Finding John...

I created this blog as a means to document my search & discovery of my great-uncle John Bartee.  My Grandmother told me of her talented brother as a child in the 60's in hopes that I would allow her to start teaching me the piano one summer when I visited her and my Grandfather on my own.  I never learned the piano which was a bad move, for the ability to create music is a door to a world painted with calming sounds & rich emotions.

I never learned to play an instrument,  but I never forgot the way she talked about her brother.  Some years ago after my Grandmother died my Mother knowing of my hobby of documenting family history ask me to include John in my search.  Just maybe I might find him out there some where.  That was about 15 years ago,  I know my computer was not searching the Internet with a operating system like today when I started.  Information was shared on bulletin board type chat rooms with just white type on black screens.  And now to think all this HTML code is behind these words, with pictures, live video & music. Technology has really brought the World & its People in to our homes.

But it was harder back then to get a lot of information,  I wasn't in the position to hire a private detective to find John and I really wouldn't have had much information to give them to start. I knew his name & date of birth... that he was a musician who could play many instruments... being very talented with the sax, clarinet & piano. Not until I did find him did family members seemed surprised that they hadn't told me he was an Arranger.

So years passed by and the best I could really do was check the social security death index and pray he was not listed every year in January.  Apparently the updates in the list didn't happen overnight back in January 2002, too bad because he died December 17, 2001 in Gallup, New Mexico.  And I wouldn't find him for another year, when I looked again in 03.  The day I found him listed I know for a second I thought of never getting the chance to meet him in person.  But, if I had found him while he was alive, that might have been the end of this journey... I would have never had the world of Music open itself to me,  I would not have spent hours & hours digging, searching records & books on the Internet, in the local Library... three days at the Library of Congress.  During all the hours of searching for John,  the Music slowly unfolded... the sounds from the 30's to modern day Jazz, the musicians... their lives... the good & bad of the music business.  The Music had meaning because it had life behind it.

I called the Gallup,  New Mexico Police Department the day I found the record for John listed on the Social Security Death Index.  I now had a social security number issued in the state of New York for him.  The woman at dispatch worked to put his name, date of birth and SSN in her system in between the calls for Gallup emergencies.  She came up with a John Bartel but the SSN and birth date matched.  She read a summary of information in the report under his name.  He had been picked up about  1996 in what was termed a welfare call.  Described as an  elderly man that seemed confused & not sure where he was, seems he had got off  a cross- country bus bound for Flagstaff at the wrong stop based on the bus ticket he had on him. With just the clothes on his back for his safety they took him to The Little Sister's of the Poor retirement home.  Upon learning this I then contacted the home & when I told the woman that answered I was the great-nephew of  John Bartee she became very excited,  telling me not to hang up she was going to get someone.  Sister Gonvague picked up the phone and stated she had given up hope that John had any family out there that cared about him.   I responded .. I did and I had been looking for him for years.

My journey began on that day.  That first conversation with Sister Gonvague shed light on some things John had shared with her those last five years of his life that she cared for him.  He had spoke of a son that he hadn't seen since the boy was young.  He only spoke of one person in the Music business during those five years,  Jimmy Dorsey.  I was told of the first time she walked John though a room that had a piano,  she said his face lit up,  although when he would try to play at different times his age & memory had taken its toll on his gift.  But she made it very clear,  he was a Music Arranger and he had the brightest blue eyes.

I found John's son a couple of months ago after a long search,  he is 70 and last saw John at age 8...  He goes by another last name of the father that raised him.  I have shared what I know of John with him and our family will always leave the door open for him to know more of John's extended family. If John had not mentioned the son to Sister Gonvague, and she had not told me, I would have never known to look.