Monday, March 25, 2013

A Bit More to the Story

Wikimedia photo by David Lisbona
At times I like to take a break from my current research and take another look at some of my less involved research questions.  Doing so can sometimes add a little bit more to the story I already have.

The post I had about my Casanova relative generated a number of views; you can find it here.  I decided to do a little more digging into this part of my tree, and this relative has turned up with yet another wife, number five.  The record of this marriage popped up in an Ancestry.com state database of marriages and divorces and was a real surprise.  Marriage number five turned out to be a short-term marriage during World War II.  I'm almost afraid to keep looking for more about this relative, wondering if I will find yet another marriage.  I've just glad he finally found and married his true love.

Last week I took the time to look for more information about The Day the Circus Was in Town.  This concerned the circus troupe I find listed in the 1940 census records for Sugar Valley, Gordon County, Georgia.

I spent some time at the Calhoun-Gordon County Library going through microfilms of old newspapers, looking for details about that circus.  Even though I scanned issues of the local newspaper that had been published before, during, and following the census enumeration (8 April 1940), I found no mention of a circus performing anywhere in the area.  This was in a newspaper that reported each week about the assembly programs at all the elementary schools in the county.  A circus in town would surely have generated a mention, probably even a front-page story with pictures.  Apparently the circus had just stopped in the area when the census enumerator came by.  No big circus, no performance, just a recording in individuals in the area.  Exactly what a census is intended to be. 

Neither of these additions turned out to be what I had expected to find, but that's the way it is when we're researching our family stories.  There is always a little bit more that's out there, sometimes additional facts, sometimes clearer insight, sometimes more questions, all reasons to continue our search.

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