Did you perhaps have ancestors who lived through the Johnstown Flood of 1889 in Pennsylvania?
Or were your ancestors impacted by this terrible tragedy?
David McCullough wrote an excellent documentary of this event; the book included 17 pages of names of the dead and missing. These Potters were on that list:
Joseph R. Potter, age 63, from Woodvale; Mrs. Sarah Potter, age 59, from Woodvale; Nora G. Potter, age 17, from Woodvale.
Were these in your Potter ancestral tree?