I'm delighted to be writing today to report on yet another successful orphan heirloom rescue! For those of you who are new to this, you can connect to my website to find a series of articles on previous efforts to reunite stray photos and artifacts with their families of origin.

A Promising Start
This quest began with an e-mail from Lorna Miller of Colorado, who explained that she had come into possession of a Bible and wanted to pass it on to a family member:

My mother-in-law, who is no longer living, received a Bible after her brother and sister-in-law were both killed in a car accident in Michigan, and I've never been able to determine a connection to our family. Imprinted on the front of the Bible is the name of Peter Resh. It's written in German, and there's a notation that the Bible was over one hundred years old in 1954.

On the death page are listed: Peter Resh (died 20 December 1875), Catherine Resh (died 24 August 1890), Sarah Resh Ecklisdofer (died 6 October 1929), Fred Ecklisdofer (died 11 February 1926), Benj. Resh (died 20 May 1913), and Mrs. Caroline Linerode (died 17 April 1914). On the birth page are listed: Peter Resh (born 28 September 1810), and Catherine Resh, wife of Peter Resh (born 5 January 1810 in Berks Co., Pennsylvania).

There are two loose newspaper clippings in the Bible. One is an obituary for Caroline Resh Linerode from Beach City, Ohio. It mentions that she died at a daughter's home--Mrs. Seymour Agler near Smoketown. There is also a poem written in memory of Benj. Resh.

Equipped with so many details, I was certain it would be possible to pick up this family's trail on the Internet. But first, I entered the data into family tree software--with my initial guesses of relationships--to help me keep the generations straight as the search evolved. Then it was time to surf!

Confirming Connections
Since Peter and Catherine Resh were apparently the first owners of the Bible and both had lived past 1870, I decided to start my search by finding them in the every-name 1870 census index. Fortunately, the name Peter Resh turned out to be fairly unusual, so in a matter of moments, I found them in Sugar Creek, Stark County, Ohio. Living with them was a daughter named Sarah (I speculated that she could have been the one who married Fred Ecklisdofer), and in the neighboring houses were two Resh families of likely sons.

I then backed up to the 1850 census in order to discover the names of more of their children. It proved necessary to use the Soundex feature to find the listing under the name of Peter Rush, but I was sure I had the right family because they were in Sugar Creek and other details matched. They had eight children, so I realized I had plenty of potential lines to pursue into the present, but my attention was immediately drawn to their daughter Caroline, who I surmised was the Caroline Resh Linerode listed in the Bible. The Bible contained more detail about her line than any of the other siblings', so it seemed reasonable to assume that it had probably been passed down through her children and that her descendants might have the greatest interest. I linked up the various family members in the software and resumed the hunt.

Caroline's Trail
I hopped back on the census trail and followed Caroline forward through time up to the 1910 census, the last before her death in 1914. By then, she was living in Beach City, Ohio, as had been mentioned in her obituary. Then I shifted my attention to her daughter, whose husband's name had also been included in the obituary, and followed her as far as the 1930 census. It took a little effort because her husband didn't always go by Seymour (which turned out to be his middle name), but they were thoughtful enough to stay in place in Sugar Creek, Ohio, and have eight children.

Pondering which of these children to research, I decided to start with the oldest because he had a given name--Wilford--that was less common than the others. He was also old enough to leave his own trail in the 1920 and 1930 census records where I found him with his wife and children. The two youngest of his children--a boy and girl--were just tykes in the 1930 census, so I thought I might be able to locate them today. Sadly, however, the SSDI revealed that the son had passed away about a decade ago. But what about the girl? What was her name today, and was she still alive?

Don't Discount County Resources
At this point, I did what I often do when there's not a clear next step. I visited the appropriate USGenWeb county website to see what resources it might have. Exploring the Stark County, Ohio, website, which is hosted by RootsWeb. I clicked around various options, including one simply shown as “Links.” When I did, a listing for Massillon Library Obit Index quickly caught my eye, as obituaries are the equivalent of genealogical gold. I played with the search form, experimenting with various possibilities and found an assortment of Resh, Linerode, and Agler family members, including several of those I had researched.

So flexible was the search tool that I was also able to learn, much to my regret, that the girl from the 1930 census had passed away last year. Thanks to this remarkable resource provided by the Massillon Public Library, it would have been just a matter of a quick e-mail or letter to request a copy of her obituary, but since her married name was unusual, I simply searched an online phone directory and found contact information for a gentleman of the same surname in the same area.

Full Circle
I provided the contact information to Lorna with my educated guess that this man was a son of the recently deceased woman, and therefore, a great-great-grandson of Peter and Catherine Resh, the original owners of the Bible. Not one to waste time, Lorna called that evening and quickly e-mailed me back that we had indeed found the family! Rather surprised by this out-of-the-blue contact, Patty and Richard Dalsky were nevertheless pleased to have the opportunity to reclaim the Resh Bible. And by the time you read these words, it will be back in family hands again.

Any More Orphans?
So one more family treasure has found its way home. As always, I welcome brief descriptions of items (including any names, dates, and places mentioned) that may have wandered and come into your possession--either accidentally or perhaps because you couldn't bear to leave it abandoned at a flea market or antiques store! While I can't rescue all of them, I will periodically select one to feature in an article, and together, we can locate the rightful owners and return their photo, Bible, book, certificate, or other heirloom to them!

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak is the author of Honoring Our Ancestors, In Search of Our Ancestors: 101 Inspiring Stories of Serendipity and Connection in Rediscovering Our Family History, and They Came to America: Finding Your Immigrant Ancestors.

Upcoming Events
- Indiana Genealogical Society Annual Conference
(3 April 2004, Bloomington, Ind.)

- Ohio Genealogical Society (22-24 April 2004, Wilmington, Ohio)

- Westchester County Genealogical Society (8 May 2004, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.)

- Central Jersey Genealogical Club (11 May 2004, Mercerville, N.J.)

- Ontario Genealogical Society Seminar 2004 (28-30 May 2004, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

- Heritage Education Commission Family History Workshop XXIX
(2 October 2004, Moorhead, Minn.)

- Genealogical Society of Bergen County, New Jersey (25 October 2004, Ridgewood, N.J.)

Details and links to upcoming events

Copyright 2004, MyFamily.com.