The 'Lost' Are Found

Yes, it's been a long time since I posted. Genealogy research intruded, as did life. But, I'm back. And do I have something to report --

I FOUND them!! The twins!! For more than 100 years, my family has known our grandparents had 10 children, but two of the children -- said to be twins -- had vanished from family records. Vague snippets of information came from long-ago relatives: the two were said to be twins, a boy and a girl; maybe named Paul and Pauline; they were thought to have died of whooping cough, probably before they were two. But no one knew for sure and since all their brothers & sisters were gone (including my father) & given the fact that they were born, probably before 1900, little hope was held out to find out much about them. Especially since any of us delving into our family history lived more than 500 miles from where the family lived and where records were kept.

This is where matters stood for more than fifty years. Talk about cold cases and brick walls.

Yesterday, the Ides of March, I was idly checking Family Search when I found the birth record for my father, including a photo of the page in the record book for Marion County (Ohio).  That got me thinking and I quickly began checking the photos of the pages in that record book. I focused on the couple of years our 'lost' twins could have been born & began searching the photos, page by page. After much hunting, I found birth records for a Lillie P. and Sidney P. Halderman [my last name is Haldeman but often spelled with an "r"]. These two children were born on the same day, in the appropriate time span & place and -- to me, the clincher -- their first names were the first names of my grandparents! The twins were born in the correct city, to the right parents and the "P" in their given names written in their birth records helped confirm family lore. I'd found them! 

Now -- when did they die? Armed with their full names, I was able to turn up a burial record for Sidney, only 14 days after his birth. Poor little guy. Ancestry.com has a pretty great cache of historical newspapers, including the daily papers of my and the twins' hometown. Armed with the date Sidney died, I was able to find the paper and went through that issue inch by inch until I found the notice of his death -- as well as where he was (probably) buried. Then I found the issue announcing their births, but no notice of little Lillie's death. I went through EACH issue of The Marion Daily Star from the 13th of November 1898 until a few minutes ago when I found little Lillie's death notice on the 7th of March 1899. HUGE sigh of satisfaction. Finally. The children of my grandparents are finally all known and listed and remembered. Even the two little ones, born in that terrible winter of 1898-1899 where temps all across the Midwest to the east coast were in the double-digits below zero & the Hudson River froze over completely. The family is complete.

I haven't found what the cause of death was for either child, but I haven't given up. I found there were MANY cases of the 'grippe' (influenza) that winter in Marion along with scattered cases of typhoid fever, diphtheria, pneumonia, scarlet fever, and even smallpox in Columbus, O., only 45 miles away. I also don't know for sure where my aunt and uncle were buried, but I strongly suspect they were buried in the Haldeman Cemetery (established by the grandfather of their father in 1818) in Morrow county, Ohio. That cemetery was still in use then (and up to 1965) and was located on the Haldeman homestead near Johnsville in Morrow county. Sidney's body was transported to Morrow county via train after his death, and Lillie's notice said her remains were to be "taken to Morrow county for burial." 

I have a jumble of emotions -- triumph, satisfaction, and sadness. While I'm proud to have solved this mystery, I can't help but think of two small babes that my grandparents loved enough to give them their own names and who didn't live more than three months. The nearness of death in those days is breathtaking. Yet my grandparents had three healthy children before these two and five more followed. I think people living in those days were definitely hearty folk.

What I hope anyone reading this takes away is this: brick walls aren't always insurmountable. They CAN be broken, sometimes even when you don't even leave the comfort of your chair in front of your computer!! So, today I'm definitely doing my happy dance!