Answers Can Appear Unexpectedly

‘Psychic Roots,” by Henry Z. Jones Jr., is the sort of book that, once in hand, is impossible to put down. And now, “More Psychic Roots” has been published.

These books are full of genealogy stories of serendipity and intuition. Probably every genealogist has experienced finding something out of the blue, receiving a letter with just the right information, finding three generations in a book that jumped off the library shelf into your hands.

Jones has collected, compiled and published such stories. Here’s one:

In 1966 Donna Porter of Denver was researching her great-grandfather in Clarington, N.Y.

She and her husband were returning to town after an unsuccessful cemetery search when they noticed a single house with its lights on, and an elderly woman sitting by the window, reading.

“On a total whim, my husband suggested I knock on the door and inquire if she might know of my great-grandfather.”

Porter did, explaining about her Bishop ancestor who once lived in that town.

The woman responded: “Come right in, this is the old Bishop house!”

“We spent the evening enjoying her stories of the town and of the Bishop family who once lived in her house.”

My own such story appears in “More Psychic Roots.”

My first trip to Salt Lake City was in 1975. I looked for the surname Regner in the card catalog, which directed me to a microfilm of a 1914 handwritten notebook with multiple generations of the Regner family - all written in German!

I rolled the film along, page by page, wondering what information I was missing because I couldn’t read German. From death records, I knew my great-grandmother was born in 1850 in Alzey, Germany. Then, all of a sudden there it was! In letters 2-inches high: “Magdalena Regner, born September 1850, in Alzey.” I was elated - I could really read those great big letters! I had found it! But, I was so green at genealogy, I didn’t think to photocopy it and hand-copied it, instead.

And that was that.

Some 10 years later, I decided to have another look at the film. By then, I was more familiar with reading old German script.

I diligently searched for those 2-inch letters. But they weren’t there! I pored over each page of that notebook, but no entry was larger than the rest! My ancestor’s information was there, all right, but not by extra-large letters. Her data was the same size as the rest.

So how to explain it? It cannot be explained and that’s the point of Jones’ collection of stories.

I would swear in 1975 those letters were 2-inches high, and in 1985 they were not. Makes me think there is indeed a higher power helping us with our genealogy.

Both of Hank Jones books, “Psychic Roots,” ($14.95) and “More Psychic Roots,” ($16.95) are available from Genealogical Publishing Co. To order, call (800) 296-6687, or write to: GPC, 1001 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21202-3897; include $4.75 postage for both books.

The April 5 Eastern Washington Genealogy Society meeting begins at 12:30 p.m. with coffee, cookies and conversation at the downtown Spokane Library auditorium. Laura Pemberton Sparr, president of Washington State Genealogy Society, will present the program on U.S. Military Records. Come join us.

, DataTimes MEMO: Donna Potter Phillips welcomes letters from readers. Write to her at The Spokesman-Review, Features Department, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. For a response, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Donna Potter Phillips The Spokesman-Review