Did you ever have a mystery in your life that you just couldn't solve?
Well that is the reason I began to write this blog.
About thirty years ago I was told, for the first time that my grandfather Will McAfee, was adopted. No one in my immediate family knew anything about who adopted him or where, but I was determined to find out. I never met my grandfather because he died before I was born and my father died before I was curious about finding my grandfather, so no clues there. Still no one told me the truth until I was much older and I think I learned about it from a cousin, Bill McAfee.
It took me almost ten years to find any records of my grandfather, Will McAfee, and his sister Nannie Jane McAfee who were listed on the Colorado portion of the 1880 United States Census, living with a James and Sarah A. McAfee as their parents. Mary McCloy was noted as the mother-in-law. Also listed on the same record were J.T. Smith and Frank Tompkins. I went to the Federal Center in Lakewood, Colorado, where they had the microfilm of the 1880 census and looked for days before I actually found them. I had no idea where they were living when my grandfather was a child. After I found them, I went again to get a photocopy of the actual 1880 census record of his family.
Now I had lots of mysteries to solve. One thing was certain though, I could start in Greeley, Colorado where they all lived in 1880, that was more than I knew when I started.
Remember that mom often said the McAfees had the brick works that supplied many of the bricks to towns around there. Mom also donated large family pictures of some of the McAfees to the museum. I don't know whatever came of them. I believe my parents stopped by there one time and did not see the pictures.
ReplyDeleteRita, I have not been great at doing research but Will's sister, my grandmother had a nursing degree which might have some clues to family history. I did not keep any family papers since we have no children to pass things down to. My brother Mike, might have some of the old pictures. My mom gave a lot of the family pictures to Pauline when she was searching for possible family connections.
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