Out of thin air

Searching for Private Goodman is one heck of a challenge. I don't mean that as a complaint. Heck- I even admire the way he seems to have had a perfect storm of circumstances that are making it so hard to track him down. It's like he enlisted out of thin air. Learning more about him is going to take much more work than I imagined. Maybe on the level of my 3rd-great grandfather Levi Woodberry Kimball, who my family has been trying to find since he disappeared more than 140 years ago.

While I'm waiting for Private Goodman's military records, I've been going back through some of the most promising census records and birth records. None has a direct hit with his first name, which is very surprising. With a name like Levester, it should be easier to find him, as opposed to someone named John. Maybe Levester was his middle name, or a name he assumed as a young adult. In any case, I have to keep an open mind until I find something concrete.

In the meantime, I'm wading through a lot of records. As tough as I make that sound, this "research from the rec room" would not have been possible five years ago. The number of records ancestry.com is making available online is amazing. While there's nothing like holding the original will from an ancestor in your hands at the State Archives, when you can do everything but that from your own easy chair- that's pretty incredible.
(Just my $.02 worth- I am not compensated by ancestry.com in any way.)