THE DIARY - - -
This story, while it began almost 10 years ago, it came full circle just this last month... Stay with me here and I'll begin .......I was working the midnight shift as a dispatcher, when I received an email from a now retired, co-worker Dennis. We'd never worked to closely during our mutual careers and not a lot of interaction, to say I was surprised was an understatement.
His email began with, "I remember you said once, in our team-building workshop, you mentioned you research genealogy, would you teach me?" Oh my, that comment was said over 5 years before the email, and he remembered ....wow! Never one to back down from a challenge, "of course" I said back in the reply. The emails and replies and eventual re-connect went on for a while that year, passing on the tips, tricks, memberships in genealogy groups and then the how-to(s) of the field work. I had an avid pupil, as he'd had a long career with the police department and I explained it's the same kind of work he did as a detective, except the simple fact most everyone is already dead.
His email began with, "I remember you said once, in our team-building workshop, you mentioned you research genealogy, would you teach me?" Oh my, that comment was said over 5 years before the email, and he remembered ....wow! Never one to back down from a challenge, "of course" I said back in the reply. The emails and replies and eventual re-connect went on for a while that year, passing on the tips, tricks, memberships in genealogy groups and then the how-to(s) of the field work. I had an avid pupil, as he'd had a long career with the police department and I explained it's the same kind of work he did as a detective, except the simple fact most everyone is already dead.
We took a trip to San Francisco one day and I showed him the Public Records office, we both had relatives to research for birth and death documents. We went to the public library to look at the newspapers on microfilm, and city directories from the 19th century. So now that's the background, here's the rest of the story ...
I'd been researching relatives from several lines in my family who lived in San Francisco during the latter half of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, right through the time of the earthquake in 1906. During an email conversation, he said he was going to visit his brother in Astoria, Oregon where he'd grown up. I knew I had a relative who was buried in the local cemetery there, (yeah relatives all over the place ....) would he be able photograph the plot for me please? (no this really isn't the story, it's just a tidbit) ... so he did ...
When he returned to town, came to bring me the snapshots he'd taken at the cemetery, he said "I have this little goodie you might want to look at, it's a diary that belonged to a man who was once married to my great-aunt..." OK I said I'll bite, why might I want to see this diary ... well he said the man's father had written it on the 1888-1889 while living in San Francisco, working on a ship, courting a girl and visiting the sites of the city. He thought I'd find it interesting since it was the idea of the same place, same time, similar lives kind of thing... a first person account of living in the City of San Francisco before the 20th century...
He showed me the diary and I said wow, how about you let me read this and I'll transcribe it for you then I get the tidbits I want, and you get the transcription! WIN-WIN right? Yes of course ....
 |
| The Diary - authored by the engineer on the Pacific Mail Steamship - SS City of Sydney |
2001 - I transcribed it ... now I'll tell you of the man to whom it belonged ... he was an engineer on the Pacific Mail Steam Ship, S.S. City of Sydney. He kept a log of the daily information of the running of the engines on the ship, the ship speed, the nautical miles covered, the weather, and his descriptions of all .... The ships transported the mail from the city of San Francisco to the ports of the Orient as he called it, Hong Kong, Singapore, Toyko, Yokahama. The writer's name was Frank, he told of his shipmates, and the fun they had in their ports of call and the boredom on some of their trips. They visited restaurants, cat houses, and shops for goodies to bring home to their friends and families. He writes of being in Hong Kong harbor during the Golden Jubilee anniversary of Queen Victoria. He writes of the ships, the flags, the colors, the fireworks, and the smell of the smoke in the air, all the fabulous details.
 |
| Pacific Mail Steamship - carried the mail between the western PORTS of North & South America to the Orient |
Then when he was in the city he tells of getting to dock, walking to his hotel, visiting the clubs with friends, going to the dentist, (all of this in 1888), the opera house, seeing plays and courting his gal, Lizzie.
Frank brought to life; the wharf of the city, back when it was built on the landfill area of the submerged ships left behind in the California Gold Rush, some 30 years earlier. He talks of the weather, and the food, picking up his cleaning, and getting his watch from the jeweler. . . the nuances of his life were in his diary.
Now, in one entry he says "today is my birthday, I am 24 years old" ... ok I have a name and a date, I bet I can find his history... challenging myself a bit ... another entry a few days later, "I received a letter from my brother Raguet and my sister Claudine" ... hmm I thought this helps because they are pretty unique names, which make them even better for trying to find his family information. I found his family in the 1870 and 1880 census in Zanesville, Ohio.
Meanwhile we wondered what had happened to the writer of the diary, using his birthdate information and location where he was born, we surveyed the California Death records and San Francisco directories and found, unfortunately he died in 1891, his death record showed he had a wife, searching further we found she herself had died only a year later, which left their son a 1 year old, orphan.
This orphan was Edward who later married Dennis' great-aunt Jenny.(This was how Dennis' family came in to possession of the diary). This couple were married only 6 months before divorcing in San Francisco. . . so the diary ended up with some other family mementos in the hands of the writers, son's, ex-wife's family? got that? took me a bit too...
This orphan was Edward who later married Dennis' great-aunt Jenny.(This was how Dennis' family came in to possession of the diary). This couple were married only 6 months before divorcing in San Francisco. . . so the diary ended up with some other family mementos in the hands of the writers, son's, ex-wife's family? got that? took me a bit too...
All of this information using only the diary and basic genealogy search techniques. . . and of course a little bit of happenstance along the way ....
 |
| Edward Raguet Vansant son 0f the diary author .... |
The cover of the diary says "VanSant" I knew from the notes the writer was Frank VanSant, I later learned he was Frank Woodruff VanSant, born 1864 in Ohio, died 1890 in San Francisco. I told Dennis, I belong to a genealogy group back in Pennsylvania, named the VanZandt Society, http://www.vanzandtsociety.com/the , commonality of the group are various lines all using the varied spellings of VanSant, Van Sant, Vanzant, Van Zandt. The group facilitates family historians abilities to tie their own family lines to the historical families originating in Holland and Germany, and emigrating to the New York and Pennsylvania area in the mid 17th century.
 |
| Cover of the Van Sant Diary |
 |
| Marianne - the ONLY descendent of the diary author, Frank Woodruff VanSant, her gr-grandfather. |
Sending off the information I waited ... a few weeks later I received a packet from Pennsylvania, and the information showed that the author of "The Diary, Frank VanSant" , was indeed a relative of mine on my line of the VanSant family. Nearly laughing out loud, I had to call Dennis ... which I did, and said "You'll never believe this" ... The diary writer is a cousin on my own family tree!
We laughed at the craziness of how we'd done this little search, all because he'd remembered a comment I'd made years before ...
Now we had a different mission - find a living descendent of the writer of the diary ... of course we never doubted we would do so ...
We found the death record for the son, Edward, who also died young as did both of his parents. Edward's surviving widow was Jane, and we found her on the census with him in 1920 and then in 1930 with her daughter, Virginia . Then we did some digging to find Virginia using public records and found her in nearby Marin County California.
Some more digging and we found her daughter's name, Marianne. Marianne would be the great-grand-daughter of Frank W. VanSant the diary's author.
Full-circle: We'd contacted Marianne a few years after we'd researched the library, but hadn't really followed up on the contact after the initial letter. Last month I was invited to attend and give a presentation at the California gathering of the Van Zandt society. They have a bi-annual gathering and this year it was in Sonoma. Hmmmm, I want to tell the story of the diary, wonder if ..... Time to find Marianne again.... well heck it was easier this time, I just used Facebook! Typed in her name, only one came up and it was a local city in the Bay Area!
Immediately I messaged her privately on Facebook and asked, are you so and so, did you get a letter from my friend Dennis a few years back about a diary? INSTANT response ... "yes I am, I remember a letter" and we were off and running, I told her again the story of the diary, how we found her grandmother as the widow of the orphaned Edward (her grandfather), then her mother Jane and using records, we found her! Marianne said her mother Jane is still living, I believe she said over 90 now, and each of them was and is an only child.
So folks we found the only child of the diary writer, the only child of his only child and their only only only, ok you get it....and Marianne is it .... Unfortunately Marianne wasn't able to join the VanZandt clan in Sonoma ... due to another commitment, but we're planning to meet up and visit. I put both of our names in my genealogy program, and it spits out the relationship for us, we're 8th Cousins! Well probably about what most of us might be to anyone else in an area where families have lived and intermingled for generations, but folks, this is California and these people didn't all come from the same little place for years and years, and we found each other with a bit of serendipity, a dash of luck, and of course good old fashioned research both old school style and using the internet.
I'll post the follow-up once I meet up with my 8th cousin who lives only 40 miles from me ;-) The actual diary is safely in the care of Dennis' brother in Astoria. For now we'll be sure to get Marianne the transcript of the diary, copies of our research and the two photographs we have of her grandfather Edward Raguet VanSant, as a young man.
I love the mystery, the search and solving the puzzles, can you tell?
We laughed at the craziness of how we'd done this little search, all because he'd remembered a comment I'd made years before ...
Now we had a different mission - find a living descendent of the writer of the diary ... of course we never doubted we would do so ...
We found the death record for the son, Edward, who also died young as did both of his parents. Edward's surviving widow was Jane, and we found her on the census with him in 1920 and then in 1930 with her daughter, Virginia . Then we did some digging to find Virginia using public records and found her in nearby Marin County California.
Some more digging and we found her daughter's name, Marianne. Marianne would be the great-grand-daughter of Frank W. VanSant the diary's author.
Full-circle: We'd contacted Marianne a few years after we'd researched the library, but hadn't really followed up on the contact after the initial letter. Last month I was invited to attend and give a presentation at the California gathering of the Van Zandt society. They have a bi-annual gathering and this year it was in Sonoma. Hmmmm, I want to tell the story of the diary, wonder if ..... Time to find Marianne again.... well heck it was easier this time, I just used Facebook! Typed in her name, only one came up and it was a local city in the Bay Area!
Immediately I messaged her privately on Facebook and asked, are you so and so, did you get a letter from my friend Dennis a few years back about a diary? INSTANT response ... "yes I am, I remember a letter" and we were off and running, I told her again the story of the diary, how we found her grandmother as the widow of the orphaned Edward (her grandfather), then her mother Jane and using records, we found her! Marianne said her mother Jane is still living, I believe she said over 90 now, and each of them was and is an only child.
So folks we found the only child of the diary writer, the only child of his only child and their only only only, ok you get it....and Marianne is it .... Unfortunately Marianne wasn't able to join the VanZandt clan in Sonoma ... due to another commitment, but we're planning to meet up and visit. I put both of our names in my genealogy program, and it spits out the relationship for us, we're 8th Cousins! Well probably about what most of us might be to anyone else in an area where families have lived and intermingled for generations, but folks, this is California and these people didn't all come from the same little place for years and years, and we found each other with a bit of serendipity, a dash of luck, and of course good old fashioned research both old school style and using the internet.
I'll post the follow-up once I meet up with my 8th cousin who lives only 40 miles from me ;-) The actual diary is safely in the care of Dennis' brother in Astoria. For now we'll be sure to get Marianne the transcript of the diary, copies of our research and the two photographs we have of her grandfather Edward Raguet VanSant, as a young man.
I love the mystery, the search and solving the puzzles, can you tell?
No comments:
Post a Comment