A Study in Scarlet Part 2: Genealogist

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: A Study in Scarlet, Part 2
Title: Genealogist
Author: Castiron
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Author's Notes: The 1860 Federal Census in Utah was happening in June and July.


My project to find all the descendants of immigrant Andrew Ferrier has overall gone well, but one line is giving me trouble: his great-grandson John Ferrier. John's on the 1860 census in Utah with his presumed daughter Lucy, but afterwards they both vanish from the record.

When I travel to Salt Lake City for research, maybe I'll find something.

Comments

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Brilliantly done! And it ties in with the Mormon requirement for thoroughness in knowledge of genealogies - so much so that to this day Salt Lake City is the go-to place in the U.S. for starting family research.

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm the genealogist on my mom's side of the family, so it was the first thing I thought of to go with "Mormon". It's not my religion, but I'm grateful for all the resources the LDS makes available. Someday I want to spend a week in SLC at the Family History Library and see if I can get anywhere on a few of the brick walls in my tree.

[debriswoman]

A really clever connection, and a poignant ending.

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

If they're lucky, they'll find a burial record for Lucy....

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

What an intriguing take on the story.

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I've gotten back into genealogy in the last few years and spend a lot of time on the LDS's Family Search site, so this round I immediately made the "Mormons = genealogy" connection.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

What an ominous and unsettling last line ^^"

And such a clever and original angle to take for writing about STUD.

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

The narrator isn't going to find John's grave by now, and death information will depend on whether any record was made of the death of an apostate. Lucy, though, probably has a record somewhere....

(I originally wanted to do something with DNA testing on the idea that Watson misreported the time between Lucy's marriage and death and that there was a child, but decided that would be a little much.)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Very nice. And I second gardnerhill's comment about SLC and genealogy. Nobody does it better than the Mormons!

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Indeed! And thanks!

[grrlpup]

Ooh... this made a shiver go down my spine!

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Yes, I wonder what this researcher's going to find....

[sanguinity]

As everyone else has already said: they are famous geneaologists. And those old census records are the most fascinating reading, too. It's quite the thought that the 1860 census may be one of the last records of them alive.