I recently wrote of a need for knowledge of Atkinson, and I was excited to hear from Gwen Smith Emery, a former Atkinson resident. Among other things, I needed information about the one-room schoolhouse that, in the 1890s was on the outskirts of the J.R. Hall property. It turns out the Gwen had not only attended the school, but her grandmother Myrtie Hall had been a teacher there! We had a much too short telephone conversation, during which I began to learn a little about the history of Atkinson, the Doore and Hall families, and hints of an untapped wealth of knowledge. She and I even found a tenuous link between our own families. I am very grateful to her.
She and the original inquirer have since been in touch with each other, happily exchanging Hall family details, looking for that elusive link, which, it seems may not exist anyway. Although both were descended from a James Hall, from tiny Atkinson at about the same time, there does not seem to be a connection between the families. (I think I took that disappointment harder than they did!)
Both are proceeding in their searches undaunted. In fact, Gwen, in what seems typical kindness, has continued to try to assist; going so far as to visit the tiny Atkinson town office and pore through the old records. When I last spoke with her, she was happy to report that she had found some pertinent records from the other Hall family. How great!
In the case of the two Hall families, it is not so unusual a coincidence that there were two James Halls in the same small town about the same time. But that both men would have connections to the same school, with Hall women teaching at different times, and still not be connected, is a large string of coincidences. These two women knew enough not to accept the similarities as facts.
My other Atkinson descendant had a woman who seemed to have dropped off the radar about the same time another woman with the same name shows up in a different town with a different husband. So far, record searches have not turned up anything to prove the case either way. She is going to continue that search until she has taken it as far as she can. In the meantime, I have suggested that she construct a timeline of all the facts she knows about Abigail, and then see if the new information she has found could fit. This may be a simple way to quickly eliminate the new information as not possible. Or, with luck, it may be worth pursuing the new names further.
These two cases raise the same common genealogical question: how do you resolve cases of conflicting information when the names are the same, or things are close but don’t quite fit? It is too easy to make assumptions and waste a lot of time on the wrong road; I hope these two examples will help keep you on the right path. Look for facts, see what really fits and don’t let hope sway your decisions.
Editor’s note: Columnist Nina Brawn of Dover-Foxcroft, who has been doing genealogy for over 30 years, is a freelance genealogy researcher, speaker and teacher. Reader e-mails are welcome at ninabrawn@gmail.com. The Aroostook County Genealogical Society meets the fourth Monday of the month except in July and December at the Cary Medical Center’s Chan Education Center, 163 Van Buren Road, Caribou, at 6:30 p.m. Guests and prospective members are always welcome. FMI contact Edwin “J” Bullard at 492-5501.
