California Adventures: Going After Roots, unsettling miracles

I blogged a few days ago that I would be going down to Sonora to the Tuolumne County Museum and Geneological Society to look at a file they had on my family.

I admit, I had some doubts. I hoped there would be some good information I did not already have, but I figured I already had most of it.

When I got there, one of the museum attendants took my kids on a tour of the museum while I sat down with the file folder. I found it contained accounts of baptisms of the Silver children and the places they were baptized. Several of the chidlren were missing... I'm guessing they didn't live until baptism. This is sad to me, because another thing I found out is that the Silvers were strong Roman Catholics, and one of the Catholic beliefs is that baptism is necessary for children to go to heaven. I wonder what sort of heartache my great great great grandmother silver had, burying half of her children. She might have thought they were lost to her completely.

I found, also, some communication--emails-- between several people who seemed to know a whole lot about my family. I of course wrote these email addresses down. I emailed them all as soon as I got home, but the sad thing is, they all returned with an error... all of them were defunct. Except for the man I'd communcated with before--his email was still good, and we've had a lot of conversation over the past couple days about the Silvers/Salvadors. His father and great aunt apparently related a lot of stories about the family, including stories of the three adventurous Salvador sisters who settled in gold country (my grandmother Silver and her two sisters, Mary Freitas and Virginia Freitas, whose work was done (by Mary and Martha. Martha, if you're reading this, you now know how cool it was to be able to do their work. I am grateful they were able to get them done in the same session... it just felt right.)

He also has visited and lived on the island of Faial, where he's gone after Parish records. He found my grandmother's baptism record. He has family stories about the family who left Faial to go to America, then never returned, including stories about my grandmother's family, the Salvadors. Apparently, at the time of their immigration, there was an epidemic that killed a lot of children. IN fact, in the records it looks as if several of the Salvador siblings died that year. It was likely that Julia and her sisters were sent to America to escape the epidemic.

So, in other words, this person I'm communicating with is a miraculous resource for me and my family. As my great, great, great grandfather was also born on Faial, it is possible that, when this guy goes back, he can go after records about the Silvers as well, and it might well be through him we finally learn the name of my great, great, great, great grandmother Silver, and perhaps more about what happened... immigration dates seem to be confused.

Since then I've also gotten a good email address for two of the others in the communications I read, and I've emailed them both. A woman wrote an article on the silvers with many wonderful pictures, and it's my hope I can get digital originals of them for my family.

After that we traveled to the IOOS cemetery. OK, this is a funny story. The night before we left for Sonora, I was all set to find my grandparents in the Shaws' Flat Cemetery. I assumed they were buried there because they lived in Shaws' Flat, and i'd felt so strongly compelled to go there. I decided to google Shaws Flat cemetery again... it was the early hours of the morning, and i couldn't sleep because i was feeling unsettled about going on such a long trip with my kids. I wanted to see the picture again, of Shaw's flat, because I hoped I'd feel less unsettled by it if I looked at it again. I'd been feeling that Shaws' Flat Cemetery would be a rather eerie place.

When I googled I found a website detailing Cemeteries in the area of Sonora. I clicked on the link, and found that the odd acronym I'd seen listed on my great great great grandfather's death certificate... IOOF Cemetery, was listed. I'd found his cemetery. An hour or two before we were to leave. Someone didn't want me to be dissappointed.

IOOF stands for Independent organization of Odd fellows. It's a men's club, and apparently membership comes with free burial plots. My great great great grandparents were strong catholics, and this is a protestant cemetery, but they were too frugal to turn down a free burial plot, as my great great great grandfather (and his brother) were members.

I found the Cemetery, and also my grandparents. And Antone, who is my great, great, great, great uncle--my grandfather's brother. And one of the Silver Children and spouse.

It was a cool cemetery--very steep, with tiered plots. My kids enjoyed playing on them. There were lots of interesting graves there.

After that, we headed to Shaws' Flat. I'd felt so strongly compelled to go there; I just felt I ought to go even though I'd already found my grandparents. Plus, I was given a map, along with the other genealogical information, of where the "Old Silver Ranch," the land they farmed, used to be.

I decided to GPS and travel to the Cemetery first. I plugged "Shaws Flat cemetery" into my phone, and followed directions until I saw the graves--on a little rise above the road.

There was no place to park, so I pulled over at a wide spot in the road in front of a gate.

The cemetery was as unsettling as I'd anticipated. It's like, I think, I was being prepared so I could get my courage up and go in anyway.

I was kind of hesitant to bring my kids in, but we'd traveled all that way so I had them hold hands (hoping it'd quell their tendency to use gravestones as a playground... i wasn't sure this particular place would be as conducive to that. I was right, it wasn't. Daniel knocked over a gravestone, hooray. Fun family activity? Desecrating graves. In a place where you can easily imagine a very material sort of objection being made.)