Showroom Filled With Fabulous Prizes

An Atomic Tuesday Challenge Response

Posted in response to Genealogy Matters Atomic Tuesday Challenge: FAVORITE FIND:

“Where would I find Common Pleas records for 1838?” The question confused the clerk at first. “EIGHTEEN thirty eight?” After an interoffice discussion of what they may still have had on site of that vintage, the only thing they agreed on was that they didn’t know for sure. Leading me down the hall, she pushed a door open, and with a sweeping gesture as if to say “look at this showroom filled with fabulous prizes”, declared that all the “old stuff” was in there. She left me alone there in the past to return to her desk and more modern times.

I’d already wasted the morning, fruitless in my quest to reveal my 3rd-great grandfather’s secret. Alexander Staats, my 2nd-great grandfather had been born illegitimately, his surname (and mine), his mother’s maiden name. We knew that part. His father’s identity remained a mystery. Unable to find him, I left at lunch to find a different ancestor in a nearby cemetery. I couldn’t find him either. Frustrated, I decided to call it a day, but I had to pass the courthouse on the way back to the freeway, so I stopped again, leading to the unfamiliar territory of the Clerk of Court’s Office and now this showroom of fabulous prizes.

Dust-covered volumes littered the shelves and countertops, along with dead printers and other artifacts. My renewed enthusiasm slowly drained. Should I have just gone home? I walked over to a stack of books on a table. Picking one up, I looked at the spine. “Index to Common Pleas Records.”I opened it. Like hundreds of times before, I flipped mechanically to “S” for the usual disappointment. Scanning the page, my heart suddenly stopped. I gulped. “The State of Ohio, on Complaint of Edith Staats, vs. Jesse B. Pickering, bastardy.” Chills. On that page, in that dusty room, in the first book I picked up, I’d found him. Jesse Pickering’s secret was out.

I sprinted down the hall, book in hand shouting “I FOUND IT! I FOUND IT!” Startled, the clerks looked at each other. A showroom of fabulous prizes, indeed.