Well, since we’ve been told that this is now in Chat:
I haven’t had time to read everything, but I keep wondering what it was that started you on that investigation: were there family stories/rumors?
It was searching for my father. Mother left him when I was 6 weeks old and I thought if I could find his book of poetry I’d learn who he was. His letter begging her to come back said he’d burnt his mss and the future could do without him. I tracked back his family from an obituary of his mother that said her pallbearer was the governor of Colorado and three generals. I wanted to see if someone had his book and discovered the story of Henry and saw yet another ancestor who was lost and felt this passion to make sure he AND FATHER wouldn’t be forgotten. Research in languages was a simple step to research in poetry and, after learning poetry research, I finally found father’s book. Regular army and a poet. It’s been the most wonderful quest.
I forgot great grandfather. He was a special judge advocate for the Lincoln assassination trial. He was brought to DC by Stanton to run the investigation and put together the Library of Congress records which are in his handwriting. He had a magnificent tomb built for himself on top of a hill and someone stole his brass plaque. His grave was taken over by the forest and my other quest was to get him remembered. A military group took over his grave and a park ranger asked to portray him in Ford Theater, so I’m batting pretty good for the lost ones.