She Had Me at Junkyard
I never thought I’d begin an article like this, but I have to start this one by asking you to pay close attention. This orphan heirloom case was such a doozy of a ride that it was hard for those of us involved to hang on, so it’s going to require some careful explanation. It began, as usual, with an e-mail.
Junkyard Find
Loretta Lucero of Albuquerque, New Mexico wrote to me about a photo her husband found. Because it was warped from moisture, she wasn’t able to scan it, but she provided a number of details that were written on the back:
Grandmother Mary Ellen Brown, born Aug 14, 1898, died Jan 30, 1987. Married to Septimus Brown. Children: Buena Anitia, James Edward, Dawthy Meril, Bobby Lee, N. Mae, Billy Jean.
I was mildly intrigued, but it was Loretta’s closing remark that really piqued my interest:
“My husband works in a junkyard in Albuquerque and found it in a car. We are very much addicted to genealogy and photos, and I know this picture must have meant something to the person who owned it. The car it was found in was a wrecked Legacy.”
She had me at “junkyard.”
Finding Septimus
Aside from the fact that this photo had been found in Albuquerque, there were no location clues. And Brown is one of those tough names that rates up there with Smith, Jones, and Williams. Just too many to wade through. So I decided to improve my odds by starting with the person with the most unusual first name: Septimus. I was to learn later that Septimus didn’t like his name and mostly went by Seth, but I, for one, was grateful to his parents for foisting this moniker on him.
I entered “Septimus Brown” at Ancestry.com and up popped a manageable number of hits. I decided to check out the 1930 census first, and there—in Poplar Bluff, Missouri—was a Septimus with a wife named Mary E. And sure enough, all the children matched up. So now I had a location.
I dwelled on Septimus for a while, seeing what other bits and pieces I might be able to find. Here he was in the WWI Draft Registration—living in Poplar Bluff, working as a brakeman for the railroad, married to “Ellen Mary,” and born on 11 November 1875. So he had married a teenager when he was about 43. Seems that Septimus was a bit of a player! Yet here he was in the 1920 census with his parents-in-law, so they must have approved of their daughter’s taste in older men.
Google to the Rescue
Now I had some traction. The Brown family was centered in Missouri, but somehow, the photo had traveled to New Mexico. It was time to play connect-the-dots. I decided to jump forward in time by trying to determine what had become of the assorted Brown children. The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) was an obvious place to look and quickly revealed the deaths of Buena, Bobby L. and James E. Brown between 1985 and 2006—all in Poplar Bluff. It seems the family had more or less stayed put.
Since James was the one who had passed away only months ago, I focused on him. Assorted newspaper databases failed to turn up any obituaries, but Google saved the day. Experimenting with searches that included Brown, Poplar Bluff, and other words (adding Septimus turned out to be the key), I found an obituary for James on the website of the funeral home that had handled his burial.
The obituary included the married names of his surviving sisters. Fortunately, they had also stayed in Poplar Bluff, so it took only minutes to locate them through online people-finding resources.
Calling Albuquerque
I had managed to locate the two remaining children of Mary Ellen Brown, the woman in the photo, but I was reluctant to call because I still hadn’t solved the fundamental mystery of how the photo had surfaced in a junkyard in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At least five of Mary Ellen’s six children had apparently never budged from Poplar Bluff, so how had the photo strayed so far from home?
I thought I found the answer from another Google expedition. Once again, I typed in “Septimus Brown,” but this time I narrowed the search by adding “Albuquerque.” The very first hit was a genealogical query from a fellow named Jim Brasher who—yes!—lived in Albuquerque. I searched a little more and discovered other postings Jim had scattered around the Internet. From these, I was able to determine that he was a great-grandchild of good old Septimus and Septimus’s first wife (I would eventually learn that there had been three wives).
Jim was clearly an avid genealogist, so this must be how the photo wound up in New Mexico. He must have been the one who had the car accident. At this point, I made one of the more peculiar phone calls of my life—cold-calling a stranger to ask him if he had ever wrecked a Legacy.
Jim Brasher, G.I.
Fortunately, Jim turned out to be an easy-going fellow who likes a mystery. He didn’t hang up on me. In fact, after informing me that he had never owned a Legacy, he went into detective mode and asked for Loretta’s contact information. Within seconds, he had morphed into Jim Brasher, Genealogical Investigator.
Now I had the luxury of coasting as Jim did all the leg work. The next day, he met with Loretta’s husband, Val, in the junkyard and I received the first of a series of case updates. The photo was just the tip of the iceberg. There were actually all sorts of family documents. He snagged a box of papers from the car, took it home, and sifted through the clues. Now he found himself following the trail of a young woman who had lived in Missouri, Colorado, Oregon, Texas and New Mexico. Somehow she connected to his family.
I quizzed Jim about this other family of his great-grandfather Septimus, and he reported having met them only once back around 1950. This seemed like a good time for a family reunion, so I gave him the phone number of one of Septimus and Mary Ellen’s remaining daughters, making her Jim’s half-great-aunt (follow that?).
Albuquerque Calling
Jim was now on the initiating end of a strange phone call. He called this Poplar Bluff relative, and was lucky enough to reach Billie Jean, a woman who recalled their one-time meeting back in 1950. Oddly, because of the framework of the family, this half-great-aunt turned out to be a year younger than Jim.
The two compared notes and Billie Jean filled in the missing pieces. There was indeed a young woman in the family who had lived briefly in New Mexico. Thanks to family-tree software, it was easy to determine that the car owner was a half-second cousin of Jim’s. Sadly, she had been through a rough divorce, and it was her ex-husband who had wrecked the car and left her family treasures behind. She was now living in another state with her mother.
Salvaged Memories
As I write these words, Jim is still on the case. He’s calling his young cousin to make arrangements to return her family treasures. But it was literally a happy accident that took them through an Albuquerque junkyard detour and reconnected two branches of a family that hadn’t spoken in more than 50 years.
If Val and Loretta hadn’t been caring enough to rescue the photo and write to me, the family items would probably have been permanently lost to the wilds of the junkyard. And if Jim had lived any place but Albuquerque, I never would have contacted him. It was only because I was so convinced that he was the Legacy owner that I pulled him into this search. And if the accident had occurred any place but Albuquerque, I never would have had the vital clue to find Jim in the first place. But thanks to all of these fortuitous coincidences, this box of memories has truly gone from trash to treasure.
If you’ve got another family’s treasure that you’d like to return, please go to www.honoringourancestors.com, choose the Submissions menu, and select Orphan Heirlooms. I can’t respond to every submission, but the next rescue could be yours.
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Wonderful story!
This story really strikes a chord with me, I often attend flea markets and estate sales–in doing so I frequently come across lovely old photographs of unknown people and can’t help but wonder what their story was and who was uncaring enough that they couldn’t or wouldn’t find a family member who would love to have the picture. Of course, it is irritating to have a picture that is unidentified, but a little research might turn up some happy results as in the case of the junk yard story. Let that be a lesson to others to identify the people in your photographs and also snapshots so your descendants will have a clue of who it is and maybe even how they are connected.
Fantastic ending!
What a great story.
Great story….it’s fun to connect the dots! That’s half the addiction of genealogy!
Wonderful! How I wish that more people would go that extra mile to have valuable photos, bibles, etc. placed with “someone who cares”.
This is a great story and a wonderful demonstration of caring, thoughtful work toward others.
I am very interested in discovering my family heritage and by digging in my tree I can appreciate the amount of selfless work you did. One more coincidence that you didn’t mention, that seems to frequently work against us at many turns is the uncaring nature of some people - even regarding their own family!
Great job and a greater ending.
Wonderful story!! I don’t check out junkyards, but when I am doing garage sales or going to thrift shops, I check to see if there are any photo albums or family bibles. If there are, I will purchase them and try to contact family members.
We must find a way of cloning Ms Megan Smolenyak
I have pictures of a family named Brett. They went to school in the 1870-1890s or so with my family. The Bretts moved to CA early in 1900s The pictures were taken in my family backyard when the Bretts came to visit about 1915 or so. They often asked my family to come to LA area in CA
I attended a few meetings at a society in Long Beach California where they have a large swapmeet once a month - One of the members relayed a story of retrieving a photo from the Long Beach Swapmeet that is held once and month and tracking down the remaining family - only to find that they were the ones who gave it away - Go figure!
Awesome story. I have several photos dating back to early 1900’s which are unidentified. The only person who knew passed away seversl years ago. FRUSTRATION!!!
Great Story & even greater ending!!!!!
I have German mail to a Rudoph Bliedl who lived in Chicago. Finally got help from someone who showed me that they were in Jay co, IN in 1910 and in Chicago in 1920. Matilda the wife and last date the dau and Lorek her husband lived with them in one house. Have no idea who they are in relationship to my family. The cards were dated 1920 and sent to Chicago. How did they come to be in my family. They were from Austris.
I am the keeper of several wonderful old photos and mostly I know who they are through asking the older family members before they died. I have discovered family ’secrets’ and hope that generations after me will find the pictures and stories as fascinating as I did.
I was held spellbound by your story of “the junkyard”. I,also have found beautiful photos in very nice frames at garage sales,etc., and I always wonder how anyone can leave these treasures behind. It is very sad,but your story was a happy one for someone. Thank you-Shirley Denney Gowan SanAntonio, Tx.
What a wonderful story, that gives me hope that our lost photos and our kids baby book will someday turn up. On our move from Harvey, Il to Arlington Texas some precious items was taken from us, Photos, of our kids, (who’s grown now) there baby book, school awards, our wedding photos, and most precious my mom, grandmom and sister who had passed away there photos was in those items. My husband WW2 medals, his military papers, etc. It still hurts me really bad. I still haven given up hope that someday those precious items will make it way back to me.
Thanks for the great story it get restores my hope. Wonderful job.
Cindy U Arlingnton Texas
I am on a RootsWeb list with Jim. Jim Brasher has been hot on the tracks of his relatives for a number of years. He is one of those hapless guys who manages to fall into these unlikely adventures and come out with a prize! If there is a person determined to solve a mystery, it’s Jim! He has not only solved many of his own family mysteries (of which there are many!), he has contributed a lot of detail about St. Louis to the list in the form of colorful first hand accounts which helps everyone on the list solve mysteries. Anyone who knows Jim would not be in the least surprised at this story!
Megan, your story was wonderful! I, too, have had the privilege of finding, and then returning, vintage family items to the proper descendants. It really gives me such satisfaction to be able to get precious books, photos, or documents into the hands of appreciate family members. Sometimes you wonder how these travel across country like they do! And sometimes the search, and of course, the find, is so much fun!
Thanks for sharing your story with us!
Roberta
I heard of a couple in Indiana that purchased a property that use to be a photogopher’s shop. They would leave some of the pictures that was found around for their customers to look through for nostalgia. A stranger came to town and ended up writing a book about the photos and the book in turn generated interest from around the world and filled in alot of lost families’ histories. There should be a data base where people could forward pictures that can be viewed by anyone in the world to connect other lost memories.
While staying in a motel in Woodland, Washington, the owner’s wife mentioned a Davidson family who had been early settlers in the town. That was my mother’s maiden name so I did a little checking and found that the family living there was that of my grandfather’s uncle. A member of that family had left of box of letters, pictures and family keepsakes. Much to my amazement, she contacted the person holding them and they were passed on to me! As an avid genealogist, I was more than pleased.
My daughter’s friend found lots of pictures and family momentos in a storage unit in New Mexico she had to clean out and dispose of. Knowing my daughter’s interest in old things, she contacted her and she went right over to retrieve the items. She contacted me, the genealogist in our family to see if I knew how we might be able to get these items back to the family. The great thing about the pictures, was that they were all so carefully marked with names and dates! I immediately got onto the rootsweb message boards and put out a message for any family member to contact me. That same day, a lady answered my query and we were able to send the pictures and other momentos to her. I got a very nice letter back from her stating that the pictures were of her grandparents and cousins and were ones she’d never seen before. What a great feeling to be able to return these treasures to the family!
HOW Wonderful these people actually appreciated being contacted and reconnecting with long lost family…In my family’s case one branch has been very tight lipped having no desire to be connected or share information.
I would like to be able to get in touch with Jim Brasher in Alburquerque.Dr. Ted Kircher lived there with his family and I would like to add info to our family tree. I lost touch when we all moved in different directions. Thanks for any help!
Heart stopping! Wonderful example to give others incentive to never give up!
I was recently able to find a family member that wanted some tin type photos and early wedding and family pictures that had been given me to research. I was contacted by a member that belonged to the Stewart-Mogle downline. Valentino and Cindrella became real to me through a little red book written by Rella as she was referred by. I can only hope that i may inherate the same kindness someday in my research for the Tarwaters, Fields, Thompsons and Greens. Also the Pfeiffers, Which I would like to know why so many f’s in the spelling. I also have afew items picked up at used places that need to be returned to the owners. I am so excited to find and restore personal momentos. Thank you for a site that is so helpful. Sheri
To Gloria Lee Reeves:
Gloria, you can reach me at jims505@msn.com—Jim