The town that this man's birth mother lived in was of historical interest, enough to spawn their own historical society. I go on line to see what they might have about the birth mother's family of origin. And they have a wonderful site. Several of her potential ancestors figure prominently in the development of the area, coming from Germany and farming acreage, for several decades in the 1800's. There are photos of farmhouses and barns, storage facilities and schools and parks bearing their names.
If I can properly place his birth mother in one of these families, I can go back using census and into the German records. We can get to the question of exactly which places in Germany his ancestors left so he can visit these towns on vacation. However, the truth of his birth mother's parentage has become a serious question, and the family that "fits" is one that for some reason is NOT included in any of the historical society's information. This means to me that though they share a common surname in the area, they might not be related to all those others who appear on records and in books and news articles - or for some reason might have been ostracized by that family.
Using FAMILY SEARCH, I see several charts have been put up by various participants with accounts, some of them overlapping. I carefully look at what they call "sources" and find some unproofed work - work that includes what appears to be speculations. It's kind of lame when a person has been given an identity number and because it's over 100 years since they were born they are considered "deceased" with no death records, very few marriage records.
None of these charts include the people who I suspect are REALLY his birth parents, the man who seems to have died the year before his wife died, with the two older sons. In my gut I sense there was some sort of cover up.
I go back to the couple who were listed on FIND A GRAVE as the parents of the buried birth mother with the tombstone that lists a maiden and "married" name. I decide to go forward with census and well, this potential birth mother did not die in childbirth or thereafter. She is in a mental hospital a decade after a possible birth and dies an old woman. They also had one daughter. I find her in the same mental hospital as well a decade after her mother. Since there were also institutions for TB (Tuberculosis) patients nearby I clarify that it was not TB but mental illness. I remember that women were placed in institutions of "hysteria," such as high emotions, menopausal difficulties, and even being feminists or speaking up for themselves to their husbands.
In a pioneer proud family who spawned college educated people, inventors, doctors, business people, and so on, and given the times when mental illness might include "women's complaints" and the shame people felt, well, I develop a scenario in my head. A genealogist doesn't want to discredit oral histories, and everyone has an opinion, but I suspect that the people listed on FIND A GRAVE were not this woman's parents but perhaps she remembered them because early on SOMEONE in the large family did visit with her.
My client looks at the census records I've printed out and seems to be "remembering" various names. I have to caution him that these are names that his mother might have either remembered or learned from her own research when she became an adult. When it comes right down to it, no one adopted her, no one took her in, no one kept in touch with her as an adult, no one seemed concerned that she was alone in life and had a son she had to give up.
I feel for him. But we need to get the facts straight.
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