Today was awesome. As I headed out to work with a genealogy friend, I stopped to look in the mailbox. I have been anxiously awaiting a response from the New York State Archives about the War of 1812 records for Ardil Gates, and his brothers David and Richard. The box was empty, just as it had been on Tuesday, which was unusual after a Monday holiday. Then I just happened to look down and saw something in our newspaper box, which we never use. The night before we had snow and during the day, today, heavy rain. It just happened at the moment I was looking in the box that it was dry outside. The mail person must have dropped it off just moments before, or otherwise it would have been wet. That would have hugely disappointed me.
The information inside the envelope included material for each of the brothers. The first two pages, with two payment vouchers on each page, were for David Gates. The third page was for Richard Gates, and had only one payment voucher. The real payday of this material was the last three pages for Ardil Gates: a document certifying his identity in 1858 for his bounty land warrant and a claim for reimbursement for expenses, a Declaration page explaining his expenses in the war, and finally a letter from his son, Richard Gates, with regards to the bounty land warrant.
Please refer to my blog post on December 23, 2011, Genealogy Serendipity Moments - Ordering Records for the Gates Family, for previous information written about sending for the documents. At that time I said I would post the results when I received them from the NY State Archives. This information will now be incorporated into the article I am writing for publication for the March issue of The Bulletin of the Genealogical Forum of Oregon. The due date for submission is soon, and I am very thankful to have this additional information. The nine dollars I spent were worth every penny and more. There is some great new information and verification of previous information.
I hope you are having some great serendipity moments in your family research.
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