Week 30: Genealogy Serendipity

If you do genealogy long enough your are bound to encounter genealogy serendipity. I can admit to having been tripped in cemeteries and finding the headstone I needed. It is usually covered by bushes or some nasty weed I don't want to do combat with. But, in the interest of my genealogy, the greenery must go! So, out comes my cemetery bucket, and I go to work at taking back the headstone from nature. This little blog post is not about that kind story. [My kids were all ready rolling their eyes, : )]

Many years ago my husband and I were divorcing. He had taken his things out of the house. I went in and packed up my stuff and then went back for one more walk through. I don't know about you, but every time I move a box of something comes up missing! So, I was determined that I would double check each room to make sure I didn't leave a box behind! I started in my son's room upstairs and then did the full sweep all the way to the utility door. There I entered the master bedroom expecting to find nothing as I had in all the previous rooms. There lying in the middle of the floor was this marriage certificate. I had lived in that house for three years and had never seen it there before! But there it was in the middle of the floor. Where had it been all these years? I knew instantly who the marriage document was for! My children's great grandparents were listed on that document. Now you must know, this home had been in my husbands family for many years. When we moved in, this room wasn't occupied so I have no idea how the document came to be on that floor, but I'm ever so glad that the ancestors entrusted me with it! It has been preserved in all things archival safe and hangs in a dark place in my house where no natural light can damage it. [Which also explains why it's difficult to get a good shot of it.]

O.M. Jacobson [Omer Mathias "Ole" Jacobson, 1885-1958] and Grace C. Davis [Grace Clara Davis, 1890-1980] were married 16 February 1910, in Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon at the St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church. Witness present: Mrs. Dora H. Leas; Mrs. Mary Palmer; signed by "J. Allen Leas, St. Jas. Luth. Ch."

And now my kids know how we came to be entrusted with such a special document.

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2012) that invite genealogists and others to discuss resources in the genealogy community including websites, applications, libraries, archives, genealogical societies and more. You do not have to be a blogger to participate. If you do not have a genealogy blog, write down your thoughts on your computer, or simply record them on paper and keep them with your files.