A Branch Cut Short (TW: Criminal Violence)

TRIGGER WARNING: This post mentions criminal violence. No names or newspaper links are included to shield the living (even if it may be undeserved). 

I've seen tv shows, and read about, people who uncover disturbing stories in their family tree as they set out on their journey to discover family secrets. Yet somehow, I wasn't fully prepared to find this in my own tree. I was taken aback when I started reviewing a newspaper clipping from spring of 1986 (just a few short months before I graduated high school) to find a 3rd cousin 1x removed, in my paternal line, at the center of a horrific story. 

The initial article (a photo hint from another Ancestry user) only mentioned a father, mother and son had been found dead in their home. Their oldest son had been arrested for murder. In almost all cases, murder is a senseless and selfish crime, pointing not to any form of self-preservation, but to someone who decides extreme violence is an acceptable response to conflict. 

After an additional search on Newspapers, I found the story was worse than I first expected. Maybe I could have rationalized if there was some indication of ongoing family violence, or if the son had mental challenges, rendering him truly incapable of understanding his actions. And while not an excuse, I could have wrapped my brain around a drug fueled spree. None of these were the case.

The eldest son, just 18 years old, had been in trouble before for robbery and theft, spending time in a juvenile facility. He certainly had issues, but from those meager facts alone, I wouldn't have inferred he was an imminent danger to anyone. Yet, on Easter morning 1986, he broke into his family's home, brutally stabbing his parents and younger brother - killing them while they slept. The reason? An argument over using a sports car. 

He was sentenced under the terms of a plea agreement, confessing to 3 counts of second-degree murder and 1 count of crime of violence. He received 48 years for each count of murder, to run concurrently. He was eligible for release after only 24 years (in 2010). Another search on Ancestry found him living in an apartment, and as a registered voter, in 2022. I personally find his release deeply troubling. 

In hindsight, it was probably just a matter of time before I discovered something like this. If we look hard enough, there are secrets hiding under rocks just waiting to be uncovered. Newspapers record the happenings of the time...good, bad, and everything in between. We look through them to find clues to our family history. Just because I don't like this particular find doesn't stop it from being a part of my family's past. But I still wish it weren't true. I wish this small branch of my tree hadn't been cut short, leaving only the perpetrator to carry on. 

The reality is, our family members live, and they die. The circle of life weaves the very fabric of the history we seek out - even when it's ugly. 

Snowed In? Perfect Weather for Digging Up Ancestors

A major winter storm will impact more than half of the United States this weekend. My home state of Maryland is no exception, with 12-14" of snow forecast for my city. And, to make it even better (said facetiously), it appears it'll be served up with a generous side of ice and extreme cold for at least the next 10 days.

Being a mid-Atlantic state, we simply aren't used to significant snowfall, and clean up will almost certainly take several days, if not longer. So, this is a perfect weekend to hunker down, dig into the records and focus on finding some new ancestors!

This past week, I added a new set of 3rd great grandparents to the maternal side of the family tree. By looking at Ancestry's ThruLines®, backed up by the 1850 census and a North Carolina marriage record, I was finally confident enough to add David Oakes (or Oaks) and Polly Lovell to my tree. Both were born about 1797-1800. I'm anxious to start expanding this line forward towards some of the 203 DNA matches I have from this ancestral couple. I'm particularly tickled to work on their daughter. I can't help but giggle when I see her name - Gooley Oakes. 

I've tried to find information on where the name Gooley comes from, and it appears to be more of an Irish surname. I can't help but wonder if this is a quiet pointer to my 8% Irish origins, shown as coming solely from my maternal side. Thus far, I've yet to push my maternal line outside of the United States. Perhaps it's an homage to another direct ancestor I've yet to discover. If so, I'll be pushing solidly back into the 1700's, a time where handwritten records become much harder for me to decipher. Thankfully, AI is reasonably good at this task. When the algorithms stop serving up as many hints, I'll head over to FamilySearch for some full-text searches. 

If you're up for an interesting read, check out "20 Ways Your Ancestors Survived Snowstorms That Would Seem Insane Today" by Marc McDermott at Genealogy Explained. I found it really interesting. And if you're in the path of this winter storm - please stay safe!

Image by Couleur from Pixabay