Genealogy #67

I have been doing genealogy for a number of years off and on. When I first started, there was one particular person that I was looking for who was our family's "black sheep." I was determined that I would find him no matter what it took. I looked high and low for that scoundrel for several years and decided to give it a rest. I worked on other family trees for several years before I decided to try again. The two things I learned in all of this that I would like to pass on is

#1 Don't give up! When I decided to take a break, my search had met dead ends in many states and places and was beginning to appear to be an impossible task. Ultimately when I returned to searching I met with success.....at last!

#2 What kept me from being successful in my pursuit was that I kept trying to find him as a head of household. The sad truth is that he was hiding in plain sight....or pretty close. Once I got it out of my head to pursue males as heads of households and I tried his sister, Lucy. Low and behold....there he was! He left his family and moved in with his sister across town while they lived under a cliff. Nice guy! The interesting thing in all this is that as I progressed in my search I found out that his uncle had written The History of the Valley of Virginia. Both his father and uncle were well respected lawyers. I have a family member who corresponded with Abe Lincoln and one with letters from Thomas Jefferson that are actually in three genealogy libraries! Didn't see that coming from the family of this guy that was a scoundrel! Just goes to show that genealogy can be a really interesting hobby that is full of turns and twist.