I have a great-uncle who disappeared. Family tradition stated that he disappeared while selling Bibles home to home.
This intrigued me and made me wonder what happened. So, I began digging deeper.
So, how did I dig deeper?
- Checking the census records, I discovered he’d worked as a miner, but had been unemployed for three months the year before.
- I began to research mines in the area he lived and discovered a wealth of information I did not know.
- I searched mine accidents, to determine if he’d disappeared in one of these. Many times names were not given of those killed, so I could not rule this out as an option.
- I searched for a death certificate but found none.
- I went back to the newspapers of that area and searched from 1910-1920 for missing people, mining accidents or bodies found in that area. I found nothing conclusive.
- I read on the life of a door to door Bible salesman.
- I conducted Google searches for missing people in the area this uncle lived
Sadly, none of my searches turned up any concrete evidence about what happened to this uncle, but my mind did not stop. I began to create my own hypothesis, which included.
- He had a heart attack, stroke or health issue and was not found
- Foul play or harm was brought to him
- He fell or tripped and died
- He may have fallen into a hole in the ground and could not get out
- He could have been killed in a mining accident {but it’s more likely the family would have been aware of this}
So, all of these are hypothesis to work with. I don’t know if I will ever find the answers, but sometimes the fun comes in the hunt.
What strange circumstances have you researched? Did you have concrete answers?
Leave a Reply