Ancestry Magazine

 
“Squirrel Driven ‘Nuts’ By Heat”
That newspaper clipping attached to Cindy Furman’s letter was all I had to see to know I was hooked. The owner of the scrapbook that held the clipping—a scrapbook Cindy found at Goodwill—had carefully noted, “Martha cut this from Cleveland paper—Summer 1936.”

I had to know. What was it about a crazy squirrel that was so compelling that its attack on an unfortunate fellow named J. S. Crawford was worthy of preservation? Why was I reading about this case of rodent rage 70 years after it happened? Obviously, I had to get this scrapbook back into the right hands.

Her Motivation
Cindy likes to rescue family treasures by purchasing orphaned photos and memorabilia online from eBay, Goodwill, and other such sources—and for good reason:

“I’m always hunting for photographs and other family heirloom items that I can purchase for a reasonable price in hopes of one day returning them to their rightful owners. My own family lost many treasured photographs and memorabilia when an aunt failed to pay the fee on a storage locker, and the items went up for auction. Unfortunately, none of the other family members were aware of it until it was too late. I am hoping in my searches I will one day find some of my own family items or someone out there will. I hope that my good deeds may be rewarded by someone else’s in the same manner.”

The case Cindy contacted me about involved an Iowa scrapbook that came loaded with clues. She thought that she had purchased it online from Goodwill, but my initial research revealed a message she had posted back in 2004 about this same scrapbook—she actually found it at a shop in Virginia. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this snippet of information would turn out to be important in the final stretch of the case. From the scrapbook pages, Cindy had gathered plenty of juicy details:

Names: Miss Jeanne Parsons, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Fred G. Parsons; Miss Elizabeth (Lizzy) Parsons; G. Keller; Rhoda M. Hastings; David H. Edwards; Mrs. Ada Morris Hastings; Betty Parsons; Mr. & Mrs. M. M. Kinsey; Vivien Busser; Miss Elizabeth Ely of Claremont, California, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. John Montague Ely; Charles Lebo of Lane Technical School; Charlie Dunn

Places: Estherville, Iowa; Des Moines, Iowa; Iowa City, Iowa; Drake University; Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, Ohio; Lane Technical School

Dates: Almost everything is from 1907 to 1936, with most items dating from the 1930s.

This information alone solved the first part of the mystery because I noticed that the dateline for the squirrel-gone-nuts article read “Estherville, Iowa.” So it was probably the owner’s amusement in seeing her own small town portrayed like this in a big-city Cleveland paper that prompted her to save it.

Come to Your Census
I had more than enough to work with, so I was optimistic. As I almost always do, I headed straight for the census, starting with 1930. It took maybe three minutes to find the family at the heart of this case. It would have been faster if it hadn’t been for a few name variations, such as Jeanne being listed as Jean. And sure enough, the family resided in Estherville, Iowa.

It took another 30 seconds to find this same family in the 1920 census. There were Fred and Elizabeth Parsons with their children Fredrick, Elizabeth, and Jeanne, all in Estherville.

Hmmm … I figured that one of the daughters, Elizabeth or Jeanne, had been the owner of the scrapbook, so all I had to do was find one of them. This was going to be easy.

Not So Fast
At this point, I continued to whip around the Internet and pile up clues. Here was the Parsons family, mentioned in a book about the Irish in Iowa. And here—thanks to the Emmet County, Iowa, site at RootsWeb—were Fred and Elizabeth, and Fred Jr. and his wife, all buried in St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Estherville. But no sign of the younger Elizabeth or Jeanne. I backed up and tried again, working every online resource I could think of. No luck. So now what?

I decided to check out the catalog at the Family History Library to see what resources it might hold on Emmet County, Iowa. A listing for Birth records, 1880­–1935 from the county sounded worthwhile. Regrettably, I didn’t have any trips to Salt Lake City planned and patience is not my strongest attribute. So I requested a search by ProGenealogists, and about a week later I was looking at the birth record for Jeanne Katherine Parsons.

Jeanne Mapping
Equipped with Jeanne’s exact 1918 birth date, I turned to the Social Security Death Index to search for women who shared her first name. Because it would mean she was possibly still alive, I hoped to come up empty-handed, and I did. So where could she be?

I turned to PrivateEye.com, knowing that the site allows you to search by birth dates. Once again, I entered “Jeanne” and the exact date of birth. Roughly a dozen Jeannes materialized. I scanned the list and did a double take when I noticed that not one but two of them lived in the Washington, D.C. area. Cindy, who had submitted this mystery, lived in nearby Virginia, so I thought perhaps there could be a connection. Maybe the reason this Iowa scrapbook had turned up in a Virginia shop was because one of the sisters had wound up living there at some point.

I tried, but failed, to locate either Jeanne in the D.C. area. A little more digging revealed that the listings I had located were clearly out of date. But I couldn’t help but notice that there was a Walter associated with one of the two Jeannes.

Walter’s Turn
Sadly, chasing Walter did produce an entry in the Social Security Death Index: he had passed away in 1995. That still left me with more than a decade’s gap, but I was getting closer. I had a go searching for his obituary at GenealogyBank.com, and yes—there it was in the Washington Post.

Fortunately, the obituary was filled with plenty of family information. Jeanne had apparently been his second wife and had passed away in 1991. This surprised me so much that I went back to the SSDI to try to find her, but for whatever reason, she’s not listed. As I pieced the details together, I realized that the two Jeannes I had discovered in PrivateEye were actually this same woman—one with her first married name and the other with her second married name. More than likely, the scrapbook had slipped from family hands when Walter passed away a few years after Jeanne.

Walter’s obituary included names of Jeanne’s children, his stepchildren, but something was off. I couldn’t find them. So I looked for Jeanne’s obituary, and there it was. The names listed for her children were similar to those in Walter’s obituary but just different enough to have thrown off the search. This time, I quickly found Jeanne’s daughter in New York.

Cindy on the Case
I shared my research with Cindy and asked her to make contact with the family. She did, and, shortly after, Cindy shared this message from Jeanne’s daughter. Jeanne’s daughter, it turned out, had determined that the scrapbook was once her aunt Betty’s.

The scrapbook arrived safe and sound yesterday. I have been going through it this morning with my cup of coffee. I cannot thank you enough. Every piece of paper in there is precious to me. We were a small family and my aunt Betty lived in Iowa so we did not see her all that often while we were growing up in Maryland. Some of the family lore included the Danceland holdup, so it was great to read the clippings.

The letter from my grandmother describing the tornado of 1936 is particularly precious as I don’t have any letters from her at all. There are also references to my mom’s senior year and a luggage fire (also family lore).Cindy, I cannot truly express my gratitude for the time and trouble you’ve gone to find me and return the scrapbook to its home. As I mentioned to you, we were a small family. My mother was the only child to have children and my brother died in 2003, so you can see how precious this history is to me as the sole survivor. Thank you.

Our Motivation
Sometimes people are perplexed by this notion of orphan heirloom rescues, and they ask me why I do it. I’m sure Cindy gets that question a lot as well. I shared Cindy’s motivation already, but I suspect the thank-you you just read is the best motivation of all.

If you have another family’s treasure that you’d like to return, please go to www.honoringourancestors.com, click on the Submissions menu, and select Orphan Heirlooms. I can’t respond to every submission, but maybe the next thank-you note will be addressed to you.

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak is a regular contributor to Ancestry Magazine and the Ancestry Weekly Journal.