One of the things I love most about genealogy is discovering that our ancestors weren’t simply names and dates neatly recorded on census pages. They were actual people – and occasionally, they did really stupid things.

About fifteen years ago, I stumbled across a newspaper article about my paternal great grandfather, John Percy Nelson Luttrell (1883-1909), and a teenage companion getting themselves into a bit of trouble. The two young men were apparently short on cash, far from home and came up with what must have seemed at the time like a perfectly reasonable solution: steal a couple of chickens along the road and sell them to pay their expenses.

It did not go well.

The pair were caught in the act of selling the stolen birds, charged with larceny, and hauled before the local justice. After pleading guilty, they received what the newspaper described as a “good lecture” – one effective enough to bring tears to both boys’ eyes before they eventually “completely broke down.”

I probably shouldn’t have laughed when I first read the story.

But I did.

Because more than a century later, I could almost picture the whole ridiculous adventure – and think “Yep, that sounds exactly like something a couple of teenage boys would do.”

Uncle ‘Tobe’ (Tobias) Luttrell mentioned as the ‘relative’ in the article is the man standing third person from right. This photo was taken September 23, 1908.