THAT'S IT

I think I'll start collecting Ackleys.

My ancestor, Alfred W. Ackley, fought in the War of 1812. He married Perthena Tillinghast and had four children, one being my 3rd-great grandfather Henry Tillinghast Ackley. Henry was a Union soldier in the Civil War and died en route home, on the train, in 1863. Awwww.

I am sick - SICK! - of not finding anything about Alfred. He died in 1841, so he didn't survive to see any censuses listing him with his wife and children... that's a huge mental roadblock for me. Yes, there are historical sketches and military records and wills and family Bibles, etc., but so much of that information is still on paper or microfilm, instead of online, and well, I guess I'm just lazy. Also, I don't have the cash to pay researchers to head to the library, look stuff up, make copies, and mail them to me. (That's why I love people like Carl, who do such great work for free - of course with Carl, I had all the information and he just had to find it.)

The thing is, other family members have tried to research him and have come up empty too, so my laziness is not the only problem here. The problem is that he seemed to have followed the advice of ecology-minded forest service rangers: "Leave No Trace."

So I'm thinking it's time to just round up every Ackley I can find (past a certain date), and maybe I can make a connection somewhere. With all the other clean-up projects I've undertaken, this will be a nice change of pace... I guess.