Thomas!

I don't work on my novel on Sundays, since writing is my job as well as a passion. I went to the Nanowrimo write-in anyway, for coffee and fun. I took along some dead people to play with — some genealogy notes and blank paper to draw a family tree.

Tonight I was reading through the notes from my research trip to Ireland. You get so many facts running around in your head that sometimes you need to draw pictures or trees, and sometimes you just need to stare at a page or skim through your notes when you aren't doing anything in particular; just time to think. Sometimes those little facts running around my brain start colliding with each other, and that's when I solve mysteries.

For the past few years I've been wondering what happened to Joshua English's two surviving brothers, John and Abraham. He had many siblings that did not live past childhood. One of the little facts I planned to check on this trip was the death date of his baby brother Thomas, because the date was the same as when their father Thomas died.

Tonight, I had one of those wonderful little brain collisions. The incorrect death date (I found out it belongs to the father) collided with some old note I had written somewhere that said, "Who is this?" I did a search on my computer and found the note. There was a Thomas English at Joshua's wedding, long after their father Thomas had died. Joshua's little brother was at the wedding; Joshua's little brother lived!

I have another Thomas English.