Last month, Duncan (Don) McGruther let us know the very sad news that Sue Emerson, who compiled Magruders in America, the most comprehensive Magruder genealogy ever attempted, died on February 22.

I have been looking for an obituary, but without luck. I also have emailed her husband, Tim, at Sue’s email address, but received no reply. If anyone is in touch with Tim or other family, please let me know. Among other things, many of us would like to know if Magruders in America is still available.

Sue’s project–to find every recorded descendant of Alexander Magruder the Immigrant–took nearly twelve years of work and devotion. Long before comprehensive resources were available online she ransacked countless genealogies and local histories. She purchased records from the DAR and other organizations. She traveled the country with a scanner, visiting scores of archives and courthouses, piecing together the fabulous quilt of Magruder families. The resulting publication, Magruders in America, is a 1758-page PDF which Sue sold as a CD bundled with Duncan’s Wha’s Like Us: MacGrouthers in Scotland before 1855.

What an amazing gift she has left us!

Sue’s goal was impossible to achieve perfectly–imagine the number of names! of families! So, yes, there are errors. I use her work as a starting place, then look for documentation that proves or disproves her information. She has saved me hundreds–maybe thousands–of hours versus starting from scratch. And guess what–when someone gets in touch and asks if I can tell them something about their ancestor So-and-So, I always turn first to Magruders in America before moving on to other sources.

Those researching Alexander Magruder’s African-American descendants will not get the same kind of help from Sue’s work. Census records have preserved some evidence of people’s actual lives, but the persistence of anti-miscegenation laws meant that many generations passed before mixed-race marriages were legally recognized. Maybe your folks will be there, in more recent generations, but more likely the ancestral thread back to Alexander will have gone unrecorded and therefore undiscovered by Sue Emerson. However, few people find out much about their enslaved ancestors without also researching the people who held them in bondage, and for that work Magruders in America is invaluable. My personal approach is to look at entire extended families of slaveholders, tracking the multiple ways enslaved people were recorded and moved around among relatives. Needless to say, without Sue’s work mine would be infinitely more laborious and less productive.

Not everyone leaves a mark in this world. Magruders and other genealogists will always owe a debt to Sue Emerson.