A Case Study

Research by FamilyCentral

On June 16, 1875, Bradford Bragdon of Cape Porpoise, Maine, “went to set trawls, his wife accompanying him.”  They never came home.  Over 130 years later our staff solved the  mystery of this young couple gone missing.

Our client’s ancestor, William Bradford Bragdon was born July 14, 1869 at Kennebunkport, York County, Maine. Our researcher first found him as an infant on the 1870 census with his parents, Bradford and Mary E. Bragdon. But within ten years the family had disappeared from census records. Where had they gone?

With the help of newly computerized census indexes, an eleven year old “Willie Bragdon” was found “boarding” with Nahum and Eliza Brown in Kennebunkport in 1880. Was this our William Bragdon, and if so where were his parents, and who was this family he was living with?

Indexes of death records were searched to see if his parents had died. No reference was found in the indexes, however,.as handy as they are, indexes are not always complete.  A tedious line-by-line search of the original record books on microfilm was necessary.

The searching paid off. A record was found in the original records that stated that “Bradford Bragdon and wife” died on June 16, 1875. In the last column of the record, under the heading “Remarks”, the following was noted…

          “Drowned by capsizing of Boat off Cape Porpoise”

Great information, but was there more to the story? Phone calls were made to several libraries to find a newspaper that may have been published in 1875. After several calls, all signs pointed to Portland, Maine as the most likely spot.

A call was made to the Portland Public Library. There an edition of the Portland Eastern published on June 19, 1875 held an article on the incident. A copy was faxed to our office.

The article reads as follows:

Sad Casualty

A Man and His Wife Drowned at

Cape Porpoise

Biddeford, June 18^th

“Bradford BRAGDON and wife, of Cape Porpoise, were drowned Wednesday. BRAGDON went to set trawls, his wife accompanying him. Their boat was found yesterday morning, bottom up”

A search of the York County, Maine cemetery records failed to locate a tombstone for either Bradford or Mary Bragdon. From all indications they were lost at sea. Sadly, our client’s ancestor, William “Willie” Bradford Bragdon, became an orphan at the age of six.

Futher research went on to find that young Willie was  taken in by his step-grandfather.

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