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Saturday, January 08, 2011

THE HISTORY MYSTERY DECISION

Back in December I let my readers know that there was a chance that
the PBS series History Detectives might do a segment on a mystery
I'd posted about here concerning Revolutionary War figure James
Otis. Somehow or another the show had learned of my post and
contacted me about looking into it. I spoke and corresponded with
a very nice lady named Robin Hutchins and she told me I'd hear
back from her after the holidays.

I received an email from Robin today:

"Hi Bill,
I hope you had a good holiday. Unfortunately, we won’t be
able to use your investigation for the show. But I wanted to 
let you know what we learned. There is no entry in the Court’s
Docket of this case, which means that this case never went to
trial. This can mean many things, but none of them were recorded 
at this time. I don’t know if we can ever learn why as there will 
not be a paper trail.

But good luck with your investigation. You are free to post this on 
your blog now.

Best, Robin Hutchins"

So even though we didn't make the show, I'm still over the moon 
that they even considered the idea. And of course I plan to keep
digging away at this for my brother in law Peter, because that's 
what we genealogists and family historians do when we come
across a family mystery.

And as I told Robin, The History Detectives remains my favorite
television show!

7 comments:

Charley "Apple" Grabowski said...

Disappointing! They may not have found a paper trail but I suspect you'll discover more through other avenues.

Susan Petersen said...

Bill - how nice to know that they looked into this! And showed the class to follow up with you about what they discovered. I love History Detectives!

Marian said...

It may be disappointing but what a great experience. You got so close! Nice to have them look into it.

Kerry Scott said...

Holy cow---how exciting to be that close!

Greta Koehl said...

Well, at least they have checked one avenue. And regarding your intention to dig away anyway - excellent!

Nancy said...

I don't know the story behind James Otis but I wonder if there would be anything in local newspapers of the time. Sorry you weren't chosen but at least you know there's nothing from the courts.

Karen Packard Rhodes said...

Sorry you didn't get on the show, but keep digging.

Me, I want Tukufu Zuberi's job!

(Or Wes Cowan's or any of the others on that show!)

(Word verification definition:
samated - eaten by Sam.)