Genealogy Luck

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Series

Prompt: Lucky

Many times it has felt like I hit the brick wall of genealogical research, but I’m pleased to say that other times luck has been on my side. This week I am going to write about the luck I have had in searching for ancestors, particularly on a visit to Onaway, Michigan.

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In 1992 on the return trip from a family vacation to Windsor, Ontario I wanted to stop in Onaway, Michigan where my grandmother Emily Bush was born. We took highway 23 up the east coast of Lower Michigan to Hoeft State Park and camped there for the night. It was a beautiful spot on the shore of Lake Michigan. We were able to go down to the lake and walk along the shore skipping rocks and watching the ships in the distance. Later after nightfall we got a little scare form the racoons investigating our campsite. The next day we stopped at the Ocqueoc Falls for some photos before driving on to Onaway.

The idea of visiting the birthplace of my grandmother was one thing, but knowing what to do once getting there was another. I had no plan in place, and I didn’t think of visiting the cemetery back then. We saw the Chamber of Commerce building, so we stopped in there and bought a town history book and then found out that the courthouse had been converted into a museum. What an idea to visit the museum! But when we arrived, the curator was away and the person filling in for the day did not know how to help us. This is where luck comes into the story. Leota Wregglesworth, visiting the museum worker, knew how to help. She took us through some map books, where we did find the Bush family, and then she took the family information and said she would look into them further and get back to me.

Later on that summer I received a letter from Leota and she had found a lot of information about the family. Not only that, her father remembered playing in the home of Lucellia Sayer, my great great grandmother. What are the chances that that one day in July 1992 I would encounter this one individual in that museum in Onaway, Michigan? Some call it fate, but I felt lucky that I was able to discover more of this branch of my family.

Information I received from Leota Wregglesworth. This was when I discovered Ivanilla

Thank you for joining my search!

Dennis

Credit for this series to Amy Johnson Crow, Certified Genealogist