SNGF: Best Find of 2014 & Research Challenge for 2015

I was on the road last night, so am doing Randy's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun this morning. This week's challenge is to share your best find of 2014 and a research challenge of 2015. I already did a "top 10 finds of 2014" post, but this time I will share the one that wasn't so much a story as a breaking of a brick wall. Here are the guidelines:

1) What was your best research achievement in 2014? Tell us - show us a document, or tell us a story, or display a photograph. Brag a bit! You've earned it!

2) We all have elusive ancestors. What research problem do you want to work on in 2015? Tell us where you want to research and what you hope to find.

3) Put the answers in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post.

MY BEST FIND of 2014:

My best find of the year was finding the father of my 4th great grandfather, Andrew McClintock (1804-abt 1864 in PA). The breakthrough actually came about through a genealogist I hired to do research in Pennsylvania. She had actually transcribed some church records which included the baptism of Andrew McClintock, which listed his father as John McClintock. This researcher also found Andrew's wife's maiden name, Decker, which added another surname to my direct line of ancestors! And, she told me about her father, Michael Decker, who fought in the Revolutionary War.

MY RESEARCH CHALLENGE for 2015:

My biggest research challenge continues to be proving (or disproving) that Adam Close's wife, Catharine, was the daughter of Mathew Longwell (1782-1883) & Elizabeth Orr 1785-1848). I made it a few steps closer this year both by some old letters that I received copies of from a distant cousin and a DNA match that links to me to another Longwell descendant. I would love to prove this because, in part, Mathew Longwell's father was in the Revolutionary War and was at the fated Winter at Valley Forge with George Washington!

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net