While researchers are often chided not to follow BSOs (bright shiny objects) down rabbit holes, it is sometimes good to embrace them and go with the flow.

This month’s 12 for ’26 is not a single family, but an opportunity for me to try out FamilySearch’s ever-expanding record collection accessible through full-text seaech.

Today’s BSO is George Rogers Tarbox (1818-1895), one of my 3X great grandparents who was born in New Gloucester, Cumberland, Maine, but who lived in Lowell and Newburyport, Massachusetts, Nashua, New Hampshire and then Robbinston and Calais, Washington, Maine, where he died and is buried.

Through the years, I’ve learned much about George, his life and his family. I also learned that George was the first in his family to become a businessman rather than a farmer. Based on places he lived, he also seemed to prefer city life to the quiet countryside.

I wasn’t sure if I’d learn anything new about George, but decided to use full-text search for records in Massachusetts, Maine and even New Hampshire, since he lived there for a short time.

Massachusetts records only turned up a couple of land records and the death record of George’s son, Horace, in 1914, all of which I had. No results came up for New Hampshire. However, Washington County, Maine records now include some court documents.

First, George was sued by the estate of George B. Burns, deceased for refusal to pay off promissory notes and the court ordered that George’s goods be seized to the amount of $1000 to cover the three notes!

There was more economic trouble for George as there is a 30-page court file dated 1875 regarding the purchase of marble, which was the business he was in.

The details in the file are quite boring, but the bottom of this first page is an exciting discovery:

The signatures are all different, leading me to believe that are all original to the men involved in the court case. That means I now have an image of George Tarbox’s handwriting! A fun find!

Further finds:

George Tarbox had another business set back with a judgment against him in January 1859 for the sum of $102.92.

George kept the court system busy. In 1858, he sued a steamboat company for ruining 100 barrels of calcined plaster to be transported from Eastport to Portland, Maine. The jury found in George’s favor.

In 1858, two men were convicted for breaking and entering his business shop.

In January 1870, the sheriff was ordered to seize $150 worth of George’s goods to satisfy a debt.

In April 1869, George sued Catherine Burns, who was guilty and sentenced to 30 days in jail plus costs.

In November 1868, George was sued as the trustee of Simeon Briggs for debt.

In March 1854, a man was convicted of stealing George’s overcoat in Cumberland County, Maine.

There might even be a few other records in this set of results. However, they are very very poorly transcribed even when the handwriting is excellent. With overlapping court sessions and continuances, I might have missed one or two cases.

To be fair to George, most of the cases in which he was a defendant were connected to his plaster and marble business, not to his personal life.

It’s also necessary to mention that from 1873 to 1879, the United States entered a depression that lasted longer than the Great Depression sparked by the stock market crash in 1929.

I’d say my finds are not a bad first attempt at chasing BSOs down the full-text search rabbit hole. As an aside, it’s going to take me a while to save all theses documents, especially the one court case that is 30 pages long!