Some years ago, before I moved to Utah, I had a free day in Salt Lake City. I decided to visit the Family History Library to see if I could find more information about a certain end-of-line person in my family tree.

I had a death date that my grandmother had recorded, but not a place. I reasoned that this person probably died in Züllchow, a suburb of Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland) where other family members had lived. I found a microfilm for Züllchow and began searching the death records, but with no success. I became increasingly frustrated.

Meanwhile, there was a commotion at the microfilm machine to my left. An elderly lady had come to use the machine but thought the adjacent fluorescent light fixture was defective. She fetched a volunteer from the main desk to help. I overheard her say, “Can’t you see the light is flickering?” The volunteer shook her head. Then the frustrated sister turned to me and asked, “Can you see it?” I looked and perceived a subtle flicker, but nothing more could be done. Since there were no other machines available, the sister decided to stay despite the problem.

I noticed she had a slight accent so I asked if she could read the old German handwriting I was looking at. She said, “yes, what part of Germany was it from?”

I replied, “Near Stettin.”

She said, “I was born in Stettin!”

So I shared my problem with her, and she asked, “Have you tried Frauendorf? It’s only a few kilometers from Züllchow; I used to go there frequently as a youth.”

I fetched the records for Frauendorf, and sure enough, there was the death record I was looking for!

The sister translated it for me, and it pointed to a birthplace in another town. I fetched a new microfilm, and over the next few hours, I was able to reconstruct the entire family group. Each time I found another name, the sister graciously helped me translate it.

I also quietly noticed that she didn’t seem to be finding anything from her personal research efforts. It then occurred to me that she had unknowingly come to the Library that day mainly to help me! Her flickering light fixture and willingness to help had lit my way.

Sully Richardson

Springville