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This is the second of a series to encourage everyone to pray. Each will feature an example of a specific prayer and how it was answered. Please keep in mind that not all prayers are answered with a yes. Some are answered with a “no” or “wait.” I make no attempt at theology. I have no qualifications to do so. If you would like to share a personal example here, please contact Ed Peck, I would love to hear it.
Not all prayer answers are flashy miracles. God does want to us to pray for the mundane, our daily bread, our needs and sometimes our wants. This is my story.
I was trying very hard to put together my family tree information and use it to reconnect with family in Michigan. When my Grandma Peck died, boxes of family letters and photos came to my father, Frank. The letters had return addresses of a sort, just a name and a town. This was normal for turn of the century (1900’s) rural Michigan. The letters would go to the town post office and be held for pickup. The 1900 census showed them in Gratiot County. I tried finding anyone the local phone book with the surname Philips. Inquires to the local library came up blank.
After hitting several brick walls, I decided a road trip was needed. I asked my dad if he would drive the two of us on an expedition to visit our Michigan roots. My dad was very much an introvert. Our quality time pretty much consisted of fixing my broken down cars together. We packed all our unlabeled photos, letters, research, and sleeping bags in a van.
Before we left, I prayed a very specific prayer: May we find our living Philips cousins and reconnect the families and second, use this trip to get to know my own dad. As prayers go, this one was selfish. It was a ‘want’ more than a ‘need.’ I believe God recognizes our need for family bonds.
We arrived as planned in Gratiot County, Michigan and started by searching every mention of Philips in cemeteries, phone books, history. The Gratiot County clerk had lost the old records. All dead ends! I had scheduled only one day for research and half of it was gone. I asked the town librarian about any local historical societies that might help. She suggested only one. It was in Clinton County bordering to the south. I decided to stop on the way and visit the Clinton County clerk and see if they had any Phillips marriage records. Eureka! A Parmer Phillips had filed a marriage record, but it had been voided because he had filed it in the wrong county. The official record should have been in the county with the missing records. Now I had a few names and dates to continue our search.
Now my dad and I were getting excited, we had a lead. Dad drove to the history center. The same place I had written months earlier with no response. We were greeted by a helpful volunteer and asked to sign their visitor’s log. I asked to see anything they might have on Peck or Phillips surname. The lady walked over to an antique wood card file; the kind libraries used to have for indexes. Nothing on Peck, no surprise. The drawer that should contained “Phillips” had a place marker card in it. Archivists use a blank marker card in place of an index card that has been temporarily removed. I asked “where might the index card be?” She asked her coworker the same question. The answer was “I didn’t have time to refile it from this morning. I had a researcher use it for Parmer Phillips.” Shock! Who was looking for the same person we were? I asked to see the visitor log. A lady named Sharon had come in just hours ago and left her phone number. I eagerly dialed the phone and left a message. Sharon called back minutes later and I explained who we were and told her we were looking for information on Phillips or Peck. She said we were in luck. She was in town for a few days to visit her elderly father and had taken some time to research. She did indeed know the Phillips family. They owned a Century Farm/Orchard 30 minutes away in Gratiot County. Would we like to meet them? Of course we would!
It turns out that the family had never left the farm I found in the 1900 census. The reason I could not find them was that they lived on the road dividing the two counties. Mail and phone service were listed in a nearby town in Clinton County. The reason I found no Phillips in cemeteries was simple. They were all buried in a family plot on the farm. We showed them our old letters and photos. It turned out that they had several identical photos with names attached.
My prayer had been answered. Family was reunited after 70 years and dad and I had a fine adventure together. Was it random chance? I had planned a trip to a state I had never been to before. Found a single marriage record recorded in the wrong county. This led us to the history center where we discovered a fellow genealogist who had our information. A lady who had traveled hundreds of miles to visit her home town and do some research on the same day we arrived hundreds of miles away from Colorado. I challenge you to calculate the odds of such a meeting. I know God had answered my prayer, and the answer was yes.