Family History Miracles

“Sweet souls around us watch us still, press nearer to our side; into our thoughts, into our prayers, with gentle helpings glide.”  Harriet Beecher Stowe

My introduction to family history research came when my husband Barry’s Grandma Lois started asking us to help find the parents of her great-grandmother, Hannah Fisher.  Grandma Lois had done a lot of family history research in the days when family history research meant looking at records on microfilm in the family history library, exchanging letters with distant relatives, and numerous  written requests for records from repositories.  She had been able to create a pretty full family tree, but she had one big brick wall: she couldn’t find anything about the parents of her great-grandmother, Hannah Fisher.

My family history experience up to this point had consisted mostly of collecting stories and pictures.  I didn’t know how to perform searches online.  I had never visited the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, even though it’s only a 30 minute drive from my house.  But, we love Grandma Lois and wanted to help, so Barry and I decided to take the plunge and see what we could discover.  He acted first and took our two boys, who were about 10 and 12 at the time, to the Family History Library.  In the hour or two they were there, they didn’t find any leads, despite help from some amazing library volunteers.

Unsure of what to do next, I searched for a historical society in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and made a phone call.  I found out I could pay per hour for someone at the society to do some research.  I paid for two hours and an initial search of the records, just to see what they could find.  They quickly found a baptism record for three children, Hanna, Johannes, and Catharina, children of Jacob and Elisabeth Fischer. 

The baptism record gave exact birth dates.  Unfortunately, we didn’t know Hannah’s birthdate, so we couldn’t be sure if this was her.  The researcher had found a few other leads and had a packet of information ready to mail to me. 

At the same time this was all going on, I learned that one of my friends, (who happened to be my family history mentor) was heading to Pennsylvania to visit her daughter.  Her upcoming trip piqued our interest,  so we looked to see if Jeannette, where she was headed was close to Greensburg, where Hannah Fisher and her husband Daniel Beck had lived.  Imagine our surprise when we discovered that the two were only 5 miles apart.  This was the beginning of the miracles.

My friend offered to pick the packet up from the historical society and see what else she could discover.  She took her daughter and young grandchildren with her, and after they visited the historical society, they made a visit to the cemetery where Hannah and her husband Daniel are buried to see if they could locate their headstones. 

They searched and searched in the cemetery with no luck, and were about to give up, but my friend stopped and said to her grandchildren, “We need to say a prayer so we can have help finding them.”  They all knelt in the grass of the cemetery and as she prayed, she said, “We have a friend who needs to find her ancestors, and we need help!”  They got up, and her daughter felt drawn to an area around a cluster of trees.  She walked over to take a look, then quickly called out “I found them!”  There, under the tree, with faded inscriptions, were the headstones of Daniel and Hannah Beck.

The inscription on Hannah’s headstone reads “Hannah, wife of Daniel Beck, died Dec 13 1885, aged 82 years, 7 ms, and 7 ds.”  A tombstone birthdate calculator generated a birthdate of 6 May 1803, an exact match for Hannah’s birthdate listed on the baptism record.  With a little determination and a lot of faith and prayer, they had just made a connection and helped me find Hannah’s parents!

Over the next few years of researching Jacob and Elizabeth Fisher and their children, I made many discoveries and was able to continue adding to their tree.  However, a few items remained elusive.  I wasn’t able to find either of their parents.  Elizabeth’s maiden name was a mystery.  I couldn’t find their son Johannes on any record other than the initial baptism record that was located by the historical society.  I  prayed to be able to solve these mysteries, but every search produced negative results.  I began to experience some frustration in my efforts.

One day, I had a feeling come over me that if I would focus on completing as much of the family as I could and get their temple work finished, I would eventually find the answers I was seeking.  I let my brick walls rest for a while and worked on continuing the family lines for each of Jacob and Elizabeth’s known children.  One Sunday evening, my husband and I were sitting together on the couch.  We each had a laptop and were doing some family history research.  He was working on a different side of the family (who also lived in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania).  I was continuing my research on the Fisher line.  I happened to glance at his screen just as he was looking at a census record for a John J. Miller family.  The name “John Fisher” caught my attention just as my husband clicked away from the census image.  I said, “Wait!  Go back for just a second…” He returned to the census and all of a sudden, details started coming together in my mind.  This was a census of Sewickley Township in Westmoreland County.   Jacob and Elizabeth Fisher’s oldest son Jacob left his farm in Sewickley to his “esteemed neighbor,” John L. Miller.  I didn’t know who John L. Miller was, and I had not thoroughly researched him up to this point, but he was also there on the census, right above John J. Miller.  John Fisher in the John J. Miller household was the correct age to be the son of Jacob and Elizabeth Fisher.  These people all had to be connected.

I began investigating and discovered that John J. Miller was the son of John L. Miller!  Furthermore, John L. Miller was married to a woman named Elizabeth.  Her maiden name, according to an Ancestry tree, was Elizabeth Fisher.  Could Jacob and Elizabeth have had a daughter named Elizabeth?  The discovery of records confirmed these connections.  Daughter Elizabeth was married to John L. Miller.  They had a son named John J. Miller, and John Fisher must be the son of Jacob and Elizabeth and residing as a farm laborer with his nephew’s family in 1870, right next door to his sister Elizabeth.  I attribute this amazing discovery to gentle helpings from loved ones on the other side.  There was no reason for me to look at Barry’s computer screen at that exact moment.  I am convinced this was another miracle.  I haven’t yet found any marriage or death information for John, but as promised, I am finding things a little at a time as I continue to work on this family.

Another miracle occurred as I began a project a few weeks ago to determine which of two Jacob Fishers on the 1790 Census was our ancestor.  I had created a research plan, which included looking at church records.  I had a list of sources printed in preparation for a trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake.  I wasn’t able to get through all the sources, but I got through the ones I felt were highest priority and left feeling like my trip had been a success.  I was going to throw the list away, but decided to save it just in case I needed to refer to it again for some reason. 

A couple of weeks later, I needed to go to the Family History library again, and I saw the list sitting on my desk just as I was about to head out the door.  At the last second, I decided to stuff it into my bag, just in case I had extra time at the library, but I was pretty sure the remainder of the sources were versions of records I had previously looked at.  I completed the research that I set out to do, and just as I was packing up to leave, I thought about the list.  I had just a few extra minutes, and I went back and forth in my mind for a moment: “I should look at that book of church records…but I’ve probably already seen them…”  In the end,  a gentle nudging  pushed me to look at the book anyway, “since I’m already here and it will probably only take a minute.”  The book was a slender blue volume titled “The Pastoral Records of Reverend Abraham Blumer, Egypt Church, Lehigh County, PA.”  As I pulled the book off the shelf, I remembered that there was a Reverend Abraham Blumer on the 1790 Census on the same page as one of the Jacob Fishers I was researching, and that a couple of Jacob and Elizabeth’s children were baptized at Egypt Church.  Upon remembering these connections, I felt a small surge of hope, but marriage records in this time and place are few and far between, so I didn’t allow myself to get too excited.

The first item in the book was a compiled list of marriages that were arranged alphabetically by groom’s name.   As I scanned the list, my heart stopped for just a minute when I saw a marriage of Jacob Fischer to Elizabeth Horman. 

Looking at the marriage date confirmed that it fit with their family.  It was in the right place, at the right time, and not only gave Elizabeth’s maiden name, but also the name of her father, Daniel.  I was a little emotional as I thought about the fact that I had searched for this name for years, and almost missed it again.  I am certain the gentle helpings of loved ones on the other side led me to look at that book.  If left to my own devices, I would have skipped over it entirely.  More research is needed to verify that Elizabeth Horman is our Elizabeth, but the discovery of this possibility is truly a miracle.

My heart is full as I think back on the gentle helpings I have received from loved ones on the other side as I have committed to doing all I can to find their family and perform needed temple work.  John A Widtsoe stated, “Those who give themselves with all their might and main to this work…receive help from the other side, and not merely in gathering genealogies. Whosoever seeks to help those on the other side receives help in return in all the affairs of life.” (Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, July 1931, p. 104).  This is something I have experienced in my own life and seen in the lives of others.  This is a great work and we are all–both here and on the other side–pulling together to see that it is accomplished.  Miracles do happen as we give ourselves to this work.