Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Mystery





I have a degree in history.  That alone seems to be the reason I am the historian/genealogist for my family.  However, they assume I know how to ferret out hard to find historical information and anecdotal nuggets.  If time and finances allow, I want to immerse myself in genealogy this summer.

I want to prove or disprove the family stories I have heard at every gathering.  The tale I am most curious about is a family tragedy.  In a small town in Kansas in the 1920's two sisters took a walk; if I am correct, they were my great-great-aunts.  One was nursing a broken heart over a broken relationship.  However, the man she had broken up with tracked the sisters down as they strolled across a local picturesque bridge and shot both sisters, then himself.  The disturbed man died on the scene as did the younger sister.  The older, and the estranged lady friend of the shooter, lingered but died in the hospital 1-2 days later.  Despite my efforts I cannot find any newspaper clippings, obituaries, death records, anything to lend credence to the story.  Is it just a story?  What parts are true and which have been inflated with time and retelling?

*** Sorry for the dark tone of this post, just where my mind is tonight.


5 comments:

  1. What an interesting story. It's a real whodunit! I wonder if you will ever find evidence - keep on digging.

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  2. That is an interesting legend passed down in your family. I also have one that deals with a great aunt, one of my grandmother's sisters. Evidently when they moved from Poland, this great aunt couldn't deal with the stress, it sent her over the edge and she spent the rest of her life in a mental ward.

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  3. Very interesting. It seems odd that there would be no record, but it also seems odd that someone would invent a story like this. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. Good luck.

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  4. I am intrigued myself! Genealogy and History both are very interesting. So, interesting in fact that to my husbands dismay one summer we took a family trip with our young children to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, visiting several cemeteries and County courthouses in search of clues. I loved it but it's not my kid's favorite summer vacations, although we laugh about it still.

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  5. Do you know when they died? If you don't have Ancestry.com you could try Find a Grave and see if their grave has been listed. You can also try GenWeb -- a volunteer run site for every state that may have links that could help or a message board that could help. I love finding the stories and would love to find more written down public versions of my family stories as well. Happy hunting!

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