I’ve been blogging for over nine years now, so I’ve written about many of my ancestors and their families. There is still a lot to learn about all of them! However, I find myself being called back to certain people in my research.
One is my great-grandmother, Bertha (Colomy)(French)(Spratt) Pleau. I think I inherited some of that curiosity from my aunt, who was the one who found out about Bertha running away with Percy St. Clair. Like my aunt, each time I learn something about Bertha, I’m a little more fascinated with her. I’ve learned about her life-long love of the piano and about her early church life. I’ve learned new details about each of her husbands, which indicated to me what kind of life she may have lived with each of them.
Which leads me to her last husband, George Edmund Pleau (my great-grandfather) and his entire family. When I first started my research, they were a complete mystery. Thanks to the newspapers on the Fulton History site and later other newspapers, I’ve pieced together the pieces of the lives and careers of George and his brothers and sisters. The Pleaus introduced me to the joys of French-Canadian research and expanding that previously unknown branch into the largest file folder on my computer.
Even besides Bertha, the Colomy family has continually haunted me. One of my Colomy cousins started a private Facebook group for the extended family, and those of us who have looked into the family history are still hung up on our progenitor, George W. Colomy (who we strongly believe changed his last name to Chesley). There have been some vague DNA hints about him, and we recently received an exciting hint behind the name change. These things still need further research, though.
For me, George’s son (and Bertha’s father) Frank is an interesting and somewhat mysterious character. He appeared to have benevolence in him, as witnessed in some of his work with the masons; simultaneously he seemed to be clueless when it came to being there for his family.
Most recently I’ve been “haunted” by the Valeks of my maternal line. I think looking at all those photos with my aunt really brought them to life for me and gave me enough clues to dig a little deeper into their stories. Finding further surname variations has been a godsend there, as well as finally finding the ships that they arrived in the US on.
As much as I turn my focus on my own family, the infamous Percy St. Clair keeps calling me to research him too. I’ve only put so much effort with him; however, everything I’ve found has pointed to the fact that he remained a scoundrel wherever he went!
Beautiful Water Genealogy 