My "Social Media" story about an ancestor comes from an early form of social media for family researchers . . . Rootsweb message boards.
Several years ago a man reached out asking if I had more info on Sylvia Moore. Sylvia was the second wife of my great great grandfather, Charles Samuel Moore.
Charley had been a mystery to me for some years before I pieced together a little more of his story. He was raised in Edgar County, Illinois where he married a local girl and they raised a family. The 1930 census shows Charley and his wife Dolly, my great great grandmother, at home in Paris, Edgar Co, Illinois with several of their children. Then he and Dolly disappeared. I found each of them in later records on the west coast, each with a new spouse. Charley in California with Sylvia, and Dolly in Washington with a man named Fred Gilson.
I didn't know much about Sylvia so I wasn't able to answer many questions for the gentleman who reached out to me, but he had some exciting news for me! He remembered Charley, knew where he was buried, and it was actually this man's family who had a headstone placed for Charley at the cemetery in California. They had monkeys engraved on the stone because, he remembered, Charley always had a pet monkey!
Then he found and very kindly sent me the only photo that I have of Charley Moore - in his junkyard with his pet monkey. 💓
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