{"id":2927,"date":"2013-02-20T16:46:45","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T16:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=2927"},"modified":"2013-02-20T16:53:12","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T16:53:12","slug":"the-disappearance-and-mysterious-reappearance-of-matthew-brayton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/the-disappearance-and-mysterious-reappearance-of-matthew-brayton.html","title":{"rendered":"The Disappearance\u2014and Mysterious Reappearance\u2014of Matthew Brayton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a 19th century mystery concerning a certain Matthew Brayton, who disappeared as a small boy, was held an Indian captive for 34 years, then one day reappeared.<\/p>\n

But, was it really him?<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Evening Post (New York City, New York), 3 December 1859, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is a gripping story about a young boy being kidnapped and then returning home as an adult. You will want to read all of An Indian Captive Reclaimed after Thirty-five Years\u2019 Absence \u2013 Incidents of his Life<\/a> in the Evening Post<\/em> (New York City, New York), 3 December 1859, page 1.<\/p>\n

On 20 September 1825 Matthew Brayton set off from home to gather the family\u2019s cows. He was about eight years old\u2014and wouldn\u2019t be heard from again for 34 years. Kidnapped by the Indians, he was one of thousands of Indian captives in America from the 17th to 19th centuries.<\/p>\n

Imagine his family\u2019s joy when he finally turned up again!<\/p>\n

A great, heartwarming story of a missing boy finally returned home, except\u2014it apparently isn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n

Digging deeper into genealogy records we find Matthew Brayton\u2019s obituary and even his photograph\u2014and the true story comes to light.<\/p>\n

\"Mathew<\/a>
Salem Register (Salem, Massachusetts), 23 February 1863, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Matthew Brayton\u2019s old obituary, printed in the Salem Register<\/em> (Salem, Massachusetts), 23 February 1863, page 2, gives us the rest of the story.<\/p>\n

After returning from his long Indian captivity, Matthew Brayton lived with his supposed father, Elijah Brayton, for the next nine months. Then in June 1860 he told his \u201cfather\u201d that he really wasn\u2019t Matthew Brayton at all. Was this a 19th century scam? Perhaps\u2014but Matthew Brayton didn\u2019t give any further details of why he had lied about who he was.<\/p>\n

Perhaps he simply didn\u2019t want to \u201cmanage the farm that Mr. Brayton had promised to give him.\u201d After telling the Braytons the truth, Matthew left their farm and joined the 4th Michigan Cavalry as \u201cMatthew Brayton.\u201d He died a few years later in 1863 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.<\/p>\n

Here is a photograph of him in uniform.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Credit: Find-A-Grave<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Genealogy Search Tip<\/strong>: Just because something is in print doesn\u2019t make it true.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t stop at the first story you find about your ancestor. Keep digging and make sure you uncover all of the facts.<\/p>\n

Find the stories of your family\u2019s history. Document them, preserve them and pass them down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a 19th century mystery concerning a certain Matthew Brayton, who disappeared as a small boy, was held an Indian captive for 34 years, then one day reappeared. But, was it really him? This is a gripping story about a young boy being kidnapped and then returning home as an adult. You will want to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[3287,3285,422,3284,1129,1658,2233,1762,465,2191,5325,3286,5354,5355,3281,2891,878,2020,27,1084,5426,1104,496,5460],"class_list":["post-2927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-4th-michigan-cavalry","tag-brayton","tag-civil-war","tag-elijah-brayton","tag-family","tag-family-history-2","tag-family-research","tag-father","tag-historical-newspapers","tag-history","tag-indian","tag-indian-captives","tag-life","tag-long","tag-matthew-brayton","tag-murfreesboro","tag-new-york-city","tag-newspaper-archives","tag-newspapers","tag-obituaries","tag-records","tag-tennessee","tag-tn","tag-young"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}