I have posted a couple of times that I am searching for information about Montmorenci (Maryland) and it’s staircase. During this process, I received a comment, from the Blog, from someone who I has lost contact with. During our “conversation” I was told about an event that took place at Montmorenci.
I did some searching, but didn’t get anywhere. However, I had signed up for a Webinar that was being provided by Legacy Family Tree. The webinar’s title was:
Newspapers: Critical Resource to Complete Your Family Tree The speaker was Thomas Jay Kemp.
More about this webinar can be found on this website:
Looking at the menu at the top, is Training, and Webinars. I haven’t put the link directly to the Webinar, as the recording of that Webinar will not be available after March 10, 2011. But the Legacy Family Tree Webinars have been very educational.
The topic was on how to take advantage of the GenealogyBank website. Thomas said a couple of times, “don’t forget the newspapers“. (or at least that is what I heard).
That was on February 2, 2011. Just a couple of days earlier, I had received the email, mentioned earlier. In that email was:
“I was also told that a husband was murdered by his wife in .. house. I’ve always wanted to research that story!”
Thomas’ comment and that email stayed with me until the end of the Webinar. Didn’t want to miss any of his words of wisdom.
Webinar over, headed over to Genealogy Bank, and look at their Historical Documents collection. Having listened about how to search, I wanted the best results, quickly. Had to find that article.
What I knew was that the murder happened at Montmorenci. Of course, Worthington’s built that house and it was in the family until the early 1900’s. BUT, I didn’t want to guess that it was a Worthington. Didn’t know the name, nor date of the Murder. But, I did know that Montmorenci was in Maryland, and that it was in Baltimore County. So, I selected Maryland, and Baltimore County.
Didn’t want to enter anything BUT Montmorenci in the Include in keyword search. There were a couple of pages of “hits”. I looked at the articles which confirmed some of the information that I knew about the house, property, and people who lived in that house.
The 10th Hit was:
Shot Dead by His Wife: Sad Fate of Mr. L. L. Conrad
1883-08-08
Sun Newspaper (Baltimore)
Bingo.
What a story it was (is). There is a lot of genealogical information in that 1883 newspaper article. Some confirming what I knew, but the level of detail of the event were outstanding. I won’t go into the details about that, but what a story.
But, there is more work to do. As the opening line said:
“Lawrence Lewis Conrad, a great-great nephew of George Washington …” got my attention. His wife was “Miss Minnie Worthington”. So, another branch to follow.
Of course, I passed this information along to the person I was emailing.
But, the story doesn’t end there.
I attend a “local” Family History Interest Group (FHIG), in Bernards Township, NJ at the local library. I have been known to speak there, but it’s an hour away so I don’t always get there. The topic last night was on how to use America’s Genealogy Bank. The Reference Supervisor, Ruth Lufkin was the speaker. She gave a great presentation on the America’s Genealogy Bank, as the library uses it’s resources. She showed us (about 40 of us) how to use it, with tricks on how to use the search, what you might find.
I had mentioned to Ruth, when I got there, that I had a story about my experience with Genealogy Bank. She said that she had been looking for some connection between Genealogy Bank and FHIG.
As the say, “and the rest is history”.
The bottom line here are two fold:
1) Don’t forget your Library
2) Don’t forget the Newspaper
Thank you Ruth, for letting me share my story.
A Worthington Weblog 