Touchy questions

[Mary Glynn]

Doing research on our history for years. These touchy questions always come up in my mind. I am sure I am not alone here.

1. Why when Mary Gay Cogswell passed away did her family or friends not give her a proper obituary? Other families and friends were at that time for theirs. The only mention of her death was after burial. Poor lady lost her daughter the prior year, plus most of her other children and grands. 

2. So far Martin Baker Gay Jr. wasnt even mentioned at all that he passed in the paper. (I say so far because maybe I will be lucky and find something somewhere). His wife mentioned it sometimes like 30 or 40 years later in a paper. ??

3. Finding an obituary for Martin and Ann. Good luck (so far anyway).

4. What Martin did with the horses when he was a boy wasnt that bad, not enough to not have more info on his parents. This has ALWAYS confused me. I understand Martha was a child when writing her journal/diary. But later in life why didnt she actually write down the names of her grandparents, unless she wasnt told herself. 

5. And why did Ann Stewart Evan's Gay not document her own parents. If they did why doesnt any of her kids know this information and if they did, where are the records for this.

(Thus why we should write stuff down, because when we die it all dies with us. We wont live forever and it's not fair for us to think only of the here and now and not think about the next generations)

I have been finding some gold nuggets that prior generations did not have access to that did family history because of technology. But I am most frustrated that historical societies charge a fortune for you to pry anything out on our families. I recently paid 50$ and they came back with nothing. And you know they wont write a flag in their records saying the information is not their, they will just charge the next person the same amount just to say there is nothing there. It's sad to me. I get paying someone to research as it takes time. And money for storage. But red flag something like a newspaper that isn't readable at all in your records so you don't mention it knowing very well it's not readable. Frustrating to say the least.

6. Why did Nancy Gott Gay not get a headstone? Nor did Charles Franklin Gay or his wife. I don't get that ?

7. Why if our family were pretty promanant in areas, hardly get mentioned in books or literature about town histories etc?

8. Martha was huge on history, I am always surprised she didnt push more to have our family mentioned in such. Reading old newspapers the people writing these books always asked people to write to them about their families. 

9. I am almost positive that many of our family wrote letters back and forth through the years, what happened to them.

10. Martha mentioned a large article about them in the newspapers when they left Missouri. But never mentioned what paper. Apparently Springfield had a newspaper, but like 3 years after they left.  It was also mentioned a large article was written about John and Mary Cogswells wedding. Which paper, so far I have found nothing.

I thank God every day for Martha's daughter and Idahos daughter Eva Frazer Johnson for donating much to the Lane County Historical Museum. Or much of our history would be lost. 

 

Am I the only one with these questions?

[Mary Glynn]

Correction..I found Martin Baker Gay jr. Obit 

 

Now to find the other things to answer some of the questions....that's the fun about hunting for history, questions only make us dig deeper ?

[Mary Glynn]

You know doing much research newspapers put death notifications in even if a family didnt send in an obituary, because of letting businesses know or others in the community. I know this sounds weird but our family tended to pass away on days the newspapers were not published (I am assuming weekends) but still the following would tend to come out in the next issues.

I have beat my brains, searched days and days for obits, death notices etc.. for Martin and Ann Gay. NOTHING!!! Makes no sense to me because repeatedly there is always notices for reasons above mentioned. 

Why? Did Martin and Ann simply tell their kids "your not allowed" or our "wishes are". 

I am just blown away. I am a member of several newspaper sites and have found tons. Some I had to be creative because their search for words options tend to miss so much. (How I found Martin Jr., I just read the entire issue and found it. The search a word option missed the word entirely.)  And with our last name Gay, oh man were talking millions of non related stuff because after all Gay meant happy or glee etc.. so every poem or description out there was "I am so gay today" or "the town of such and such is gay today" ?

And so now days DO NOT go on Google and search the name Gay. You will be exposed to every kind of gay porn and it's not the same meaning as happy ?

So as I continue on my mission I am just rambling because I can ?