I began my genealogy obsession looking for my great-grandfather, Harry Thurman Mercer. My mom and uncle really didn't know much about his life story as a small boy or anything about his family. We all believed him to be an only child. I knew he was born and died in Illinois and spent most of his adult life in Indiana. He also served in the Reserves. He divorced my great-grandmother Estella (Stella) and soon thereafter spent the remainder of his life with Mamaw Lar.
I was using Ancestry.com for researching as I was new to this process and that was the only place I knew to start. I did some searches there which resulted in nothing. I then discovered the ancestry surname forums. I loved the forums! People from all over the world were sharing information and offering help. I spent many weeks reading posts and kind of looking and I finally posted an inquiry about my GG Harry T. MERCER. Low and behold a few days later I had a couple of responses.
Incredibly someone contacted me and we were able to discover that my GG Harry T. MERCER was one of 11 children. His father had married a women who passed giving birth to her 6th child. His fater remarried his mother who passed when he was 3 months old and then his father passed when he was a year old. The older half siblings took on the younger children but no one was in a position to care for a toddler so a distant cousin took him in and raised him as their own.
It has been fun finding new family members and learning about my GGrandfather.