Found — While Looking for Something Else

 

Isn't it always the case that, after searching high and low—and unsuccessfully, I might add—for a specific document about an ancestor, the very record shows up while I'm looking for something else? Here I am this month, focused on finding the parents of Delaney Townsend, a quest which has languished in my to-do pile for years, and what should pop up but the missing record confirming another family history detail that's been nagging me for years.

Truth be told, I wasn't exactly on task when I stumbled upon that discovery. In fact, I had just been at a local genealogical society gathering when someone in the group pulled out his phone and reminded us to all check our FamilySearch family tree app for "Relatives Around Me." The minute I reached for my phone and pulled up the app, a window popped up announcing that "Relatives at RootsTech" was now available to access in preparation for this year's conference in March.

I am so susceptible to details rabbit trails. Sure enough, there was the familiar Relatives at RootsTech app, back again on my phone for another year. When I got back home, I had to pull it up on the much larger screen on my laptop and see what else I could find.

That's when I noticed the link to the article, "Meet the Sponsors of RootsTech 2025." I already can guess the major sponsors, but I was curious who might have been included in the "also ran" section, so I scrolled through to the bottom of the list. There, I found the Bronze Sponsors, including a company called  GenealogyBank. Although I have been a long-time subscriber to their services, their description in the RootsTech article caught my eye: "Ninety five percent of our huge newspaper collection is exclusive to our site. What we have you can't find anywhere else."

I wasn't sure about the "anywhere else" claim, but since I couldn't find any death information for Delaney Townsend and her husband Andrew Charles, I decided to give GenealogyBank's claim a try. And voilà! While it didn't name any relatives or include much more in the way of details, I did find a newspaper insertion for Andrew Charles' death.

Died on the 11th inst., at his residence in Madison County, of inflammatory sore throat, after an illness of 2[4] hours, ANDREW J. CHARLES, aged 35 years.

At least that's a start. Found in The Floridian and Journal, published in Tallahassee on July 27, 1850, that tiny insertion on page three at least revealed that Andrew J. Charles died in the county of his residence, Madison County, and that he was thirty five years of age at the time of his death. Both those details agree with what I've already gleaned, and provide me with the missing date for Andrew's seeming disappearance after the 1850 census. Since at the time of the previous census in 1850, the entire county claimed only 5,490 residents, I feel fairly confident this could be our Andrew Charles.

Since my Twelve Most Wanted ancestor for this month is Andrew's wife Delaney, one would think that would be my focus. And it is—but I didn't expect to see any mention of a married woman in a newspaper in territorial Florida during that era, even a dead woman. (But I tried looking, anyhow.) There are, however, other ways to find an answer to the question of what became of Delaney after the death of her husband.

Above: Clipping of "Obituary" for Andrew J. Charles from page three of The Floridian and Journal, published July 27, 1850, in Tallahassee, Florida; courtesy of GenealogyBank.com.