not sure what it proves – that I don’t always start my posts with the word, “okay?”