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Show HowFar Back Can You Trace Your Family Tree? By JOHN J. STEWART HE CABLEGRAM from Oslo reported tersely: Have located Olaf Gustavadson. To anyone but a genealogical buff, the importance of this communiqué might seem questionable, for Olaf Gustavadson has lain peacefully in an Oslo cemetery since December3, 1687. But for Charles Mosley of St. Paul, Minn., this find by a colleague in Norway ended a 13-year search that would do credit to Sherlock Holmes. Olaf was a great (times nine) grandfather of Mosley, and the discovery of his hiding place was a crucial step in the journey Mosley is taking into the unknown past. Charles Mosley isn’t alone on this sort of journey. From Hong Kong to Houston, from Las Vegas to London to Leningrad, a swelling army of genealogists is in relentless pursuit of their relatives, dead or alive—but especially dead. For many, the main object of the search is to trace their ancestry as far back into antiquity as possible. A forebear tracked down to the 12th century, marching in the Crusades, is worth half a dozen kinsmen of Civil War vintage. pay do they take up the chase? “Genealogy makes history come alive,” reports a Boston acquaintance of mine. “The Declaration of Independence was just a historical document to me until I traced my line back to Benjamin Harrison, one of its signers. Now I feel I am part of American history.” On a pedigree chart Ellen Johnson of, San Francisco inherited from an uncle in England she found the name Jane Barnes. A note scribbled beneath it intrigued her: “This Jane I fear is the barmaid whatsailed with that bloody McTavish.” Whereupon Mrs. Johnson took up the trail of her color- appointed British governor of the disputed Pacific Northwest. The thoughtful McTavish listed under “Miscellany supplies” one item of baggage called a “Rum Keep,” which came aboard ship in the person of Jane Barnes, a “winsome, flaxen-haired, blue-eyed barmaid,” complete with lavish wardrobe donated by McTavish. When theship. reached the mouth of the Columbia 14 months later, Jane Barnes became the first white woman to set foot in the Oregon country. And a dainty foot it was. Special protective quarters had to be built for her within the fortress and a constant guard maintained to heir of someone who has recorded arms in Lyon Register, begun in 1672 and kept in the Court of Lord Lyon, Edinburgh. If you are of English descent, you are entitled to arms if you can prove your male experience they have had during their searches—a compelling hunch, extrasensory perception, clairvoyance, or plain coincidence. Mrs. Winifred Lazear and Miss Maud Smith of Basco, Ill., were descent (father to son) from some- first cousins who made annual trips one whose coatis officially recorded at the College of Arms in London. A numberof other countries have to Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky in a futile effort to find data on their great-great-grandmother, Lucinda Davidson. Returning home similar requirements. For Thad Whalon, professor at a northwestern university, ancestor hunting has replaced detectivestory reading as a spare-time pursuit. “It’s much more fun solving real mysteries in your own family than reading fictional ones that someone has concocted,” he says. A scrawled entry in an old family Bible first aroused Whalon’s curiosity. “Sylvester died suddenly today of a neck injury. May God The Berkeley family crest ful-forebear,whoturned outbe shield her from the affections of trappers, soldiers, and Indians. Within a month after their arrival at Fort George, poor McTavish was drowned in the Columbia River, along with five of Jane's bodyguards. After four months as mistress of the fort, the voluptuous barmaid fled back to England via China with an understanding Captain Robson. Quaint customs, peculiar names, sentimental wills, and astonishing gravestone inscriptions keep genealogists busy. Other genealogists are motivated by a desire to trace their pedigrees back to a lineage entitling them to join such organizations as the Daughters of the American Revolution or to bear a family crest and coat of arms. ot since be dave of a widely traveled barmaid indeed. In 1813 one Donald McTavish sailed from England aboard the heavily armed Isaac Todd, for Fort George (Astoria, Ore.) as newly been such keen interest in heraldry as there is today. If you are of Scottish descent, you are entitled to arms if you can prove you are the Richard the Lionhearted hasthere rest his soul,” the notation read. Sylvester turned out to be a son of Whalon’s great-great-grandparents, the Christopher Hanks. Unable to get further information locally, the professor threw a sleeping bag into his station wagon and traveled to an Arizona ghost town where the Hanks were believed to have lived at one time. For three days he searched through the forsaken cemetery, like a benevolent grave robber. Finally his persistence paid off. The weed-choked tombstone read coldly: Family Weekly, August 20,1967 fari, they were forced by road construction to detour through Loogootee, Ind., where they stopped at an antique shop. Mrs. Lazear spent $4 for an old walnut picture frame that took her fancy. When, weeks later, she got aroundto refinishing it, she tore out the faded photograph in the frame and was about to throw it away when she noticed some writing on the back. To her astonishmentand delight, there on that photograph were the names and dates for which she and her cousin had searched so long. They had not recognized the photo as that of a relative but had been interested only in the frame. John A. Widtsoe, a prominent scientist and the president of the University of Utah, had an avid WILLIAM SYLVESTER HANKS 1836-1863 Armed with the year of death, Whalon searched through the fragile, musty pages of a one-time community newspaper on file in the local library. He was hardly prepared for what he found. Under the heading, “Notice of Departure,” he discovered poor Sylvester’s fate: Though born of woman, he died by man His name was Sylvester Hanks Love of money got the best of him And he was hung for robbing banks “Although most genéalogists are realistic, practical persons who pursue their hobby in a systematic, businesslike way, there are few who cannottell you of some phenomenal f w from yet another unsuccessful sa~ The Westmoreland family crest interest in genealogy. One day while on a business trip to Stockholm, he was hurrying along a busy street when he heard a voice say to him, “Go across the street and down that narrowalley.” Only imagination, he oe decided, “ahd ignored the “Almost at once ne voice came again, as distinctly as any voice I have ever heard,” Widtsoe tells the story. With that, he crossed over, (Continued on page 12) |