Finding Forrest

Eight years ago this week I did my yearly search of the Social Security Death Index for my Great-Uncle, John Lewis Bartee. There on my computer screen I read his name and date of death along with a location of Gallup, New Mexico where his last benefits had been sent. Within hours after calls to the Gallup police department and other persons in New Mexico I was speaking with Sister Gonvague at Little Sisters of the Poor.

Now my search to find John Lewis Bartee was redirected and a new task was put in front of me. In the first moments of that phone conversation with Sister Gonvague I was informed that John had told them he had a son, John Forrest Bartee whom he had not seen since the boy was a small child.

John Forrest Bartee    abt.1945
Photo used by permission / All Rights Reserved - John Forrest Bartee

For the last eight years my family and friends have had to endure my endless stories of John Lewis Bartee and what I had found in my research of his life. Though in all my stories... those involving the underlying search for that missing young son I make no apology for boring others with. Many times in my research of John Lewis I had become discouraged myself with discovering the events of his Life, and the wide scope of deceit & lies (past & present) in the music industry. I think I was always drawn back to what I felt was a journey or task that was put before me when Sister Gonvague mentioned the boy. Was he alive?  Is he OK?   Does he have a family, and do they have information regarding John's life unknown to the other long estranged Southern Kin?

Was Sister Gonvague... John's messenger to find the son he hadn't seen in over fifty years, yet had never forgotten? I think it was this question that propelled my search for John Forrest Bartee.

When I did finally get a break in my search for Forrest, new discoveries regarding him came in short time. Back in the Spring 2010 that break came on Ancestry.com when I got a new hit on John Lewis, a marriage license in Vermont had become available. To date the family had known John had married but as to details like a name of the Bride or place of the event were unknown. In the previous years I had thought many times... even if I knew her name it was likely that when they had split up she probably went on to remarry and would have a new name. At the same time the young boy would have probably been adopted by a new father, or at least have another name.

I was right about all of those details but, the marriage license gave me something special... the names of the Bride's parents and residence. With that information I knew through my knowledge of Genealogy research; a hobby my grandmother Olga Kathleen Haynes had started me on in my teens, I might have a chance to find the woman John married, and had a child with.

I began a genealogy search that in itself was a novel of vivid images of some very interesting individuals and events in History. Pictures of  childhood Italian immigrants to the United States in the 1870's marrying and having children in NYC later becoming early residents of South Florida area of Cocoa.   Then another family side of native Scot / Floridians who date back and worked with Governor Andrew Jackson on the transition of the Spanish government to the United States Territory, and handled one of the first Real Estate transactions regarding 5 islands of the Middle Keys. One relative even being one of the first US Mayors of St. Augustine, Florida.  A place where as a child I had stuck my head in the old cannons at the Spanish Fort.

Once one does find a little out about their ancestors they will know the odds get better that with each generation back there is another person somewhere out there that has also done research on the same common ancestors. And, just as I had hoped there was a very helpful fellow researcher in the Mid-West whose husband was a relative of John's ex-wife. I sent her a note telling of my strange search and within twenty-four hours I had a phone number for a Sister of John's ex-wife.

I made the call, and again was rewarded not only with information about the ex-wife, but yes... John Forrest Bartee did exist. Also... as it has been many times in my research I met a very interesting individual herself, John Forrest's Aunt.  She let me know that John Forrest's mother had just died the previous year. That day we began a process which on Thursday, December 30 led to me finally shaking the hand of John Forrest Bartee.  John Forrest shared the New Year Holiday with his first cousin my mother, and some of our family here in Virginia.   As I have mention in previous posts John Forrest knew nothing of his father since he was 8 years old.  This past Summer I sent him a book with photos of his natural father, John Lewis Bartee along with other family photos and genealogies for both his mother & father to start introducing him to John Lewis. Of the memories John Forrest does have of his father, one is his last visit with John Lewis at age 8,  they went fishing at Port Washington, NY with cane poles.  If I was to have lost a parent in childhood I would hope my last memory with them was a good one.

John Forrest left this morning (Jan. 2, 2010)... we saw not only John Lewis Bartee's image in him but, traces of a couple of his Uncles.  As he nears age 71... I pray that John is safe, and joy finds him in life.

Finally today I can call out to John Lewis Bartee, and say, “I found John Forrest”.

Why is it with the peace of finding his Son, I feel as if the journey has many more miles and lessons ahead.

Now some time and energy can go to The Music of John Bartee  & The Georgia Music Hall of Fame Inductions 2012.


I've added the Video below of Enya's Music and Beautiful Images... Two things that bring Joy to John Forrest Bartee's Life.