New Discoveries and Surprises -- some not so expected.

About a month ago, I began to focus my attention to the Stratton line of my family history. With the recent death of my father (October 14, 2009), I wanted to turn my attention to his family. I had wanted to seal my father to his father, Rolland Aubrey Stratton, whose temple work had already been done. I learned that even though my father was a member of the church, and his father's work was done, there is still the mandatory year wait before sealing them to each other. Yesterday I asked President Tinghy of the Washington, DC temple why that was so. He said that without the year wait, people would be rushing names through and there could be errors. I knew he had a point. Recently a friend of mine said she noticed that someone had done her ex-husband's temple work. Problem is, he is still alive!

So, setting the temple work aside for now, I decided to address the issue of my father's mother, who, rumour has it, was married before she married my grandfather. She had four children in this marriage, but for reasons unknown, left her entire family. Even though she remarried, her ex-husband still carried a torch for her and would send flowers on the anniversary of their marriage. The problem is, I can't find her first marriage or her first set of children. (When she remarried she had four more children, the eldest being my father.) While looking for her divorce records, I came across her divorce from my grandfather. Next to the divorce record in Ancestry.com, was my grandfather's new marriage record. I now had a maiden name for his second wife. So as not to confuse you before carrying on, here is what we know so far:

My grandmother: Ruth Cleveland Holmes
Married: Unknown first name Buzzell
Where: we can only guess Massachusetts at this time and around 1915
Divorced.
Four children from this marriage. Twin boys who died between ages 4-6. And two daugthers.
Remarries my grandfather: Rolland Aubrey Stratton
Where: Massachusetts
Divorced.
Four children from this marriage. My dad, my aunt, and twin boys.
Never marries again.

My grandfather: Rolland Aubrey Stratton
Divorces my grandmother, Ruth, in Florida and immediately marries a younger woman whose name is Bessie Virginia Campbell. (I learned via his death certificate that this marriage also ended in divorce.)

So, now you are caught up. I knew that Rolland and Bessie had one daughter named Vickie. We were introduced to her once, when I was 2 and a half years old. We never saw her or my granddad again. Vickie was 15 years old at the time. Well, since my father recently died, I thought it would be the right thing to do to let her know her brother had passed on. I hoped that by getting in touch with her, she could tell me a bit about her father, my grandfather.

I knew that Vickie lived in High Point or Greensborough, NC, and whitepages.com led me right to her address. Great! I have a place to write to. I went to ancestry.com to see if there were any records that showed more information about my grandfather and her mother. I got a shock. When I added Vickie to her parents' family tree, I got a shaking leaf. That is ancestry's way of letting you know there is available information on that person. When I clicked on the leaf I was brought to Vickie's Social Security Death Record. My dad's youngest sister died 30 January 2010. Just months ago at the age of 53!


Further snooping around on ancestry.com brought up an obituary of yet another child! Vickie had a sister! Sadly, the child died at the age of two days. I found and lost two aunts instantaneously.

The search for Vickie has not ended yet. I sent a letter to her address, addressed to the men who were apparently rooming with her. The letter came back unknown and undeliverable. On facebook I sent a message to a man who had the same name as one of her husbands. (The first one died in a motorcycle accident.) The man was sorry, but he was not the person I was seeking.

Ancestry wants $90 for her death certificate. No way. By writing the North Carolina Office of Vital Records, I can get the same certificate for $24.

So, family research, even recent history, brings out information that is new to everyone.