Madness Monday: It's Alive!

 

Hello to all my genealogy friends! If you've been following me for a while, you might remember that I started a blog prompt called #MadnessMonday about five years ago. Life got in the way, and I had to put it on hold for a while, but I'm excited to bring it back to life!

You can check out my original post from March 20, 2009—the birth of #MadnessMonday. It's hard to believe that was 15 years ago; time really does fly!

I want to give a special shoutout to Miriam of AnceStories: The Stories of my Ancestors. In this blog she wrote a wonderful article, Who Are Our Brickwall Ancestors, and Why Aren't We Blogging About Them Regularly? Though I haven't spoken to Miriam in many years—life with teenagers and work took precedence over my genealogy passion in recent years—she still deserves credit for contributing to this fun and thought-provoking meme.

There are two categories to this meme.

1. Mad Ancestors: Share a story about an ancestor who was "mad." This could be a heart-wrenching tale of someone sent to an asylum, or a lighthearted story about a quirky ancestor who made everyone laugh and roll their eyes at the same time.
2. Ancestors Who Drive You Mad: Write about those brick-wall ancestors who make you want to pull your hair out. Miriam contributed a great form (see below) to follow for this category, so if you include it in your post, maybe someone reading can offer some help.

a.      A title [in this case "Madness Monday", but you can follow it with] "My Brickwall Ancestor: [Name], [dates, if known]"

b.      List what we want to know: "I want to discover solid evidence of who Levi E. McCLELLAN's parents and siblings were, and when and where he died and was buried."

c.      A chronological list (timeline) of known information. For instance:

d.      List positive and negative searches in detail. Obviously, any information in the timeline would be from a positive search. But we could list where we've searched and found no information, or our attempts to trace collateral lines. In this example, I would say the following:

e.      List any possible resources you can think of that you haven't checked. In the above example, I've ordered Levi's Civil War Pension Record, which I hope will provide me with more information.

f.        You can also list your suspicions. In the same Army company in which Levi served during the Civil War, there was a man named William J. McCLELLAN. I would then describe my attempts to find out more about this individual, whom I suspect is a brother or cousin to Levi.

3.     3. Resolved Madness: Maybe you finally have a resolution to a Madness Monday post. Revisit the post and tell us how you solved your frustrating brick wall and what you discovered. I love reading these stories! One of my all-time favorites, which I often recount, is how I discovered the parents of Jerry Roe. I'll never forget that moment—I literally screamed, "I know who she is!" when I found the name of Jerry's sister (Aunt to Pier Roe) on Pier's delayed birth certificate.

Add #MadnessMonday to your post. Then respond here with a link so others can read about your mad ancestor, your frustrating brick wall (maybe someone has a solution), or how you solved your maddening brick wall. Each Monday, I'll share a few of my favorites and post one of my Madness Monday moments.

For this week, I'm re-sharing my post about Jerry Roe and how I solved that little mystery by finding a crucial detail at the bottom of his son Pier Roe's delayed birth certificate. I can't wait to read your #MadnessMonday stories!