Search for baseballer’s roots brings challenges

The quest for the story of baseball great, “Pete” Hill and his Rapidan roots continues, but it is no cake walk.

There may be no one who wants to find me after I am dead and gone, but just on the slim chance that someone might, I am going to write down the important facts and record it in my will.

I will be certain to include the accurate spelling of my name and all possible variations, the names and birth dates of my children, the same data for my parents and siblings, where I lived and when and where I at least request to be buried.

Short of my doing this myself, future searchers will be at the mercy of census takers and transcribers who may or may not be able to hear well, spell well or decipher someone else’s scribble. Arrgghh! Did they not realize we would come looking? Surely, if they had they would have left better clues.

After learning that two of Pete’s aunts listed their birthplace as Orange on their marriage records, I could hardly get to the Orange County Court House fast enough. All the missing links would be connected once I reviewed the records. Finally, the mysteries of Pete’s birthdate, birthplace and mother’s family would be solved.

I parked the car, arrived on the third floor, headed to the back room and buried myself with anticipatory glee in the birth, death and marriage records.

Oh, my gosh, nothing! I could not believe it; there were no Seals, Seales, or any other comparable spelling. In all my dismay, there was still a glimmer that I had missed something.

On another shelf, there were more books with similar records. I had understood the others to have been indexes to these records and did not expect to find any variations on the information. I was right, but just not ready to give up. I methodically reviewed all the names that began with S.

I came across the birth of two girls of the same age as two of Pete’s aunts, listed as colored and whose parents were identified by the same given names as Pete’s grandparents. But the surname was way off, really way off. Despite my skepticism, I wrote down the info and left.

Later that evening, feeling pretty bummed out, I decided to run the name through the Internet search file. I haven’t mentioned the name before now because it is so farfetched. The name was Seigles, German and nothing like Seal, but I plugged it in any way along with the location of Orange County.

Shazzam! There they were in the 1880 Census, the whole darn family, Pete’s mother’s family that is. The same information steered me to find them in the 1870 Census living at the same location. The living descendants now have additional ancestors — Pete’s mother’s siblings, ages, occupations and the possibility of locating their 1870-80 residence. But, on which side of the Rapidan River was Pete born? That fact is yet to be confirmed.

I have a theory, but it must wait for more sleuthing and another column.

Until next week, be well.