Mystery Solved!

Thanks to the fabulous and spectacular blog reader Heather who commented on my last post, the mystery of who JL Rogers is has been solved! THANK YOU, HEATHER.

He's my 2nd-great uncle, my great-grandfather's brother. I had been assuming that his legal name was John, because that was his father's name (according to his death certificate), but Heather did a search and found a James L Rogers - and all the information (parents birth places, wife's name, birth place, everything) matched perfectly. You couldn't find a better match.

So then I went crazy on Ancestry. I use Ancestry as a starting point, especially since I see flaws on there all the time (today I read my grandmother is dead - pretty sure she isn't, I talked to her yesterday and she sounded fine). I put together a tree, and then print it, finding other sources to verify the facts. The only tree I trust on there is my cousin's, because I know the information on that tree is from family records in his possession.

Over the next week I'm going to work on JL's mother, who was named after her father - Willis. Her full name was Willis Adeline/Adaline Weed, nicknamed Addie. She was the only child to two older parents (I'm presuming miracle baby/accident or adopted). All I have is her parents names - Willis Weed (Willie Weed?) and Martha Clay.

I also found my two 2nd-great aunts married the same man. First one sister did, then she died, then the other sister married him a year later. I find this remarkably creepy for so many reasons. I'm sure it was common, but still, I shudder at the thought.