This week’s “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” prompt is to write about an ancestor who was “Out of Place.” While this could mean different things to many people, I’m choosing to interpret this as “not where I thought I’d find him,” hence, he’s out of place.

John Center was born circa 1793 in Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut, according to the information he supplied when he enlisted in the Army for the War of 1812 on 23 March 1814. Following his discharge on 10 May 1815 at the close of the war, John presumably was in Hartford because he once again enlisted in 1818 for a five-year term on 25 November 1818. He deserted sometime in December 1818, and his trail goes cold.

I can track him in these places:

26 February 1824, son John born, possibly Venango County, Pennsylvania (tombstone and census information)
6 November 1825 married Catherine Noland in Columbiana County, Ohio (marriage record)
1827 in Columbiana County, Ohio (tax list)
1830 in Irwin Township, Venango, Pennsylvania (census)
26 May 1837 in Venango County, Pennsylvania (letter regarding bounty land)
1840 to 1843 in Lawrence Township, Washington, Ohio (census and tax records)
1848 in Gallia County, Ohio (letter regarding bounty land)
13 June 1859 in Gallipolis, Gallia, Ohio (letter regarding bounty land)
1870 in Grant Township, Putnam, Missouri (census)

Records during the eleven-year gaps between 1848 and 1859 and from 1859 to 1870 should have at least shown John in the 1850 and 1860 censuses, however, name searches in the indexes have come up empty. Either John’s name was erroneously entered on the census form or he was entirely missed. This may happen, but I have not personally had an ancestor have two consecutive “misses.” Other possibilities are that John’s name was incorrectly transcribed in the online indexes (a page-by-page search may locate him) or John was no longer living in Ohio.

The California Gold Rush began on 24 January 1848, many men, old and young, abandoned farms and family in the hopes of striking it rich. Rumors abounded that the gold was there, all you had to do was bend over and pick it up off the ground. It’s possible that John followed the lure of a get-rich-quick scheme and was in California during the 1850 to 1859 timeframe, back to Gallipolis by 13 June 1859, and then in Putnam County, Missouri, with son John from 1859 to 1870.

I have created a methodical research plan to help me find this out of place ancestor, and I hope to discover that he’s been hiding in plain sight this whole time. #52Ancestors