(Or, How a Find My Past Free Trial Weekend Rocked My Research, pt. 3)

Good to see you, friend! Last time, I wrote about how a long-sought obituary finally revealed the what and when of the Wells family crisis. This week, I’m jumping forward in time again. In the early Twenties, my great-grandmother Orilla Wells liked to keep in touch with the social column of the Olean Evening Herald. It would have been nice to find her mentioned along with a beau now and then as I was searching for her story, but then again, maybe that would have been too easy.

Details on a range of unexamined years opened up a richer story.

Though I had compiled much information about the enigmatic character at the center of my favorite genealogical mystery, the data wouldn’t coalesce into a sense of who Edward C. Laughlin was or what his life was like. The Bradford Era editions available at Newspaper Archive and Ancestry always left me hungry for more.

Once again, the impressive Find My Past newspaper stacks proved invaluable. Twenties editions of the Bradford Era provided a slew of new Laughlin tidbits.

A pattern developed. I learned that he was active in his local posts of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion and the Knights of Columbus, and if there was a dance, parade, or bazaar in Bradford from 1920 to 1925 or so, Edward Laughlin was on a committee for it.

I’ve already compiled a timeline of Orilla’s reports to the newspaper in the years immediately before and after my grandfather’s birth. She kept up quite a busy social social entertaining friends, traveling, and yes, making visits to Bradford.

During the same time frame, Edward stayed busy himself. Always a committee to serve or a party to attend. It’s interesting that when he returned from serving in France in World War I, he put such priority on a cross between civic volunteerism and, well, living it up.

Whether the slowdown in his social calendar is related to my grandfather’s birth at the end of 1924, or to Orilla’s marriage to someone else in 1926, I can’t say. I do think that when my grandfather’s guardians chose to move to Bradford toward the end of the Twenties, Edward Laughlin was acutely away of his son residing only a block away. Furthermore, even before the stock market crash put a halt to everyone’s fun, Edward’s mother’s passing in May 1929 surely affected him deeply. My guess is that the busyness became hollow for him as the Roaring Twenties died down to a whimper.

(Related post: A Letter Waiting)

In the final post in this series, I’ll share how two short clues in an 1890s newspapers connected to existing evidence–leading to a possible diagnosis for one ancestor’s ailment!

Disclosure: I’m not an affiliate of Find My Past–and actually, I’m technically not even their customer, since I haven’t bought a paid subscription. However, I’m very likely to do so at some point in the future.

Real quick, before you go…!

I’m so thrilled that yesterday, Emilie Hendryx hosted me on her wonderful blog, Thinking Thoughts. Emilie is the incredibly talented photographer who took my headshots last year. Hop over to check out our interview (particularly the tidbit where I mercilessly tease about what readers can look for next…)