Life’s Curveballs

The movie is obviously set in the 1920’s, one of the scenes opens with three convicts walking down a road in chains and a shot rings out. The three see a boy walking toward them with a shotgun.

Hogwallop (boy): You men from the bank? Daddy tolt me I’m to shoot whosoever from the bank!

Delmar: We ain’t from the bank, young fella.

Hogwallop: I nicked the census man.

Delmar: Now, there’s a good boy. Is… is your daddy about?

This dialog is from the movie, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and I can envision some of this being true. I’ve noticed this problem when searching old Census records for people that lived in rural areas. It’s a good bet that many of these people didn’t want to be found and it could be that they were living in these remote areas for a reason.

I’ve come up against this problem with my ancestors on my grandmother’s side. Mostly farmers during the late 1800s and early 1900s, finding anything about them is difficult at best. The exception is when someone does something to be noticed by getting their name in the newspaper. My grandmother’s brother is one that is easily found because he was convicted of first-degree murder in 1929. He didn’t actually pull the trigger but he was in the car when two of his buddies decided to rob someone walking along the road one evening. They committed this act on March 29, 1929, were convicted of the crime in June 1929, and the two trigger men were put to death in the electric chair in October of the same year. Unlike the system of today, the judicial system was swift back then. When they said that you have the right to a swift trial, they meant it.

Other than these rarities, it is difficult to place people when they weren’t noticed in such a way. My great uncle spent about 15 to 20 years in prison and dropped off the map until records of his death showed up many years later 3000 miles away in California. There are no records of the other people in this family and I only have photographs. Other than photos, there are no records of the existence of these people and no way to fix a relationship to me.

In today’s world, my descendants won’t have the same problems for we leave tracks of ourselves everywhere we go. Computers and computer records of who we are and where we’ve been can be easily found at the touch of a button. For good or for bad we have sacrificed our anonymity.