Finding Charlie for the Second Time

By Erv Lenzy

Every family has its stories. Ours came with a warning.

Growing up, I was told about Charlie—the gambler, the ghost. A great-grandfather who supposedly died in Texas sometime in the 1910s. Or maybe it was the 1920s. Or maybe… not at all. His name floated through old conversations like cigarette smoke. Elusive. Hard to pin down. Romanticized, maybe. Or maybe just lost to time.

By the time I reached my early 20s, I couldn’t let it go.

I was working part-time in a community college computer lab, the kind of place where time moved slow and the hum of old desktops never quite faded into the background. Most people were printing assignments or checking email. Me? I was deep in the past, mining whatever genealogy scraps I could find online.

And then one day, something changed.

FamilySearch.com had just rolled out something revolutionary: Every U.S. Census, digitized and indexed, searchable by name. That may not sound like much today, but back then? It was a game-changer.

First stop: the 1880 census.

I typed in Charlie's name and what I kne wabout him. Hw was born in Fannin county, Texas, around 1880. I already knew about “Gambler Charlie,” the man from the old family stories who vanished under suspicious circumstances. I wanted to find proof—not just old rumors. And maybe he was already born when the census workere stopped by. Maybe he would be listed. Maybe.

I clicked submit. waited for the slow internet connection to load the next page, and then... there he was. Six months old. Living with his parents and siblings. The tiniest entry on the page—but my heart jumped. It was him. Next stop: the 1900 census. I wanted to see if his family was still living in the same county, since I now knew the name of his father. 

And then came the moment. 

There was his family. Still in Fannin county. Still in Texas. I was not prepared for what came next. Charlie was still living there:

He was listed as single. I had just found the character I now refer to as "Bachelor Charlie." Still living with his parents at 20 years old. Listed as single. Occupation: Farm Hand. No sign of Henrietta. No kids. No obvious ties to the life that would eventually make him vanish. I stared at the screen in silence. This was the man before the mystery. Before the train accident story. Before he disappeared from our family line.

I had known about Charlie the myth.
Now, I had found Charlie the man.

There’s something surreal about connecting with someone who lived a hundred years before you. Especially when they’re family. Especially when their story is still unfinished. That day in the computer lab was the first time the ghost became real. And it was the moment this whole journey truly began.

I didn’t know it then, but that discovery, Bachelor Charlie in 1900, would set me on a path that’s still unfolding. Every record, every name, every vague newspaper clipping since has been about chasing that one question: What happened to Charlie Henderson?

Welcome to Finding Grandpa Charlie. The podcast, the blog, the journey. Let’s dig into the past together… and maybe, just maybe, bring Charlie home.