In Quest of the Needle
Digging for Roots, Days 3 & 4BLYTHEVILLE, Arkansas— At last, we made it to the city which might hold the answer to Jeanne's quest for the names of our great great grandparents. With a surname like Miller and no first names, we would definitely be searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. We were also looking for Clara's brother Willie, a teen victim of an accidental gunshot, according to family oral history.
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Searching Sandy Ridge Cemetery |
We drove into Sandy Ridge first. Not being as genealogically inclined and savvy as my sister, I pondered over an efficient way to search for the Miller markers. I was trying to impress with what I thought might be the day's second stroke of genius.
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No Millers on the third row... |
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McHaney Monuments on S. Division Street |
Before we could reach the downtown graveyard, we passed McHaney Monuments on the main street into the downtown area. "Stop!" Sister J exclaimed. "Aunt Ada's daughter-in-law told me that the mother's grave had a carving of an angel holding an infant. If anyone would remember seeing something like that in a local cemetery, it would be someone who creates monuments."
Though our question might have seemed a bit odd to some, the avuncular Glen Whitener, a certified memorialist at McHaney, didn't hesitate to dive in and try to help. With many years experience in this family business that originated when Woodrow Wilson was President, Glen was a wellspring of information about burial places in the area. Though his records did not go back far enough to include our Millers, his knowledge about local cemetery history was priceless. He even had a list of interments for a historical cemetery which had become part of an Army air base in the 1940s. Stopping to visit McHaney was definitely the second stroke of genius for the day.
As we were leaving, Glen gave us what may have been the best advice of our investigation. As he handed us a business card, he suggested, "If you aren't able to locate the marker you're searching for and you want to keep the family legend alive, I can create that marker for you."
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Where are you, Willie? |
After the old Sawyer markers failed to yield a single Miller, we made our way to Maple Grove Cemetery in downtown Blytheville. Even though the sign at the graveyard's entrance indicated it was opened after 1900, we spent some time examining the markers there.
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Jeanne-e-ologist at work |
The following morning found us in the Arkansas history room of the Blytheville Public Library. The local newspaper records we were hoping to examine for the late 1800s did not exist, so we scoured other relevant publications in hopes of picking up some thread. The one profitable lead we uncovered was a reference to Blytheville's LDS Family History Center, the first we had heard of this resource, which was our next destination.
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Frances at the LDS Family History Center |
Our guiding angel at the LDS center was the very cordial and helpful Frances, who truly put the "genial" in our genealogy search. With her assistance, we finally made some headway in our quest. In some of the records she searched, Frances located a family with children having most of the same names as Clara and her siblings. The dates looked right. Frances was confident.
Maybe we found our needle after all. Lewis and Elizabeth Miller, we believe you just may be our great great grandparents. Welcome to the family.
ROAD NOISE:
- Political Genius: Back in the 1980s, Blytheville's then mayor visited the city of Evansville, Indiana. While there, he observed a steel arch constructed at the entrance to a brick-lined street which led to a renovated, renewed section of the city's downtown area. The good mayor decided that his town needed not one but several of these arches. The City Council opposed the expense, but Hizzoner forged ahead, refusing to reveal how deep he dug into the city coffers for his pet project. Unfortunately, the arches on Blytheville's Main Street do not have quite the same effect that the Evansville project seemed to achieve since the Arkansas arches are placed at random street corners.
- Warning— Don't Take Dining Advice from a Librarian: Since it was near lunch time when we left the Blytheville library, we asked the librarian who had been helping us to suggest a local restaurant. He highly recommended the Dixie Pig, a Blytheville institution dating back to 1923. Sister J had been hoping for an eatery worthy of Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, so off we went to meet the local purveyor of "old-fashioned Southern pit barbecue."
More Photos from Blytheville
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Love your shirt! (Jeanne had it first.) |
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All smiles before lunch was served at the Dixie Pig |
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Now we know why the pig is winking. |
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Huge oak at Sandy Ridge Cemetery |
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Interesting marker at Maple Grove notes time of death. |