Okay, some of you may know (because you are my family or friends who I have told) that I have learned a new purpose behind research. But first of all, I must get this off my back:
BLOGGING IS TOUGH TO KEEP UP WITH!!!! I'm going to just start blogging randomly when I have some time or whatever, no more distinct schedule as I kind of screwed that part up a few times already. So just check back weekly, I'll be sure to have something new here for you. But no more promises for daily, but I'll do my best :) :)
Whew!!! I feel better now :) Now to the logistics!!
On Friday before the FHC closed, something new caught my eye. I was just catching up on creating another PAF file for the Kopping family and re-gathering all my information (remember, I deleted ALL mine and the Kopping's family history records before) when I decided to check out Washington State's Digital Archives. Now, some of you have probably heard this before, so I'm going to say it again. BE SURE TO CHECK EACH STATE'S DIGITAL ARCHIVES, THEY PROBABLY HAVE ONE!!!!! Anyway, I was back on there collecting a bundle of digitized and super awesome records for the Koppings when I stumbled upon an interesting marriage record that wasn't there a few months back. So I decided to click, it wouldn't hurt to just see what free information is out there, ya know?
When I clicked the image, I was dancing with happiness as the following screen revealed something critical about the Kopping family that I did not know. Behold, William got marriade BEFORE I found his first marriage record!!! So why did this record not come up months earlier when I first did his family history research on that website? Because, just as the FHC's website (FHC = Mesa Regional Family History Center for short) has an evergrowing database of digitized and searchable books to read, so are other websites with their archives and digitized records!! So between a few months ago and now, I have finally unlocked the answer to the mysterious question that has bogged me down for a few months: Why did William take out his papers in the USA twice? I knew of his "first" marriage (it even says first on the document) which is when he took out his papers the second time, but what happened for the first? I found it!! Alas, William Kopping had TWO wifes and nobody knew about it!!!
Of course, I was resolute to find out more about his real first wife. Upon a little more research and tampering with a different surname spelling (very helpful!! NEVER BE FIRM ON ONE NAME SPELLING!!!), I quickly found Gitta Nelson's death record. She passed away a few months after their marriage from pregnancy!!! So therefor, the marriage was most likely annuled because it's been less than a year from the marriage and he remarried a few years later in 1906 to Eva Robarts.
TA DA!!!!! Now back to my lesson for today: It is critical that you check up on unknown information every once in a while when you tangent to other names and families to search as you never know when you'll find something important that wasn't there before!! In my case, I found William Henry's REAL first wife, Gitta. I then searched for her on New FamilySearch and saw that she is nowhere on there!! I rushed to register her and now her sacred ordinances are ready to be done!! AWESOME!!!! I'm sure that Gitta had a part in this as I found her exactly 104 years after her death date. She must have asked Heavenly Father to have someone do her temple work for her on earth, but that would require a sacrifice on my part (in this case, accidentally deleting all my family history research before I would go back and find her). That is my new explanation of why my family history was all deleted and I consider it to be a worthy cause for such a wonderful result.
Don't give up!! When you are searching and hit a brick wall, it's a good idea to take some time off for a breather. But PLEASE, go back and try again later!!! You never know what could have been added between then and now :) :) :)
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