Durged, Of Course!

by Marci Duryea

My e-mail address is marcoise@wwa.com
and I live in Glen Ellyn, IL.

At my local LDS center I was making my first fumbling attempts to maneuver around their huge collection of CD- Rom files. I was attempting to find the marriage of a Civil War ancestor, John Jacob Duryea.

We had recently discovered his wife's name, Mary Parson Granger. We knew John had mustered in and out of service at Detroit, and that the Granger family was an established presence there too. I was puzzled and frustrated by several previous attempts with other methods to find the marriage in Detroit. I was sure I must find it there.

Not finding John J. Duryea listed anywhere, on a whim I decided to cross- reference by the bride's name. Up popped a marriage, in Cleveland, OH, of a Mary P. Granger and a John J. DURGED. I was simultaneously amazed, puzzled and skeptical.

I subsequently sent to Cuyahoga County for the record. Sure enough, the scrawling handwriting could certainly be read as Durged, with a closed "y" and a tall backstroke on the "a". But I'm certain I found the correct record.

It certainly taught me a lesson about the value of cross-referencing.

Submitted:  Sat Apr 17 06:04:16 1999

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