I found the story of Madoc, the Welsh prince, so interesting that I am finally getting off the fence and have decided to tell you of my own mysterious ancestor, who was also of Welsh descent. About 1863 when Alfred was four years old, his father moved his wife and four children from Davenport, IA to Lyons, Wayne Co., NY, where he parked them with his wife's widowed sister, and then he went to Colorado where he died fourteen years later. When young Alfred was about 17 years old, he "shipped before the mast" and sailed around the Horn to San Francisco, where his father met him. Alfred, known as "A. C.," married in 1886 and his wife gave birth to a little girl two years later in 1888 in Chicago. In 1889, he left the country and went to Rio de Janeiro in order to avoid being called as a witness in a court case. (Family stories say he was paid to go by a cousin also involved in the case.) It is unknown how long he lived there but his wife apparently divorced him during his absence. He was a printer and art editor of various publications before his departure, and the case in question was a fraudulent insurance claim. Nothing more is known of him until he and his wife were re-married about 1899, and the family lived in Ardmore, OK for a while where he was editor of a newspaper. In 1901, they were living in Chicago again. He was obviously having financial difficulties because he referred to his residence as "Poverty Flat" in an elegant poem he wrote, declining an invitation to a social gathering. The exact date is not known but it was apparently not long after that, that he put on his hat one Sunday morning and went out to purchase a newspaper. His family never saw him again---although his daughter grieved for him all the rest of her life. A rumor said that he visited his sister later and asked for his wife and daughter's address, but the sister wouldn't give it to him. This may be entirely false, however. A search of Chicago death records for the period 1901-1905 revealed nothing. I never heard of him having a drinking problem so I am inclined to think that he just deserted his family for financial reasons, and perhaps also partly due to his wife's sharp tongue. I don't know if he may have been a member of a trade association of that time, or if those records would still exist. Other than checking the death records, which was not fruitful, I can't think of anyplace else to search. Any suggestions?