If you have been following along for a while you will know 2 things that I really enjoy podcasts and I have an affinity to Sarah Larkin Beardsley, my 2X great grandmother.

I have been binge listening to the podcast Research Like a Pro Podcast. It is really well done and I have been learning little things. I also love that Diana is always sharing about her journey to become and Accredited Genealogist. While listening to Episode 21, there were a couple hints about searching the Family Search Catalog and it has made things super easy for me. As a test, I used my Sarah Beardsley to find out if there was anymore to her probate file.

Guess what? There was.

Ancestry had a couple of Administration letters but there was a little more over on Family Search. For years information on Sarah’s death was limited to a cemetery marker and a line in her husband’s Civil War pension file. As I move forward and I stop looking at the low lying fruit. I am rewarded.

This file only had about 5 more pages in it but one was a statement from her husband about only him and their minor daughter being the only two members of the family.

The other items were bonds and one of the people who put up the bond was James Thompson. James Thompson, owned a mill in Valley Falls, New York. He was also married to Sarah’s younger sister Lucy. It shows that this family was closer than we though. Honestly, I have been searching this family for years based on a family story of 3 sisters, Sarah, Lucy and supposedly a Johanna (who I really think is a Julia) but I have yet to be able to confirm that.

Little side note that supports my theory that Lucy and Sarah were closer than I think is I found a descendant of Lucy’s back in the early 2000 and he knew very little about my Sarah but as Lucy was his grandmother he was able to share a little about her. Lucy gave birth to her son Leslie supposedly on a train in Jonesville, MI, in 1884. I can tell you my Sarah was practicing medicine in Jonesville MI in 1884. Also they both lost daughters named Myra in infancy but I haven’t been able to connect more to that.

Back to Sarah’s probate file. One other bond was put up by a Mr. Hunter but I do not know who he was so that will require a little research into a possible FAN club connection.

I have a research trip coming up on Thursday and hopefully I can get some things done. I do plan  on visiting Sarah and Leslie Beardsley’s gravesite. I always thing that the story is over but then something else pops up.

I highly recommend listening to Research Like a Pro. It has been really fun. I am hoping to be caught up in the next couple of weeks.