Speaking Of Rabbit Holes... Well Sort Of...

We were in Dayton a few weeks ago at the Montgomery County Archives & Record Center.  I love that place! It has everything Montgomery County (Ohio) except obits in one place, under one roof.  Now that I can handle!

Alot of times we will pull a marriage book and just go thru it line by line.  On this particular day we were doing just that.  Mr. Brown Eyes came across a real interesting rabbit hole.  I'm not going to include the images or names due to the nature of what I found during my chase down the rabbit hole.

Some Ohio marriage records contain a great amount of details - especially for the time frame around the 1920's.  Mr. Brown Eyes came across the marriage record of this young woman in my data base.  She was a third cousin to me.   Mr. Brown Eyes called me over to show me what he had found.

On the line where her father's place of residence was we saw the letters O.S.P. - O.S.P ?  What the heck?  After conferring and discussion we decided it was Ohio State Penitentary. Really? 

We inquired with the Librarian on duty at the Archives and asked if they had records for Prison's, especially the Ohio State Pen.   Her reply was that no, they didn't but that if the felony occurred in Montgomery County they did have those records.  So off we went on yet another chase. 

The court records were easy to navigate and we soon found the case.  It wasn't pleasant at all - the guilty party had been "having relations" with his daughter.  (nuff said moving on).  Of course this leads us to yet another rabbit hole - Divorce records.  A natural conclusion I would think.

So down the rabbit hole we went.  The divorce was a nasty one - with the guilty party literally selling everything the family had as he sat in a jail cell.  Law suits flying, accusations flying...  in the end the divorce was settled, he went to jail for a whopping three years.  The daughter did marry and life went on.  Did I mention in the process of chasing that rabbit hole we came across yet another set of rabbit holes that we can chase next time?   So many rabbit holes, so little time. 

All because of O.S.P on the line of marriage record.  I love doing genealogy!

Happy Researching!

Tricks & Tips Thursday

Ever been in the middle of a research session, stumble across a marriage record, but close the record and put it away because you couldn't identify the people involved..... YET?   Maybe a week, a month or maybe even a year passes and suddenly you know who that couple is!  Suddenly they are part of your data base.  You know you saw that date and info SOMEWHERE.... but where? 

I used to do that.  No more!  All of my major surnames have a spread sheet on my computer.  Each surname sheet is sorted by the surname, but includes brides name, grooms name, SOURCE document, information such as date of license, date of marriage, place of marriage, and a note field for other items that vary from place to place.

Now when I find someone I don't have in my data base but the area is right, the name is right... it gets recorded on my spread sheet.  No more wondering where or when I saw that record, I have the information on my spread sheet and its right at my fingertips.