Led Astray by Jean Nudd, Genealogist

Mailed to us by Jean Nudd-Eliott, August 31, 2020

I began my genealogy research with my father and I'd go home every few weeks and tell my mother all the great stuff I'd found on Pop's family. She was an only child and quite self-centered so she only took it for a few visits before she asked me "When are you going to work on my family? After all, I'm still here to give you information." So I said, "Please, tell me and I'll be happy to look up your side of my ancestry."

She said, "My grandmother was Sophia (Sofia, not Sophia) Goodman Park and her father's name was Isaac Goodman and he was a Polish Jew." "Great," I said. "I'll see what I can find."

So back at work on Monday, I worked over my lunch hour I looked for Sofia Goodman and found her married to her husband in Des Moines, Iowa, where I knew my mother was born. It gave me her year of birth as 1851 in Ohio. So I looked in the 1860 census for an Isaac Goodman in Ohio. Nothing! This was before we had on-line indexing so I was using the bound volume indexes and the microfiche but there were no Isaac Goodmans listed in Ohio or anywhere else. Came in early, worked over lunches, stayed late (I couldn't work on my private genealogy during work hours), but I couldn't find him anywhere. I even checked Gut(t)man(n), thinking perhaps he hadn't yet changed the name to Goodman. Nothing.

So, all the way from Pittsfield, MA to Sanbornton, NH, a four-hour trip, I thought about how to approach my mother with her great-grandfather. When I finally arrived, the first thing I said to her was, "Isaac Goodman never existed." Her response? "Of course not, that wasn't his real name!"

Have you ever wanted to strangle someone! I took a few deep breaths instead and tried to calmly ask her, "Okay, what was his real name?" The answer of course was, "Well, Jeannie, I don't know. I was a child and they never discussed things like that in front of me. Ask Dorothy, she'll be able to tell you."

I immediately went to the phone, thinking Mother could pay for the call since Dorothy lived outside Chicago. I just prayed that Dorothy was home. At that point, she was in her 90s. She did answer and I related what Mother had told me. When she stopped laughing, which didn't help my mood any, she gave me the information I needed.

"Jean," she said, "his name was originally Guttmann, and Israel , not Isaac. He was German not Polish, and he was Protestant, not Jewish, but otherwise you mother had it all right!"

So my genealogical tip is NEVER BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU ARE TOLD BY FAMILY MEMBERS! When I went into work on Monday, there was Israel right where he belonged.