Mercy Vanaman bought a quaint 1930s house in Hayward, California, three years ago from an estate sale of Jean Elizabeth Mitchell, a 98-year-old woman who had died two years before.
Surrounded by Mitchell’s records and a house wired for speakers, Vanaman began piecing together the life of the former occupant.
“She lived here for most of her life,” Vanaman said. “It was built in 1934, which is kind of the height of the Great Depression. So, my suspicion is that there was some Hollywood money involved.
“We found some other stuff that suggest it came from Hollywood roots, because that was the only way to have money out here back then.”
She also found a cache of decades-old celluloid and photos that are distinctly not Hollywood — they came from Cheyenne, Wyoming.
From the clues left behind, she believes that Mitchell had arrived in California as an 18-year-old to become a singer in Hollywood.
Instead, she went to work for Pacific Bell doing local theater productions whenever the chance presented itself.
Wyoming Connection
During recent renovations in the attic, Vanaman discovered a metal box full of home videos from Wyoming labeled with the names of Preston and Pat Mitchell and a Cheyenne address.
This discovery put her on a quest to reunite the film with the Mitchell family or, at the very least, return them to Wyoming.
“I was hoping to find Mitchells in Wyoming that would be interested in having some of the heirlooms,” Vanaman told Cowboy State Daily. “It's been quite the adventure from one lazy little post trying to get rid of videos.”
The problem is that the home movies are from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, decades removed from their origins in Cheyenne.
Under the name Mercy Cat, Vanaman took her search online to the Wyoming History Facebook page with photos of the film boxes.
“I'm in California and bought my house from a deceased lady with roots in Wyoming,” Vanaman wrote. “I found a box of old strip films from the ’50s of home videos. First steps and anniversaries and the like.
“I've tried to contact people from the Mitchell Family but no luck. They're labeled Pat and Preston Mitchell, and my house was owned by Jean Elizabeth Mitchell. If anyone is interested in these please let me know?”
The response was immediate, and her inbox was flooded with clues and hints.
But it wasn’t until a forensic genealogist got involved that the right family was found.
Tracking Down The Right Mitchell
Vanaman called numerous Mitchells, but none were the right match.
“Everyone has just been so sweet and trying to be helpful,” Vanaman said. “One was a former private detective that looked deep into it and was making phone calls but didn't come up with anything.”
As amateur sleuths threw out ideas and their Google finds, Carla Edwards, a retired forensic genealogist, offered to do some pro bono work to find the missing family.
“Preston Mitchell was a surprisingly common name,” Edwards said. “I found five different Preston Mitchells around the country and some of whom had passed away.”
After only a short search, Edwards was able to connect the correct Preston Mitchell to both the Cheyenne address and the one in Hayward, California.
“A lot of times when you're going back in history, the records you have to rely on are sometimes difficult to sort through,” Edwards said. “That's when somebody with my level of expertise can kind of cut through the chaff to actually get to the kernel.”
Edwards discovered that Preston Mitchell had died in California, and he had owned the home where the old home movies had been discovered. The film was dated prior to his marriage to Jean Elizabeth and to the time he lived in Cheyenne with his first wife.
It is a satisfying conclusion for Edwards who located Preston Mitchell’s closest relative.
“I do a lot of pro-bono work when I know that I have the skills and tools necessary in order to help develop a next of kin,” Edwards said. “I've worked for medical examiners around the state of Wyoming to locate next of kin of deceased decedents who had passed away.”
If the family is not interested in the films, they do have a place to go in Wyoming where they will be cherished as a historical record of the Cowboy State.
The Kodak film reels were discovered in an attic in California. They feature scenes from the late 1940s, early 1950s from Cheyenne, Wyoming. (Courtesy Mercy Vanaman) 
The Kodak film reels were discovered in an attic in California. They feature scenes from the late 1940s and early 1950s from Cheyenne, Wyoming. (Courtesy Mercy Vanaman) 
Image from a 1951 reel featuring home movies of a Cheyenne, Wyoming, family. (Courtesy Mercy Vanaman) 
The small box was found in a Californian attic recently during renovations. Inside, were home videos from the late 1940s and early 1950s of Cheyenne, Wyoming. The owners would like to return the videos to Wyoming. Also found was an essay written by Don Mitchell, right. (Courtesy Mercy Vanaman) 
Image from a 1951 reel featuring home movies of a Cheyenne, Wyoming, family. (Courtesy Mercy Vanaman) 
The name on this film is “Pat Mitchell”. The film features scenes from around Cheyenne, Wyoming and were discovered in an attic in California. (Courtesy Mercy Vanaman) 
Image from a 1951 reel featuring home movies of a Cheyenne, Wyoming, family. (Courtesy Mercy Vanaman)
The Film
“The filmstrips from the ’50s and ’60s are fascinating in their own right,” Vanaman said. “There are high school reunions from 1950s in Wyoming and I’m excited to get them digitized to see them myself.”
Vanaman has successfully digitized the first of the films and posted it on her YouTube channel to share with people who, like her, are fascinated to see images from our past.
It’s labeled “Mitchell Wyoming 1951,” and the black-and-white images show a white picket fenced yard with the happy faces of the children frolicking and playing it up for the camera.
A 1951 steam locomotive is captured and a short scene of driving and smoking as they chase the train. In a jump to another time, the images switch to color and seem to feature a family celebrating Christmas and/or other holidays.
A Christmas party shows off the domestic scenes of a different Cheyenne. People are shown smoking beside the tree and grabbing a drink, followed by woman chatting on the couch and the grand dinner that is served at an adults-only table.
Another of the films is of a grainy basketball game at the local high school. Another scene is of a barbecue party with the notorious Wyoming wind blowing the tablecloths and food about.
Returning The Film To Wyoming
If unable to locate a close family member, Mercy has expressed interest in donating the films back to Wyoming and the American Heritage Center would be happy to accept them. The institute collects Wyoming history and the films fit their criteria for their collection.
“The American Heritage Center is first and foremost a research institution,” said Bill Hopkins, the AHC assistant director and head of collection management. “We prefer to have personal papers, personal materials, and primary sources that are identified and that have something to do with Wyoming and the American West.”
Hopkins said that they would be interested in these particular films because the people and place are identified.
If not verified, the material would not be as valuable to the university and other researchers. He said the center would then make the films available to students at the University of Wyoming and any public researchers who are interested in this era of Wyoming history.
One of those researchers may be Vanaman herself one day. Since the discovery of the film, she has discovered her own connections to Wyoming and the Mitchell family.
She believes that her grandmother was friends with Jean Elizabeth and had visited the house in the 1980s. In addition, Vanaman’s dad is an amateur genealogist and has found family connections to the early pioneers of Wyoming.
As Vanaman continues to digitize the film collection, she is excited to see them returned back to Wyoming. If the family doesn’t want them, she plans to donate them to an institute like the American Heritage Center.
“If I cannot find family members for them to go to,” she said, “then at least they'll be going to historical use.”
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
