Published December 17, 2018
| 1 Comment | Leave A ReplyNot every hunch that you play in genealogy pays off.
In fact, to use another cliché: Over time, you encounter a lot more “dry holes” than “gushers” in researching family history … even with well-targeted searches, many of more of them will fail to return to the results for which you’re looking.
But this is no cautionary tale: Sometimes hunches do pay off!
In this particular case, a man was looking to confirm a biographical history book notation that his Pennsylvania ancestor Nancy Stuckey, who was married to the Rev. George Gay in 1841, was the daughter of an Adam Stuckey of Centre County.
After a few of those “dry holes,” the search turned to estate records and here things got a little complicated, which does still happen in the 21st century despite our desire to have everything quickly and painlessly (wait until there’s an Amazon Prime for genealogy, right?)
There were abstracts of Centre County wills at the State Library of Pennsylvania, but those abstracts didn’t show a will for an Adam Stuckey (as it would turn out, the abstracts didn’t go far enough forward in time to cover his estate).
The Pennsylvania State Archives had indexes to all the Centre County estates – and showed an Adam Stuckey estate from 1869, the right time period – but didn’t have either the original or recopied probate papers in its county microfilm records collection.
I turned first to sending an e-mail to the Register and Recorders Office for Centre County, but that went unanswered.
Then luck appeared to turn. My old friend Justin Houser from up in that neck of the woods told me that Centre County’s probate papers had been scanned, and he sent me a copy of the original papers the Adam Stuckey file electronically.
Remember that I just said “appeared” to turn: In the first run-through of the probate file, Adam’s will did indeed show a daughter Nancy, but didn’t list a husband or a married name for her.
Looking at the all additional papers – including the documents on which the heirs “signed off” on their shares of the estate – the final paper didn’t appear to have a name. As a matter of fact, it ended abruptly and it looked to me as if that document hadn’t been completely unfolded before it was imaged.
Of course, I worried that I might be engaged in wishful thinking, but I followed through with Houser’s tip that the Centre County Library & Historical Museum had access to the original papers.
And guess what: When library assistant Cecelia Doty sent me a copy of that page, it indeed had been cutoff – and what was below the fold was Nancy Gay’s signature.
That’s right, with her married name, confirming that she was the “right” Nancy.
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For Sale
The Best of "Roots & Branches", Fifth Edition published July 2017, edited by Terri J. Bridgwater.
It contains a selection of columns from Beidler’s award-winning newspaper column (currently published in the Altoona Mirror), which is the only syndicated newspaper column on genealogy in Pennsylvania.
The book can be ordered online, or purchased directly from Jim when he speaks at a conference.
Richard Wade
6 years ago
Adam Stuckey was in Huntingdon county prior to being in Centre (and yes, I think he actually relocated to what is now Marengo in Ferguson Township, rather than waiting for the county lines to be adjusted). He married an Ellenberger.
It’s interesting that there are nowadays Stuckey’s in the auto business in Blair county, and the locals pronounce it ‘stuck–ee’, but if you look at the old Centre county tax lists, you will find it sometimes spelled ‘Stooky’, which is now doubt how the English-speaking tax commissioners heard it. So not only do spellings change, but evidently also pronunciations.