#Preface
Serendipity: The faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.
The following story was an article requested by Teresa Baer, Editor of “Indiana Connections” magazine after I submitted to her a transcript of the Civil War Journal of Samuel B. Huddleston, hoping they would be interested in publishing it. The Indiana Historical Society was not interested in publishing the history but was most interested in how I obtained the records. This was a significant article for me to write and also a catalyst for taking all of the family stories that Samuel had recorded and put them into this compilation.
In the companion book for the PBS series Ancestors: “In Search of our Ancestors” the author Megan Smolenyak states that “If you were to gather fifty genealogists in a room, chances are that forty-five of them would readily admit to having experienced a few unexplainable incidents in their search for their roots.” Until Hank Z. Jones in his book “Psychic Roots” brought to light this common research experience of getting help from un-expected sources, many of these stories were not talked about so openly. In five video clip segments on www.rootstelevision.com Hank discusses that he was definitely not searching for his ancestors as much as his ancestors were “chasing him.” Since there are as many stories as there are people researching their roots, and these stories are such an interesting phenomenon unique to doing family history work, ww.genealogytoday.com invites people to write their stories for submission to their website. These stories are awe-inspiring and encouraging for those who have not yet delved into discovering their family roots. I have had many of these types of experiences over the years but the serendipitous experiences that are directly related to my 2nd great grandfather Samuel Huddleston probably top any that I have had up to that point.
I struggled with the idea of going back east to Ohio for my husband’s family reunion in July of 2005—they were going to be camping out and I don’t care for camping. I have food allergies and it would be even more difficult to obtain the specialized food that I would need. The consequences of getting sick seemed too high a price to pay, so I decided a few months before the reunion that I would not go. However, this decision did not feel right. When the subject came up several weeks later I again stated that I would not be going, only to feel afterwards that again this was not the right decision. Although I would only be an hour or so away from the cradle of my Mother’s family hometown and Quaker heritage, I focused only on my specific health challenges. When my husband Nolan made his flight reservations, he again questioned me about going and I again said no. About a week before the reunion, Nolan’s brother in-law volunteered to pick me up if I had changed my mind. He was driving from California to Ohio with his youngest son. For some reason I relented—or repented according to how you look at it—and decided to go. {Nolan’s family was wonderful and although the accomodations were more comfortable than I imagined, the food remained an issue} (I doubt this is necessary).
{Despite my struggle,} (I don't know how this is "despite" your struggle) I remembered that I had promised my niece Brittany that on my next trip back to Cincinnati, I would take her over to Cambridge City, Indiana and we would tour the Huddleston House Museum. The house was built by John Huddleston, a Quaker and great uncle of my mother’s. It was built on national road 40 which was the main thoroughfare for anyone traveling west in the middle 1800s. This house had been obtained by the State of Indiana and was made an historical site.
So I dragged myself out of bed in what I considered a monumental effort to make good on my promise. I was glad after all to have made the trip and toured the museum. It was good to see how this museum is utilized in the community. They teach people how to dip candles, have civil war re-enactments on the grounds, and have Abe Lincoln address the troops during the enactments. They also do authentic harvest dinners. I was pleased to share our heritage with the {next generation} (I assume you mean your neice Brittany?) and realized the importance of having them connect with their ancestors.
{I have an aunt and an uncle who live just a few miles from the museum and so {Katie} (this is your aunt?), Brittany, and I drove there hoping they would be home, since no one had answered my call the night before.} (this sentence is confusing and backward - consider rephrasing) They had just arrived home from a camping trip so the timing was perfect. My aunt, who has been doing genealogy for thirty years or more and collected all things Huddleston, and I immediately immersed ourselves in conversation about genealogy when she learned we had just come from the Huddleston House.
She said, “You have Samuel Huddleston’s autobiography don’t you?” I did not know it existed until that very moment. As she was copying this for me-–about 80 pages worth—-I mentioned that I would like to pay for the copies, but she refused any payment each time I tried. While we were having this conversation, the doorbell rang and a few moments later my uncle came into the room with a ream of paper. He said their neighbor thought she might be in need of paper that day so she sent this over. We both looked at each other and then acknowledged that this was definitely not a co-incidence. The value of coming on this trip was beginning to take on new meaning because of this incident. I have no doubt that I was there specifically to obtain this record. Samuel was somewhat prolific in his writings and he told some interesting details about his life as a youth, but what caught my attention was that he had kept a civil war journal and that it had been published in the New Castle Courier. I mentioned to my aunt that I would like a copy of it after I had returned home. True to her zealousness in obtaining all things Huddleston, she said no need to make a special trip to get that, she had it and when she had time, would copy it and send it to me.
{I started learning digital Scrap-booking in 2006. I got Adobe Photoshop for Christmas and bought some CDs that was very helpful in acquainting me with the program and how to do lots of fun things. One of the fun things I learned was how to take a photo and make it into a digital puzzle. As soon as I learned how to do this I awoke in the middle of the night with a thought of how to utilize this technique on a specific photo to promote the Family History fair that was coming up in October of 2006.} (this paragraph is out of order)
I was not a novice at organizing history fairs. I had organized a family history fair in October of 2004 and had as a guest Colorado Governor Bill Owens. This had supercharged our event and we had a terrific turnout, so it was no surprise that 2 years later they would ask me to again be the Committee Chair person. We did not have a celebrity to supercharge our event the second time, so I felt a need to advertise as much as possible to get as good a turnout.
With the lessons I had been taking in Adobe Photoshop I had also been able to restore a photo of my great grandparents, with my grandmother sitting on her mother’s lap. My aunt, who is an artist had used the original photo and graphed it off so she could draw a larger picture of my great grandmother. This might have been the end to the only picture we have of her if not for restoration help. I knew I wanted to use this photo, and perhaps a document behind it as a graphic to advertise the family history fair. I tried several documents, until I finally remembered that the best choice would be the citizenship papers of Andrew Moore, father of Samuel, who immigrated to Indiana in 1852 from Ireland. I made up the puzzle and printed the family history website and date on the graphic and started transferring this image to t-shirts and totes. I then gave everyone on the committee a t-shirt or tote and instructed each person to display them everywhere, hoping it would be a conversation starter and generate some interest in the fair. I started this campaign in May 2006.
I had not been actively engaged in doing research on any of my lines for a couple of years. 2005 had been an extremely active year with several events, births, deaths and a couple of funerals which kept us busy and out of town a lot. We ended the year with a move into a new house that needed a lot of work, so the articles of my great grandfather’s journal that my aunt sent me just before the move in November of 2005 were filed into a drawer until I had more time to savor them. One Sunday afternoon in September 2006 I went to lie down because I was not feeling well. While I was lying down, a thought came to me that I should do some research on the Craig family. This became more than just a thought—it became a nagging feeling that weighed on me to the point that as soon as I started feeling better, I started researching on ancestry.com.
{The Craig family is another of my mother’s lines, and I had spent considerable time in the past looking for this family in the census records. To this point I had found Jesse & Rebecca Craig in the 1860 Census Wayne County, Indiana with just a couple of their children and the 1900 Wayne County Census, which listed a few grandchildren, however I never found a census showing all of their children. I knew Rebecca was a mother of 12 from the obituary that my Aunt Leah had sent me. {She had also researched this line and together we had come up with bits and pieces of information.} (unnecessary) The census records of each of the children we found stated that they were born in Kentucky. Since I found their parents in the Indiana census records I was not sure about the accuacy of these records. I thought instead that the family was still in Indiana during the 1870 & 1880 census and that the census pages for them were perhaps unreadable, faded, or that the census taker had missed them. I finally stopped researching this line because I had exhausted all of my ideas of where this family might be located.} (this paragraph belongs after the first sentence of the next paragraph)
When I got this prompting to do some research, I was skeptical. I had been at a dead stop on finding this family. I did some research and gleaned a few tidbits on Jesse and Rebecca’s descendants. I stopped for a break. I went back later that afternoon and as I was researching a thought came into my mind to look in the 1870 Kentucky census record. As I watched the computer do its’ calculations I scanned the page looking for Jesse Craig. I saw a Jesse Craig in Robertson County, Kentucky. My heart beat fast, Pearl Craig states on her marriage certificate that she was born in Robertson County, Kentucky. This had to be them! I quickly clicked to this page – There they were! Jesse, Rebecca, and five of their children! The exciting thing is that here were listed three of the children’s names that we did not have! I was overwhelmed! I could not believe it! I questioned whether I had ever looked for them in Kentucky–I must not have if they were so clearly found. I simply would not have gone looking for this family if I had not felt such a prompting.
I communicated my findings to my aunt Leah and she wrote back, ecstatic. She shared information with me about another daughter that she had identified through another obituary. Wow! Now I had four more children’s names–this made eleven of the twelve children that have been identified for Jesse & Rebecca Craig. This experience rejuvenated our efforts to continue to search on this line. I was thrilled to finally be piecing this family together. Doing family history work is like going on a treasure hunt and I certainly felt rewarded for my efforts. One day as I was reflecting on this event and how grateful I was for the help I had received in finding these children, a realization came to me. I grabbed my family history bag with the graphic on it and looked at it in amazement. The grandparents that I had used on the graphic were Samuel & Orpha Craig Moore. {Orpha is the daughter of Jessie Craig and Rebecca Mitchell!} (i.e. she was the missing 12th child that you didn't have?) Could the fact that I had plastered this picture on tote bags and t-shirts and distributed it to dozens of people be the reason that I was urged to look for and find more of the Craig family? Is it possible that the more I learn about them, talk about them, encourage others to do their family history work the more help I get from unexpected sources? Later reflection also revealed that the day this prompting came was also Orphas’ birthdate. Was this another interesting coincidence?
{Again, I experienced an event that I had not personally been seeking. This experience spurred me on to retrieve the articles that I had placed in a file ten months before. I enthusiastically retrieved the journal and found that the articles were almost impossible to read because they had been reduced to fit on eight and a half by eleven pages. I felt a trip back to Indiana was needed to see if I could get better and more complete copies. I left two days after another successful family history fair and obtained the information I sought. Once I had read through the articles I realized that this information should not be obscured, but readily available to anyone doing research on this line. More importantly, I believed these articles should be made available for any descendants of the Indiana 84th Regiment, because this was not just a civil war journal of Samuel’s experiences, but a Regimental history. I made inquiry to the Indiana Historical Museum Press because I thought they might be interested in publishing this book because of the broader readership. I was informed that the civil war market was flooded with stories and they were not interested. Self publishing this book for family members and donating copies to the Henry & Wayne County libraries as well as the Indiana Historical Museum and the Salt Lake City library would have to be sufficient. What the Indiana Historical Press was interested in, however, was an article for one of their magazines about how I was led to this journal.} (This paragraph seems redundant, you've already said that they didn't want to publish your book but wanted to know how you got the information, if it's a different interaction, I'd point that out)
This is now my third serendipitous experience with this ancestor. I made a trip that initially I did not want to make that yielded the autobiography that a neighbor felt impressed to supply paper for which mentions the journal, to an unusual 2nd experience that spurred me on to obtain the articles that brought about the book, that put me in touch with the Indiana Historical Museum who gave me an opportunity to tell many others about this Regimental History. None of this was anything that I was looking for or even remotely expected to happen, but certainly has become a valuable and pleasant experience for me. I am reminded of the movie “Field of Dreams” and the farmer who is convinced by a mysterious voice that he should build a baseball diamond and is told by the voice, “If you build it he will come.” My belief is that if we invest the time to find our ancestors and to honor their lives by bringing their stories to light, “they will come” to open doors that tell us the stories of their lives.
I ask of you, dear reader, if you now have any doubts that our ancestors wish for us to learn of them, to know their stories, and to learn from their experiences?