My friends - We will close out the week with another in the Skills Puzzler series. Over the course of these little brain teasers, we have covered all sorts of different scenarios which involved situations in which the more enlightened use of some of the ordinary types of documentation, as well as the use of some less-than-ordinary records groups, have been the key to breaking through a difficult problem. But what do we do when someone just simply disappears from the records (or, at least, they seem to do so, as we cannot find a trace of them), yet we know that the individual did not die, as he/she suddenly appears again, often many years later, sometimes in the same locality, and sometimes far away from his/her original home. Then, the question becomes, "Where was this person over those missing years, and what was he/she doing?" Today's Puzzler is based upon some help which I gave to a woman some years ago who was trying to get into an hereditary society. I've changed the surnames, but the facts are exactly as presented to me. The scenario was this: in the 1850 census of the City of Boston, Massachusetts, there was one Francis A[lexander] English, age 34, with his wife, Belinda (whose maiden name was Aldridge), and children Miranda, age 10, Eliza, age 6 and John J., age 4. Birthplaces are not relevant to our study here. Between 1850 and 1860, this family relocated to the Jackson Purchase region, and, in the 1860 census, the family is, in fact, shown in a JP county, with everyone ten years older, and the addition of two more children, Robert B., age 4, and Silas, age 2. However, John J. is missing. There is nothing in any record, throughout the 1860's, that mentions John J. English, although John's father, Francis, died in 1867, and a guardian was appointed for the other children. John is not mentioned. In the 1870 census, we find Belinda as head of her own household, and we also find, in that household, John J. English, age 24, shown as a "Farmer". The other older female children have married and live nearby. The problem facing us is finding what happened to John J. English between 1850 and 1870, and where do we go to try to track it down. The 1860 census of both Boston and of the JP county to which this family had moved was thoroughly researched, and the young man was not shown in either. Other research was also done in the Boston area to determine if perhaps a guardian was named, for some reason, for John J. Nothing was found to support that hypothesis. The same was down in the JP - again, nothing was found. There was a "family story" that John was an unruly child, but nothing to indicate that a guardian was needed. - ------------------------------------------------ Solution: You will recall that our task was to explain the whereabouts of John J. English, born in Boston, from the time of the 1850 census, until he reappears in his mother's household in the Jackson Purchase region in the 1870's. One of the keys, which many of those who sent their thoughts to me about this puzzler spotted, was the somewhat veiled reference in my narrative to the fact that John was, according to the family legend, an "unruly child". Several in the group felt that he may have been *so* unruly that he ended up in jail or in some type of juvenile court proceeding. It was suggested that prison records in both KY and MA be checked for this possibility. The researcher whose line this was had, in fact, gone that route, with no results. These types of records were much better in MA than in KY in the 1850's, but nothing was found. Tenured subscribers to this List may recall my mentioning, on several occasions, the need to try to place ourselves in the environment of our progenitor when we are trying to determine what action the ancestor may have taken when confronted with a situation requiring a decision. In this case, Francis English, father of John J., was shown as a teamster in the 1850 census, and as a farmer in the 1860 census in KY. Given the fact that Boston was a major seaport in this time frame, it is possible that Francis' work took him into the dock area (a teamster, by the way, was an individual who hired out his team of horses and his rig - in the northeastern part of the US, in a seaport, such men often hauled goods from ships). If we put any stock in the old family story about "unruly" John J., it would be worthwhile to see if perhaps his father sent him to sea. It was not unusual for boys as young as age 10 to be sent to sea. Doing so was considered one way to bring discipline to a child. We checked a number of ships' lists for Boston in this time period, and found nothing. We had checked, however, only ships sailing under the American flag. Looking at other lists, for foreign ships, however, did not produce any results. We turned to the newspaper archives for the area. It was common practice for newspapers to publish lists of ships crews and passengers, both arriving and departing. In 1852, we found a listing for the British bark Glasson. Among the crew was John J. English, who was shown as an apprentice seaman. That designation is unusual, since young boys were usually given the work of a "cabin boy". Later, it was found that John J. served in the Civil War in the regular Navy, and was discharged in 1867, about the time that his father died. He then appears in the 1870 census in the JP, in his mother's household. So, we have a very good idea of what John J. was doing during all of those years that he was away. When we place ourselves into the environment in which our forebears lived daily, it gives us a "leg up" when we start pondering mysteries such as the one discussed here. -Bill