Geneaus

Hello, my name is...and I'm a conspiracy theorist. It's no wonder that I question coincidences, especially when it comes to the spiritual realm. I have seen too many "coincidences" that make absolute - sense - to just be chance. Latest genealogical adventure: The Egun and the internet.

You've heard it said that ghosts and spirits cannot directly straight out and touch the tangible/physical world and therefore they use antics such as that of a poltergeist by moving furniture, making sounds, and doing other things to gain our attention and let it be known that they are present without the ability to tap you on the shoulder and say "hey!".

On my latest genealogical search I happened to be going through "hints" on Ancestry.com and one of my egun had a hint which I clicked on. It was the grave marker for my aunt "Bootney" who was born on February 22.

During the time of Bootney's death, one of our family members, I'll call "T", was unable to to attend the funeral. He was very close to Bootney and the idea that he could not be present at her burial was heartbreaking for him and our family.  I ended up sending an email to the son of "T", named "D" and said "please pass this along to your dad in case he was never able to make the visit to the gravesite even now".

I found out that the mother of "T" and grandmother to "D", called "J", was in the hospital. All of this conversation took place on February 21st, just one day before Bootney's birthday.

Now, the family is kinda dispersed due to disagreements and long-time angst, but I let my mother, who is Bootney's sister, but the same age as "J", and who was once J's best friend,  know that "J" was in the hospital and that I don't think the timing of me finding the grave marker 1 day (30 minutes before her birthday) was a coincidence but that Bootney knew that with the family not being good communicators she had to somehow get the message to the rest of the family that her daughter, "J",  was not well. After all family is family.

Perhaps I read more into it than what it really is, and perhaps it was a coincidence, to those of you who do not believe in miracles, egun, or communications through the spirit world. I personally believe that the timing nor circumstance was not chance. Bootney has learned how to influence the living world around her, and has apparently learned how to use ancestry.com too!

OK, OK, I suppose it goes deeper than that, because Bootney would have also had to influence the photographer of the gravesite to take the picture, then to upload the picture, etc. etc...but why not?! Why wouldn't the egun use whatever tool they can if they needed to get the message across? Back to what I said about how spirits may not always be able to come straight out and communicate with us, so, if it can use technology to its advantage, why not?

Iba [a]ye baye t'orun Lona Chamberlain, welcome to the the virtual world.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Dead On The Side Of The Road

What a horrific way to die! According to the death certificate of Sarah (or Sara) Bethea - she was found dead on the side in the road - "probably due to intoxication and exposure in cold wet weather". Probably. Probably?

The year was 1915, the place - South Carolina. Sarah was 25 years old. She was married and she had a son at the time of her death.

I'm sorry but I can't help but wonder if this was not a case of murder! Maybe violently, maybe a hit and run, just maybe Sara could have been a drunk walking home from a bootlegger house...sorry, I'm having a harder time believing the latter, after all Sarah was married, would she be out at a bootlegger drunk and walking home alone?

Did Sarah die of intoxication (in other words - alcohol poisoning), did she die of hypothermia, or did Sarah die in 1915 South Carolina because not too many people cared about a ...?

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Coincidences

Don't you hate it when you get into your research and you find these records which get you all excited and you think to yourself, "this has got to be her!". There are so many coincidences that you think, there's no way this can't be connected somehow...only to find out, it's not! Just when you thought you had the only (insert odd name here), you find that out there, someone else named their child the same. Then on top of that, you find that not only does the first name match, but the last name has a connection too! So was the case with me researching the Johnsons.

Thomas Johnson as a daughter in 1921 by the name of Mildred Woodard; Thomas and Mildred were from North Carolina. I came across a Mary ARLETHA Woodard. What's weird about this? My mother's name is Arletha...I mean come on! how many Arletha's are out there? Ok, so there may be a few Arletha's, but how many Arletha's have a half sister whose last name is Woodard? But wait! Mildred Arletha Woodard is also from North Carolina! So, now I'm thinking...here is a Arletha (could my mom have been named after her?); here is a Woodard (could she be kin to Mildred?); or could she be another daughter of Thomas' no one knew about? So now, Mary - Thomas' mother's name was Mary (could she have been named after Thomas' mother?). Now my brain is spinning...I look at Mary Arletha Woodard's North Carolina Death Record summary and they have an alternative name for her Mary Arletha JOHNSON! I don't need to spell this out to you now do I? OK...breathe...they have listed as her father's surname - Johnson. Could this be THOMAS JOHNSON?!?

I get on the phone to the Fayetteville Observer to see if I could find the obituary and find out if they list he father's full name and the mother's name and the siblings. The kind woman in the library told me the names on the obituary of the brother's and sisters, but no mention of the father. What it did list was that Mary Arletha Woodard's husband name was Edward Woodard...scccccrrrrrreeeeeettttccchhhh. Here is where I come to a dead-end and I realize these coincidences are something else! If Mary Arletha Woodard's husband was a Woodard, that means her maiden name was Johnson, which means that this is probably not Thomas' daughter, nor Mildred's sister - unless some coincidence would have it that Mary Arletha is Thomas' daughter and hooked up with Mildred's brother...what are the odds of that??? and wouldn't that be almost incest?

*sigh* back to the drawing board...

http://geneaus.blogspot.com/

• Saving one's soul from damnation
• Having problems issues that seem beyond what a person can handle himself.
• The belief that when you die your soul will go to heaven or hell
• Family religious tradition