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Most of you here know that I’m Mormon – I don’t hide it but I don’t preach it unless someone asks… That being the case, I need some help in an area that I’m not experienced with. One of the things that we Mormons are big on in Family History research and it is one of my passions. I like to see who is related to who… You know that my gran’ma Marshall passed away in early January of this year. In the past few weeks I’ve been dreaming about her. She always says the same thing “Bec, I need your help. I need you to find my dad.” Gra’ma’s dad abandoned the family when gra’ma was about 5 years old. He sent a letter back to my great gra’ma saying that he was leaving and don’t bother looking for him as “you won’t be able to find me.” Gra’ma’s brother, Hyrum, thought that their dad headed off to Mexico and was probably killed in a bar fight. This is all the info I have on him. How am I supposed to find him? Why does gra’ma need me to find him? He’s abviously dead by now; won’t he be somewhere on the “other side” where she is? It feels very urgent and I’ve looked and am still looking in any records I can find, but I just don’t know where to start. Am I interpreting this incorrectly? Help please.
twindragonsmum
tdm
Do you know his real name, where he was originally born, or lived?? Can any of your family give you any details, about him or his family. And maybe where your great grandparents might have gotten married (if they did) or where her birth certificate might be (should have his name on it if he was around for a while)?? It would be a place to start. Hope you find what you’re looking for.
There are probably still records out there, you just need to find them.
As for why she might want you to is there may be another “Half” of your family, & they or you may have some need that you may not even know about that the other half has the key to. and it’s really really important.Jasmine wrote:Do you know his real name, where he was originally born, or lived?? Can any of your family give you any details, about him or his family. And maybe where your great grandparents might have gotten married (if they did) or where her birth certificate might be (should have his name on it if he was around for a while)?? It would be a place to start. Hope you find what you’re looking for.
Thanks Jasmine! His name was Oscar Edgar Hagaman, he was born 26 Sep 1878 in Rockwood, Lawrence County, Ohio. The family roamed quite a bit. Oscar apparently had wanderlust… they homesteaded in Alberta, Canada; Alaska; back to Alberta; back to Ohio; to Florida for a bit and then to California — this is where he left the family. I’ve found records for boarder crossings in and out of Canada and the states — some of my great uncles were born in Canada. I just can’t seem to find anything (records) for him past 1925… Anything else you might be able to add?
twindragonsmum 🙂
tdm
Lupin wrote:There are probably still records out there, you just need to find them.
As for why she might want you to is there may be another “Half” of your family, & they or you may have some need that you may not even know about that the other half has the key to. and it’s really really important.Thankies Lupin! I’m starting to wonder if he didn’t have a “second” family… I know that my great gran’ma got re-married several years after Oscar left her, but since there was no death certificate for Oscar, Mary and her second husband had to have their marriage annuled. I remember I made the comment to my gra’ma Marshall once that she must have had her daddy wrapped around her little finger, seeing that she was the youngest child and the only girl in the family. I didn’t know the story at the time and I remember the expression on her face (I’ll never forget it, I felt so guilty) when she answered “No, I guess not. He left me. He left my family to survive on their own.” I don’t even know where else to look for records… My family only knows that Oscar left, not why or were he went. I just wonder why it seems so urgent to my gran’ma that we find him. 😕 Any other suggestions? Or am I just dreaming about her ’cause I miss her?
twindragonsmum 😕
tdm
I was going to suggest that but for the sounds of it, the more research you do, the more expensive the site gets.
Is there any way you can get in touch with any of his remaining family?? If you have addresses, you might try looking into the libraries (for the newspapers) of the places he stayed.
My hubby’s grandmother and grandfather both abandoned their family when his parents were really young. So his great-grandparents stepped up to raise the kids. They now know where his grandmother is but he doesn’t really care to meet her, their isn’t a connection between them other than blood in his opinion.
Not to be a naysayer, but it might be that your grandmother isn’t at all concerned about it. It might be that it is *you* that wants to find something, and it might not even be your great grandfather. It might be that you are missing something that belongs to you–something that you feel is vital to you as a person. It might not be a “thing” or person at all.
Here’s my reasoning:
You feel that “knowing” your family–the connections, interconnections, the history–is a very important thing. It is something that is important in your religion, too, so it would be important to you more than just wanting to know because religion makes up part of *who* we are, rather than just *what* we are. So, whatever it is you’re missing must play a vital role, at least from your perspective, in defining who you are. Knowing that you’ve had some medical tests dealing with the very confusing sensation of not being able to effectively communicate, some memory issues, and other anomalies, it might be that you feel that your *self* has been lost somehow. This is translating into your dreams, and may have nothing to do at all with actually needing to find a long lost family member.
That being said, there may be a link…maybe your grandma feels that what’s happening to you might be inherited. Your great grandfather might be missing because something happened to him. While he may have been prone to wanderlust, did anyone ever think that he would have abandoned his family? Maybe the reason he abandoned them was because he was confused and lost and didn’t want his family to see it. Why else would he have written to his wife instead of just disappearing? If he disappeared to “spare” his family (which wouldn’t be far-fetched, since in that long list of places they lived, CA seems the best especially at the time), though, it would seem unlikely that he would have started another family because they would have to “suffer” with his issues in their stead. BUT…if it is something inherited, it might give the doctors a clue as to what might be going on. Or, if it’s not inherited, but something similar happened, it would seem that there might be medical records that might point to an issue (like lead poisoning or something like that).
Thank you ghostndragon–that does make sense… I talked to my dad about the whole situation and he said that when Oscar left he still had brothers and sisters living as well as his parents, and he didn’t ever contact any of them. The only person who got the post card was his wife, Mary, and it was sent from San Fransisco. I guess I need to poke further into family medical history to see if anything pops up. It’s as good a place as any to start… That road of reasoning is one I wouldn’t have thought of. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I really appreciate!
twindragonsmum 🙂
tdm
ghostndragon, you may have just hit the nail on the head, so to speak! All my neuralogical tests came back as completely normal, but they did find that I am SEVERLY deficient in Vitamin D. Normal ranges are between 30 and 100. My level is 11… Simple fix for all the weird synptoms; suppliment my Vit D intake. My doctor thinks it’s especially low because of this long, dark winter. Roddy and our boyohs will be getting tested as well. Hopefully we’ve finally found the cure for my head troubles! If my great gran’pa had the same deficiency it could account for his leaving – because seriously, it’s horribly humiliating to not be able to open your mouth without having jumbled nonsense come out…
twindragonsmum
tdm
Oh, I’m so glad that they may have found your “cure!” I hope you find your dreams more pleasant and less stressful.
TDM, just one other potential avenue for the vitamin D deficiency thing: if you should run into trouble resolving your symptoms even when taking extra vitamin D, part of the trouble may lie in your body’s ability to convert regular vitamin D into the active form. While I don’t know diddly-boo about human medicine, I do know veterinary medicine. In mammals, vitamin D from food is converted by the liver to calcidiol, and then converted again in the kidneys to calcitriol, which is the form that the body actually uses. The important thing here is that there are two conversion steps that have to happen properly in order for the body to be able to use vitamin D. And any time there’s a conversion step, there’s the potential for a faulty enzyme or mechanism.
The discussion of a possible similar issue with your vanished great-grandfather was what got me thinking along these lines. A genetic glitch in the body’s ability to convert vitamin D to calcitriol is totally possible. It wouldn’t be a complete failure of the conversion, because that would be fatal. But a partially flawed enzyme or conversion, those happen, and they frequently lie hidden until special circumstances show them up.
Your doctor is almost certainly correct in that the lack of sunlight this winter is the cause of your trouble. (It’s also possible that genetics could play a role here, making it harder for your skin to manufacture its own vitamin D.) But just in case . . . just on the remote chance that you continue to have troubles, or don’t get a complete resolution . . . then there might be a little more to fixing the problem than getting more vitamin D in foods. I know that calcitriol itself is available as a medical treatment. But it’s definitely possible to overdose on vitamin D in any of its forms, so I’m sure they’ll go carefully in your treatment until they know what exactly you need.
I hope that things are going much better for you very soon! (hugs)
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