Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Be a Time-Traveler

In this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, Randy Seaver wants us to be a time-traveler.  

1)  We all wish that we knew more about our most elusive ancestors - the ones we might not know the surname for, or the one who was probably adopted, changed his name for some reason, or lived through war or a natural disaster.

2)  Be a time traveler - where would you go, who would you speak with, what would you ask them?  

2)  Share your time traveler adventure on your own blog, on Facebook or other social media, or in a Comment on this blog.  Share the link to your stories on this blog, so readers can respond.

 

I would go back to Beloit, Wisconsin, about 1880, to talk to my great-great-grandfather Nelson Reed McKee.  He disappeared from his home in Monticello, White County, Indiana, the night of 4 June 1879, and turned up in Wisconsin.  I would ask him about the details revealed in the Monticello Herald of 5 June 1879, these questions:

1.  Why did you leave great-great grandma Sarah, and your children, in Monticello and end up in Beloit?

2.  There was mention in the Monticello Herald of a forged deed and mortgage in your name, with an endorsement supposedly by a justice of the peace who swore he never set eyes on the document.  It was dated the day before it was supposedly executed.  Do you have any information on that? 

3.  Did your brother, who was married to great-great grandma Sarah's sister, know where you had gone?

4.  Did he tell his wife, who then told her sister?

5.  Did he tell you about Sarah eventually suing for divorce?  Did you know that after the divorce was final, she married Luke Rogers?  Had Sarah's sister maybe told her that you married Ida Josephine Colby while still married to Sarah?  Did Sarah get the divorce at least in part to save you from a charge of bigamy?

6.   Did you ever know that your daughter, my great-grandma Florence Elizabeth McKee, had to go to work just before her 17th birthday as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse to help support her mother and brothers?

7.  Did you ever know that she married Francis Harvey "Frank" Reed and had a passel of children?

 

 Sure, I have other ancestors of whom I'd like to ask questions, dozens of 'em.  But this mystery has intrigued me for years, now.  These are some questions I'd like answered.