10 | A Third Big Find

It was too much to expect that another genealogical experience would be as thrilling as discovering Johann Wolfgang in the DAR Library in Washington, D.C., or writing a letter to Germany to discover our relative, Georg Odoerfer.

However, a “third missing link” came at The Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormon) Genealogy Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

This third “missing link” experience was very similar to the first, except that I had been having a very good genealogy day. I had found court records that described the estate settlement in 1818 for my great, great, great grandfather, John Odoerfer(Oderfer, Odorfer, Odeffer, etc.) , who I knew lived near Clear Spring, Maryland.

Again, as I was ready to leave the library, I spied a book entitled “Western Maryland Newspaper Abstracts,” and, unlike when seeing 10 or 20 other books with “Maryland” in the title, I picked it up!

Searching the index of names, I found the following ad!

WANTED – A JOURNEYMAN WEAVER

(He must be a single man) who can come well recommended as to his honesty, sobriety, and  industry – such a one will meet with constant employment, the best of tools, and regular pay, byapplying to the subscriber living on the John T. Mason farm 12 miles from Hagerstown.

– John Oderfer May 31, 1815

I found this very interesting, and though I didn’t fully realize it at the time, this information helped provide the third “missing link” in the search to paint a genealogical picture of the Odaffer family.