Following the waving green leaves

Every now and then I get an email from ancestry.com

telling me I have some hints.

And out of curiousity I'll check them out-always.

Never let a green leaf pass you by.

And what do I see is a teasing green leaf waving at me.

I have been researching off and on for years.

Some lines fall into place and some

lay stagnant for years.

This was one of them - my great great grandfather

Alexander Altemus always fascinated me.

He had a short life but interesting life.

He married a woman named Rebecca Jane.

Of course no maiden name.

For 10 years.

And then ka-blam.

Out of the blue last night while I was being annoyed

by my sinus infection - a certificate of death

popped up.

It is for their son Charles - my great grandfather who

also led and interesting life.

My handsome great grandfather Charles Altemus.

And what do my sinus-infected eyes see?

Mother's maiden name.

Banghart.

Different name but so very very cool and a long time coming.

So is this not the bomb or what?

So now I have some lines to trace and you need

to be very very careful.

It's amazing how many names and dates are alike, similar

not to mention hometowns.

And another thing - handwriting is subjective, so when the archivists

are transcribing, names and spellings can be close or not so close on

the documents.

 So be very very careful.

Below is an example of similarity.

My great great grandfather from another line - Nils Anderson

immigrated from Sweden - married a woman 20 

years younger and had 8 kids.

And here is another Cerificate of Death only it says 

Neil Anderson (of course they changed their name) and

it says he died from acute indigestion (heart attack to me)

in a home for the indigent.

Now they were not well-to-do but never heard stories

of being an indigent.

But here's the conundrum.

Look at the informant name - Nils Anderson

Now except for the birthdate - every other date including

where he was born is exactly the same,

including the cemetery where he was buried.

Greenmount in Philadelphia.

My eyes were crossed at 2 a.m. and sent this FB message to

my cousin who is now the patriarch of the family

and we got into a spirited conversation - in my defense I didn't 

think he'd be up at that time either.

I don't believe this is going to pan out but I need to look

further into it. 

Its the story of the hunt.