I take my historical research seriously,
and sometimes get really wrapped up in a problem. That's probably
why I had the dream I had a few nights ago.
Abraham Nottage, Martin Van Buren Leach, and John Eslick and
their families have proven especially hard to follow through the
various federal censuses. For one reason, the Nottage and Eslick
names were almost always spelled incorrectly by census takers,
and some of the renditions they came up with are mind boggling.
There's no way to do a "sounds like" search, because
some of the spellings don't "sound like." For another
reason, these families couldn't seem to stay in one place for
more than a year at a time, and even knowing approximately where
they ought to be in any given year hasn't helped much. So, there
was my dream.
I seldom remember dreams, but this one is still vivid in my
mind. It seemed to go on most of the night, but who knows with
dreams how long they really are? Anyway, my leads to the Nottages,
Leaches, and Eslicks were no better in dreamland than they had
been when I was awake. No better, that is, until the answer to
it all came clear to me: these people had seen some crime, and
their knowledge of it was so dangerous that they had been placed
in the Witness Protection Program. Now, I have heard that people
protected in such a way are sometimes not very safe - and have
suffered the ultimate consequences for that lack of safety - but
clearly this time the Feds had done one hell of a job. They were
unfindable, even 150 years later.
I guess I feel better about my research skills.