Madness Monday : Abraham

23 March 2009 by Libbi.

Amy Crook of Untangled Family Roots (http://untangledfamilyroots.blogspot.com) is starting a new meme for those of us researching our ancestors. This will occur each Monday as a recurring meme similar to Tombstone Tuesday and Wordless Wednesday.

For mad ancestors, maybe you had a black sheep in the family that drove everyone else mad. How about the ancestors that were called mad because of their eccentric personality? Maybe you had an ancestor that lived through the horrors of the old insane asylums. Maybe you have a funny one about an ancestor that just went off on a rampage because someone inflicted temporary insanity. I’m sure you can come up with other stories of madness. The more creative the better.

Now of course there are those ancestors who “drive us mad.” These are the ones that the family lost contact with. No one knows anything about them or where they disappeared to. Or maybe you know the last part of their lives, but not where it began. Tell us about your ancestors that are a triple layer brick wall. Post what you know, what you’ve heard from family, and what you suspect may be the truth. But please differentiate each category because what you’ve been told may not be fact, or what you suspect may not pan out either. So help your readers to help you separate fact from fiction in order to solve your puzzle. Posting about our brick walls may help bring some sanity back to our research.

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So here’s my first posting: Abraham Spencer. For years and years we could not find his parents. He was born in that corner that was maybe New York, maybe Ohio, maybe Pennsylvania at time. No birth records, no mention of his parents in his obit.

At one time I horrified my mother by suggesting he committed some crime or scandal and changed his name. She nearly hit me for even thinking it!

We did the DNA test with my Uncle Marion and someone proven to descend from Abner Spencer….and it matched! That satisfied my mother, and I’m so glad she felt she had a solution before she died. But. That’s not documentary evidence. So I’m still hoping to find that one elusive document that would PROVE descent from Abner, and thence back to the original Gerard Spencer….

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