The Hunt for Golden Treasure – Part II

In my last post, I left off with a few details regarding my grandpa’s dad; Terence Terance (looks like a few documents have various spelling).

John Terance Golden seems to be my stumbling block; he is my one big question mark. Photos seem to be non-existent, personal accounts are vague and I still can’t seem to locate a death certificate.

Hmmm…..

In all fairness, I’ve just started to picture him as Christopher Walken. Is this weird?

Sometimes I wish I had the help of TLC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” staff to just point and direct me down the golden path… ha, Golden path… totally unintentional.

Anyway, I decided to continue my search on Ancestry.com (past searches weren’t turning up much).

In my semi-state of sleep, (you know that point where you’re getting the nods and you’re almost at the point of your ipad hitting you in the face?) I found a vital piece of information that has helped me, thus far.

WHAM! U.S. World War I Draft Registration Card for John Terance Golden of Nicollet Ave. Mpls. Henn. Minn. YAY!

This one piece of paper was like finding buried treasure. Not only does it state his full name, his address, his age and his occupation, it also describes him! According to this, he was of medium height, with a slender build, blue Eyes (Like my Grandpa) and had brown hair. He sounds very much like a Golden – so maybe this whole Christopher Walken notion will vanish.

With this new information, I contacted the Minnesota Historical Society Library to dig further, starting with his place of employment. Although they couldn’t uncover anything pertaining to the Browndale Liquor Company, they did suggest I research the Minneapolis City Directories.

The Minneapolis City Directories website was a bit intimidating; right away a user can tell how much information is available at their fingertips. The beauty of this website is a large majority of their archives are available in digital format accessible to the public, score.

I did a “simple search” using the keywords “John T Golden” and up popped the Minneapolis City Directory for 1916. I really had no idea what a City Directory was for, I now know it was pretty much the precursor to the phone book… which I guess the phone book would be the precursor to our modern 411.com?

Anyway…

The 1916 directory contains a small listing; it describes the Browndale Liquor Co. belonging to John T. Golden and John T. Larson… successors to Jonas F. Brown.

This leaves me with two avenues to explore.

1. Who was John T. Larson, and how close were he and Terance?
2. Who was Jonas F. Brown and why did he choose John T. squared to be his successors, and not someone in his own family?

I think I have my work cut out for me.

I really do feel envious of all these celebrities being able to find their ancestors with the help of a multi-billion dollar television company and the biggest genealogy site in the world. If you still have no idea what I’m talking about, you can click here to visit the Who Do you think you are site.

I won’t be posting anymore tonight; chances are I am discovering Chris O’Donnell’s Irish roots (I assume) before my own. *pouts*

Ps. Christina Applegate’s journey has been my favourite so far, and I highly recommend you watch it!