I had to write about my latest genealogy search and the shock I got from it. But first just a little background. I do a lot of searching through old newspapers and seem to keep finding things about my ancestors. This one is about my grandfather. I never knew my grandfather, he died in 1922. Most of my ancestors on my mom's side of the family, the Parkers, lived in Sullivan County NY in a small village named Eldred. Eldred area news was covered primarily in a newspaper called the Monticello Republican Watchman which was published in Monticello, Sullivan County, NY.
I tend to do broad searches first, like just putting in the last name of a person and then browsing through all the articles about people with that last name. It can be a bit time consuming but I almost always find something new when I do.
So, I was searching along and finding little tidbits here and there about various ancestors when the one that gave me the shock of my life popped up. My grandfather was arrested in May of 1994 of suspicion of murder!! OMG!!
Thankfully, it was a case of mistaken identity!! In 1894 my grandfather would have only been about 20 years old. His father, my great grandfather was the Constable in Eldred. Can you imagine his shock when his oldest son was arrested?!! By all accounts the Parkers were all very well respected members of the community so this must have been a shock to everyone.
I had to learn more. I needed to know if there was more to this story so I went on a search for stories about the murder. The following stories spanned over the next couple of years. Thank God they caught the correct culprits and my grandfather Warren Parker and Will Parker were not involved.
I am still in shock he was even arrested, but so grateful it was a mistake!! I found a couple of other little surprises while searching the last few days that I will share another time. If you do genealogy then you know, you could run into things that will surprise you along the way. But oh what fun it can be!!
Until next time,,,,,