Enjoying the Journey

When I started helping my sister with the family genealogy, I didn't anticipate days like yesterday.

Yesterday I chose to follow up on one clue in George Arthur Botsford's (my 2x great-grandfather) obituary. The obituary says that he was born in Deposit in 1849, and that his father's name was also George Botsford.

I had previously determined where Deposit is, being unfamiliar with the name, and I found that it is in Delaware County, just south of Otsego County where where George passed away.  I searched federal and state censuses for a sign of the Botsfords in Deposit with no luck, so I started looking for online sources with local records. I found the Delaware County, NY Genealogy and History Site. This is an independent website developed and maintained since 1996 by a lovely lady named Joyce with no other motivation than a desire to make information available to fellow researchers. Dozens of people have contributed resources.

What fun and what a treasure trove! Was it my treasure? Not exactly. I didn't find one thing about the Botsford family, but I spent a lovely day visiting every nook and cranny of this site. 

One of the pages I visited holds several photos that are about a hundred years old that were taken in and around Mt. Vision, Otsego County, NY. I vaguely remembered that place name, so I went to Family Tree Maker, the software I use for genealogy, to check who in my tree had lived there. It turned out that my grandfather, Archie St. John (whose wife's mother was a Botsford), and his parents and grandparents had all lived in or near Mt. Vision. What's more, Archie was born in 1904, so it is entirely possible that he might be one of the children in this school photograph.

June 13, 1913

I contacted my youngest uncle to see if he recognized any of these photos or if he remembered any details about when his father lived in Mt. Vision. He did not remember. My other uncle has recently had surgery, so I will wait a bit before I contact him.

While I never did find out anything about the Botsfords, I did find several records of St. Johns that I have bookmarked for later when I am working on that line. In addition, I learned more about the area and the history of the region. I found links to other sites that I think will be useful. 

Some days, genealogy is more about the journey than the destination. Some days you don't make a big discovery or find that elusive record you've been pursuing for ages. Sometimes, what you didn't find tells you something important - maybe the obituary was wrong and they were never in Deposit. This would certainly not be the first time a newspaper article about a family member turned out to be erroneous. That is why it's always best if you can locate multiple records that agree on a particular fact like a name, a date, or a place.