In the last week or so, I have been trying to flesh out more of the family of one of my paternal Great-grandfathers, William Henry Taylor. William Henry, or W H as he is often listed in records, was born in West Virginia. A few years after marrying my Great-grandmother, they moved to Nebraska. They moved around over the years, and in earlier blog posts I have detailed the moves. Eventually, my Great-grandparents settled in Malden, Missouri, where they lived out their remaining years.
What I originally set out to do was to locate the birth record for William Henry Taylor. I knew his birth information from his obituary and his death certificate. There was a one day discrepancy between the two. While both showed November, 1857 as the month and year, the obituary listed the day as the 10th, while the death certificate listed it as the 11th. Which one was correct?
From the death certificate, I also knew the names of both parents: John C Taylor and Eliza Ann Oldaker. I hoped I wouldn’t have much difficulty in locating the birth certificate for William Henry.
My research was done on the search site for West Virginia Vital Records. If you have family from West Virginia, I recommend using this site if you want to find records of birth, marriage, or death. While most records start in the 1850’s, there are a few counties that go back to the 1790’s, long before West Virginia was declared a state in 1863.
Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped. W H was proving to be elusive. He however, was not the only child of John and Eliza Taylor, and I had more success with some of his siblings.
These are the names of the children of John and Eliza Taylor in birth order (name in bold type means I have found their birth record:
Lydia A (have also seen Phoebe A M listed on a record as an alternate name)
Benjamin Ison
William Henry
Joseph Elza
Alonzo F
Aaron L
Luretta A J (have seen Lunetta R as an alternate name)
Margarett J
John C
This post deals with the youngest sibling I have found: John C Taylor.
I believe John C was likely named after his father. I don’t know much about naming traditions yet, but I have seen a lot of children whose names were a combination of their grandparents names (a hint on Ancestry.com that I haven’t followed yet shows that my 3x Great-grandfather could be Henry Taylor and I believe William could have been an Oldaker based on other hints I’ve received.
I found John’s birth record quite easily:
The year is 1880. As you can see, the date of birth is April 8th.
Being this was the beginning of a new decade, the US Census was likely to have a record for baby John, and I was not disappointed. This was the household on June 12, 1880:
As you can see, the oldest four children, including my Great-grandfather, are no longer living with their parents. Notice that both mother and child are listed as ill at the time of the census. I cannot be sure, but it looks like the word listed there might be dysentry – possibly dysentery. Dropsy is also listed as an illness for the mother. The older John’s sister Catherine is living with them. Is she there perhaps to help take care of her sick nephew and his mother?
Wikipedia lists dysentery as “an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing blood and mucus in the feces with fever, abdominal pain, and rectal tenesmus (a feeling of incomplete defecation), caused by any kind of infection.” Dropsy is edema or swelling, and could be caused by any number of factors, including diseases of the kidneys or heart.
Especially for such a young child, dysentery could have serious consequences, as the diarrhea could cause dehydration. And, unfortunately for young John, that was the case:
The death record says the cause of death was not known. John died on June 16th, just 4 days after the Census was completed.
It is sad to see any life cut short. For this one life, three records are all that we have to show the brief span of time that young John was on this earth.
Sometimes, on a journey, you veer off the path you had chosen to take. Perhaps you saw a sign offering you a chance to see some great local sight. Maybe you just happened to look over and see something to the side of the road, and you wanted to check it out.
In one instance, my husband and I, while on our honeymoon trip, were enticed by a tape.
Though the Polaroid I took was slightly damaged, it still shows the “Sky Blue Journal” set of tapes that offered us insight into history and sites as we traveled through Minnesota. In the background, you can see one of those sites. You can also see our travelling companion, Blue. That’s another story. 😉
The tape happened to mention there was a statue of the Jolly Green Giant just a few miles away from where we were travelling. Of course, I wanted to see it. So, we went, and sure enough, there he was! You almost expected to hear the “Ho, ho, ho!” from the massive, 55 foot tall guy. We didn’t stay long, but we got pictures and enjoyed a quick break from our cross-country trip.
Lately, with my research, I’ve felt pretty much the same way. I try to focus in on one person, but I might catch a glimpse of something that leads me off my path.
For instance, I started researching my great-grandmother, Bessie Mae Layne Newell Massey. I was hoping to find some additional records about Herbert Newell, her first husband and my great-grandfather. Instead, I wound up getting more information about George Massey, her second husband. While interesting, it was not what I was looking for.
I did find one item today on one of these side trips that gave me some additional information on my grandmother’s family. I was looking for information on another great-grandfather, Manford Lawson, and came upon a death certificate for one of his sons:
You can see that James died of whooping-cough. This is just about the time that the whooping-cough vaccine was developed. Too bad it didn’t save him.
James was another of the family’s “One Hit Wonders”. He made his one and only appearance in 1920 on the US Census.
James in the 1920 Census.
Sometimes, being sidetracked can be fun, but at other times, it can be frustrating. I’ve had a particular post in mind, and it just seems like every time I start the research for it, I find myself on tangents. Even fruitful moments like finding the death record for James don’t make up for the fact that, right now, I should be finding other records for other family members.
Have you ever been sidetracked like this? If so, how do you break away from the side trips and get back to your genealogical path?
Does anyone else remember the television show “In Search of…”? I used to love watching it. My Dad turned me onto it at first. It was in the late 70’s and early 80’s; about the time I was in high school. The show was hosted by Leonard Nimoy, and was done documentary style.
The focus of the show was to explain mysteries and phenomena. Some shows dealt with natural occurences like tornadoes. Others delved into things like ESP or UFOs. Several shows dealt with mysteries of historical significance as well, like Jack the Ripper, the lost colony of Roanoke, Virginia, or even Dracula (Vlad the Impaler, but of course, they did touch upon the vampire as well).
“In Search of…” never claimed to have the correct answer. It gave the facts, provided some possibilities, but ultimately, it left it up to the viewer to make up their minds as to what the explanation really was.
In going through my family history, I have a few mysteries. One that keeps drawing my attention is a child without a name. So today on my genealogical journey, I’m going ‘In Search of…’ Baby Taylor.
I’ve actually mentioned this baby before. I first discovered information about this child on the 1900 US Census when tracing my great-grandparents’ travels from their native West Virginia.
My Grandfather and His Family
My great-grandmother has eight living children, but had nine children in total. The ninth child, Baby Taylor, is our mystery. When and where was the baby born? Was it a boy or a girl? How long did the child live? When and where did it die?
Assuming the child was not born out-of-wedlock, the date of birth would be some time after my great-grandparents were married. My great-grandfather’s obituary stated:
He was married on March 15, 1883 to miss Georgia Chrisman and to this union nine children were born….
I was able to confirm the date of the marriage using data from a vital records search at the West Virgina Division of Culture and History site (West Virginia has been probably one of the easiest places I’ve found to search for such information, and if you have family members that are from West Virginia, I would recommend searching there).
The date of the 1900 US Census was the 29th of June. So, I was looking at a window of birth somewhere between March 15, 1883 and June 29, 1900 (about a 17 year window).
Looking further into my great-grandfather’s obituary, it provided me with more information:
He moved with his family to Nebraska in 1884 and for nine years resided in that state. In 1893, he moved to Gallatin, Mo., where he made his home for sixteen years, moving from there to Arkansas, where he lived for three years.
So, unless born on the move from West Virginia to Nebraska in some state between those places, the baby would have been born in West Virginia, Nebraska, or Missouri. Those were the three states the family lived in within that 17 year window.
The birth months and years on the census of the 8 children known are:
Millard D. – October 1885
Oscar R. – March 1887
Boyd – July 1888
Lucy D. – April 1891
Ethel – November 1892
Anna M. – February 1894
Hazel – May 1896
Floyd R. – April 1900
I decided to look at the gaps between events:
From Marriage until birth of Millard D. – 31 months
Between Millard D. and Oscar R. – 17 months
Between Oscar R. and Boyd – 16 months
Between Boyd and Lucy D. – 33 months
Between Lucy D. and Ethel – 19 months
Between Ethel and Anna M. – 15 months
Between Anna M. and Hazel – 27 months
Between Hazel and Floyd R. – 47 months
I excluded any gap that would be too small for another baby to be born (assuming a normal term of 9 months for each baby, that would mean less than 18 months).
So, that left me with the following possibilities for Baby Taylor’s birthday (assuming the baby was not a twin of a sibling):
Between March 1883 and January 1885
Between April 1889 and July 1890
Between January 1892 and February 1892
Between November 1894 and August 1895
Between February 1897 and July 1899
The third one I found highly unlikely. My great-grandmother would have been almost constantly pregnant!
One day on familysearch.org, I was searching for more information on my great-grandparents, and I got a suggestion for an ancestral file. I went to look at it, and it showed the names of both my great-grandparents, and there were correct dates, including the date of their marriage. Underneath that it said “Show Children (9)”.
I figured that perhaps when I clicked on it, I would get eight names and then some “?” type entry for Baby Taylor. Instead, I got a name:
name:
Amy C TALOR
gender:
Female
birth:
15 Dec 1883
,, WV
death:
11 Aug 1885
afn:
6WK2-VK
AFN stands for Ancestral File Number, and is a unique indicator for that file.
Whoa! Not only a name, but a birth date and a death date too! The birth date and place listed was plausible; it was exactly nine months after my great-grandparents were married (that must have been some wedding night)!
But, before getting too excited, I wanted to check this out. Could I find the records that matched the information? Was Amy C. Talor (not sure why the different spelling) truly Baby Taylor?
So, back I went to my favorite vital research page in West Virginia, typed in Amy C. Taylor (figuring the Talor was a misspelling), Lewis County (last residence place of my great-grandparents), 1883, female, and hit search. I got back…nothing.
I started playing around with it. I changed the search to All Counties. Nothing. I changed the spelling to Talor. Nothing. I changed it back and just tried Amy. Still nothing.
Finally, out of frustration, I decided just to search just the last name. Show me all female Taylor babies born in West Virginia in 1883. That time, I got a list. Two results on the list of 25 caught my eye:
My great-grandparents were also born in Upshur county, and the date was two days off from the date given on the AFN record. While record 7 said Annie C. instead of Amy C., it was the same initials, and Lewis county was a possibility as well.
The unnamed Taylor girl did not turn out to be the right one. While the father’s name was listed as Wm., the mother was Idella M. and not Georgianna. Would I fare any better with Annie? See what you think:
The father’s name is hard to read here. It looks like a W and another letter. On the opposite page is listed the mother’s name, and the name of the person who reported the birth. The mother’s name is listed as “Georgie”. I wondered…would someone have heard the name Georgianna and thought it was two names instead of one (Georgie Anna)? I looked over to the name of the person that reported the birth. It happened to be the father, and he was listed as W. H. Taylor. The birth date was December 15th, an exact match to the record for Amy C.!
I thought of what that would mean that my great-grandparents had a child in 1883. They would have traveled miles with the baby in a wagon across several states to reach Nebraska. Where was she when she first started to crawl? In which state would she have taken her first steps? How would she have been kept occupied while her father worked on building their home?
Of course, I thought too about the death date that was listed. Annie would not have been quite two before she died. What happened? A sickness? An accident? Where would I find confirmation of the death date and would that provide other information?
Unfortunately, answers to those questions have yet to be answered. I have yet to confirm the death date, but I’m working on trying to reach the submitter of the AFN to see if I can get more details. I’m still looking for any other data on the family. I was hoping the 1885 Nebraska State Census would be helpful, but it hasn’t. I haven’t found any record of my family in it, even though I know they were there for Millard D.’s birth in 1885. They were supposed to have moved to Nebraska a year before that. Had something delayed them on the journey?
If I find out more information, I’ll share it when we go ‘In Search of…’ Baby Taylor Annie C. Taylor.
I know a lot of us are excited about the 1940 US Census being available for the first time today. I’m wondering what your plans are, and who you plan on looking for first?
Unfortunately, I’ll need to wait another ten years before I’ll be able to see my parents on the census. However, I still look forward to seeing my aunts and uncles on my Dad’s side of the family. And, on Mom’s side, I look forward to seeing her older sister make her only census appearance. I mentioned her in February; the little girl who died tragically.
Only “Poppa”, my Aunt Jeanette’s father, was my only living great-grandparent on my Dad’s side, but my great-grandparents on Mom’s side (with one exception) should all be alive. And, I was interested to find out more about their children and where they were in 1940.
I asked Bill who he would like to find out about first on his side of the family, and he said if possible, he’d like to find out more about his great-grandparents. We knew his great-grandmother Sabados would still be alive. We also knew his great-grandfather Schreckengost would be alive. However, we had no idea about when his mother’s maternal grandparents had died, and we had so far come up empty on the 1930 census, so they might be long dead, or we just hadn’t found the right connection to them yet.
One of the things I’m also excited to do tomorrow is that I have volunteered to help index the census records. I’m looking forward to it. It’s a way of giving back to the genealogical community, a community that has been so great in answering questions and giving advice to help further my adventure. I’m setting a goal to transcribe 1,000 names for the month of April. That’s about one full census sheet a day. I know it’s probably just a drop in the bucket, but together with all the others that will be volunteering, it will help in getting the information out there to all.
So, I wish you all the best in your searches. Good hunting!
At times, on a journey, you come across something unexpected, a discovery that lends a bit of excitement to your adventure. When Bill and I were last in Michigan several years ago, we visited Mackinac Island, a place I hadn’t been to since I was a kid. When I had been there with my family all those years ago, we had ridden bicycles around the perimeter of the island. Bill and I walked some of the paths farther in, and saw many wonderful wooded landscapes, and , a fort that I had never seen before.
Flags being raised at Fort Mackinac
Fort Mackinac was a well-known fort, and we got there early enough to see these Girl Scouts raise the flags that day. The fort we discovered though was not nearly as well fortified.
Bill in the doorway into Fort George/Fort Holmes
The fort was not much more than raised dirt walls, but according to the sign nearby it “was the bulwark of British defenses in 1814 when the American attack was repulsed.” I could see why. It was at the highest point on the island, and looked straight down on Fort Mackinac.
Looking down from our newly discovered fort, we could see the flags that we had watched the scouts raise a few hours before.
Not all discoveries come in the form of forts or buildings though. With genealogy, discovery often takes the form of documents; various records and photographs.
One such genealogical discovery I made was in the documents my father had sent me. One in particular I called “genealogy gold”. It was the obituary of my paternal great-grandfather, William H. Taylor.
William Henry Taylor Obituary
OLD RESIDENT OF THE CITY BURIED LAST FRIDAY
William H. Taylor, age 75 years, 3 months, and five days, who died March 15th, at his home here, was buried in Park Cemetry last Friday afternoon, following religious services which were conducted at the Methodist Church by the Pastor, the Rev. W. J. Velvick.
Mr. Taylor was born on Nov. 1o, 1857 in Upshur County, West Virginia, the son of John and Eliza Taylor. He moved with his family to Nebraska in 1884 and for nine years resided in that state. In 1893, he moved to Gallatin, Mo., where he made his home for sixteen years, moving from there to Arkansas, where he lived for three years. In 1913, he moved with his family to Malden and opened a furniture store having operated that business up until he was stricken with paralysi two years age. Mr. Taylor suffered his first paralytic stroke while serving on the election in1931, and had been unable to continue his business after that time.
He was married on March 15, 1883 to miss Georgia Chrisman and to this union nine children were born, three of these having preceded their father in death. Mr. Taylor is surviced by his wife and six children, these being: Roy Taylor of Carbondale, Ill.; Mrs. Dell Lukeheart, Ceadar grove, Iowa; Mrs. Ethel Littell, Mounds, Ill.; Mrs. Maud Hester of Malden;Mrs. Hazel Nobel of Parma; and Ralph Taylor of Flint, Michigan.
On the date of his death, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, were celebrating their golden wedding anniversary, having been married for fifty years.
(handwritten) 2 of the songs (Some Day We’ll Know, Abide With Me)
Wow! I was blown away! Basically this one document confirmed every bit of census data that I had already found, and filled in a few details as well. Within about a year of marrying my great-grandmother, they had moved to Nebraska, where census data showed that five of their children were born: Millard Dee (1885), Roy Oscar (1887), Boyd (1888), Lucy Dell (1891), and Ethel (1892). In 1893, the family moved to Gallatin, Missouri in Daviess County and lived there for sixteen years, enough time for three other children to be born: Anna Maud (1894), Hazel (1896), and Floyd Ralph, my grandfather (1900).
My Grandfather and His Family
Now looking at the fact that 9 children were born and only 8 were living, I knew that child number nine could have been born in West Virginia prior to the first move, in Nebraska, in Missouri, or possibly somewhere along the road. My best guesses were that, barring the possibility of a twin, it would be a child older than Millard, a child born in the gap between Boyd and Lucy Dell, or in the gap between Hazel and my grandfather.
They would live there until about 1909, when they moved to Arkansas, just in time to be there for the 1910 census.
Now there was no question; my family had indeed lived in Arkansas!
With the information from the obituary, I was now able to figure out which of the children were still living and which had died. Ethel, Maud, Hazel and my grandfather were still living with their parents. Roy and Dell were listed in the obituary. Therefore, Millard and Boyd had died. I was able to confirm this. I found a picture of their grave marker at findagrave.com. Boyd died in 1905; Millard in 1907. They were buried in Gallatin, Missouri.
Finally, my great-grandparents didn’t stay in Arkansas long; they moved to Malden in 1913, which is where they lived out their lives. My great-grandfather ran a furniture store until he had a stroke in 1931 when he was serving on the election, and he died in 1933 on the day of his golden wedding anniversary. It seems like the Ides of March was both a good and a bad day in his life.
I am not sure why this obituary was typed rather than a newspaper clipping like the one I was given for my great-grandmother. Perhaps the copy was in a very deteriorated condition, and the person who typed it wanted to retain the information, even if it wasn’t in its original form. Perhaps they copied it from a clipping that belonged to another member of the family. This likely was done before the age of the Xerox machine. It could have also been typed by one member of the family and mailed to another farther away.
The one piece of information that is on this typed copy though is one that you would not find in the newspaper. That is the handwritten note that indicates two of the songs played or sung at the funeral. Whoever wrote that down was either at the funeral or had spoken to someone who had been in attendance.
It’s always great to discover a new piece of information. It’s greater still when a piece of information confirms the data you have.
Where do my ancestors come from? It was a question I had asked myself many times, and I’m sure others have too. I personally don’t know the exact makeup of my own family. I have been told I have Native American ancestors on both sides, but as to those that came from other countries I am not certain. The names of my own ancestors suggest that I likely have roots in England and Scotland. At this point, I can’t pinpoint an exact location for my family, a specific point of origin from whence they came.
We had just found a possible match for Bill’s side of the family for his grandfather and great-grandmother, and in the ship’s manifest, it offered the information for the point of origin for these two travellers.
From the Alien Passenger Manifest of the S. S. Vaderland, sailing from Antwerp, June 27, 1908.
The name of the town these two came from was Zselyk, Hungary. Now, the strange thing was, this somehow seemed familiar. It seemed to me I had seen this name somewhere before.
From time to time, I go over records that I have looked at before, hoping to see if there is any other bit of information I can glean from them. I was looking again at a copy of the 1920 US Census for the family:
1920 US Census data for my husband's great-grandparents and his grandfather. Joseph is the name that is cut off.
In looking at the columns showing nativity and mother tongue, I noticed the census taker had been extremely thorough (thankfully!) in his job, not only entering the country, but the city as well.
The name of the city is listed on the census as Tselyk and the country as Austria-Hungary.
Zselyk/Tselyk, Hungary/Austria-Hungary; I realized they were a match! I couldn’t wait to find out where this city was, and so I typed Zselyk, Hungary as a search on Google Maps. I got nothing back. I tried Tselyk, Hungary. Still nothing.
I was missing something. I had forgotten that a lot had changed in the Hungary that Bill’s ancestors had left and the Hungary of today. Hungary was a much larger country prior to World War I, as older maps will show. After World War I, the country was divided up among several other countries, so it was possible that the city I was looking for was in another country altogether.
I decided to try another tactic and typed into my Google search engine “Where is the city of Zselyk, Hungary currently located?” I started scrolling through the beginnings of the 386 hits I received, and one name popped up over and over again: Jeica, Romania. Now, searching for Jeica, I was able to find the town. It lies on the western side of the Carpathian Mountains in the region known as Transylvania.
So, in this case, some of the family lore turned out to be true! The family’s point of origin was a small village in Transylvania. As to the part about vampires, Bill doesn’t mind garlic at all; it’s onions he can’t stand.
So, now the only person whose ship we needed to locate was Bill’s great-grandfather, the other Mihály Szabados. The only trouble was, I was getting a lot of hits for the name, and nothing I was finding was making sense. The point of origin was off, or the destination wasn’t right. I thought perhaps I would need to put several possibilities in the Shoe Box for a while.
Then, I started to think about what Mihály’s most immediate destination would have been. While ultimately, he was bound for Columbus, Ohio, his ship would likely dock somewhere on the East Coast. The most likely destination? Ellis Island.
Over 12 million immigrants started their journey into the United States through Ellis Island. Through the ship manifests for the Mauretania and the Vaderland, I knew that the ships that had brought the rest of the family to the US had docked in New York; would I be fortunate enough to find my final ship had done so also?
So, I went to the Ellis Island web site and did a passenger search. The information they asked for was simple: (optional) first name, last name, approximate year of birth, and gender. The 1910 US Census estimated the birth year as 1875; I asked it to search within two years before and after that date. I received a total of five hits. Most I dismissed right away because the year of arrival was way off. In the response information though, they gave the point of origin, and for one, the place listed was “Zsalik”, which seemed a likely misspelling for Zselyk.
Alien Passenger Manifest for the S. S. Cedric, sailing from Liverpool on March 14, 1906, arriving in New York March 24, 1906.
When I saw the destination was Columbus, Ohio, I knew that I had found the right person. In glancing just below Bill’s great-grandfather though, I noticed the name of another Szabados (Yanos, or Janos) that was crossed out. I wondered why this had happened. Had this other person died on the trip over? Had he been turned away and returned to his own country? Who was this person, and was there a connection between him and Bill’s great-grandfather? For now, those questions remain unanswered.
On Ancestry.com, I found out why I had been having such difficulty locating the record. The name had been transcribed incorrectly. Instead of Szabados, they had transcribed it as Szahados. I was able to take advantage of a feature of Ancestry.com that allows you to suggest a correction for information on a record. By submitting a correction suggestion, it makes it easier for someone else to find a record.
I was able to find the records for Bill’s great-grandmother and his grandfather through Ellis Island also, but not for his grandmother, Mary. I found this a bit strange at first. Since I knew which ship Mary travelled on, I did a search by ship as well. The Mauretania had records of going through Ellis Island in 1921, but nothing in July when Mary came to the US. In 1921, there were changes in the laws (specifically in the quota laws that were adopted), but why that might have meant that Mary’s boat did not go through Ellis Island, I am not sure.
When I decided to trace my great-grandfather’s journey from West Virginia to Malden, Missouri, I never realized what a long and winding road his path would take! Malden was his family’s final destination, but by no means was it their only one.
I had already found a 1930 US Census that showed my grandparents had already moved to my home town of Flint, Michigan. As my grandfather was their youngest child, it was likely all the children were married or out of the house. Once I found the 1930 census, it confirmed my suspicions:
Portion of the 1930 US Census showing my great-grandparents.
My great-grandparents were living by themselves. I knew where my grandfather was at this time. Where were all of his siblings?
I did learn a few things from this survey. My great-grandparents owned a home, valued at $1,500 (not bad considering that this was after the start of the Great Depression). While you cannot see it from this except, my great-grandfather was not working, nor had he ever been a veteran. There was a discrepancy between the 1900 US Census and this one: back in 1900, my great-grandmother had been listed as being born in West Virginia like her husband, William Henry. However, on this census, she was listed as being born in Virginia! Which one was correct?
I decided to keep working backwards, and found them again in 1920 in Malden, Missouri, this time with one child still at home.
1920 and one child left in the house: my grandfather!
Georgia didn’t seem to know which side of the state line she was born on. This time, not only is she born in West Virginia, but so are her parents! In 1930, they, like her, had crossed over the border to be born in Virginia.
As I continued research on this and other parts of my family tree, I would learn over and over again that records can contain inaccurate and sometimes misleading information. I also began to distinguish between primary source data, and secondary source data.
The US Census contains a mixture of both. It is a primary source for where a person resided on the date that the census occurred. Much of the other data though is a secondary data source. Ages and birth year and month, places of birth, and places of parent’s birth are second-hand information on these records. Other records (like a birth certificate) would be a primary data source that could confirm the information on the census.
For now though, I would continue one more decade back and fill in the last gap. With the information on the 1910 US Census, I would be able to see the movements of my ancestors over a 40-year span.
So:
1930 – Malden, Missouri
1920 – Malden, Missouri
1910 – ?
1900 – Daviess County, Missouri
My working theories were:
The family would still be in Daviess County.
The family would be somewhere in Missouri between Daviess County and Dunklin County, where Malden is.
Since some of the children had been born in Nebraska prior to 1900, the family might have moved back there for a time between the two locations in Missouri.
The family would have already moved to Malden.
It’s nice to have theories, but of course it is the facts that will show where their path had really taken them. And, once again, the path led to a place I didn’t expect.
In 1910, my family lived in...Arkansas?
Here’s a copy of the 1900 Census too:
My Grandfather and His Family
It didn’t faze me in the least that in 1900 my grandfather was listed as Floyd R. and in 1910 was listed as Ralfa. Ralph was his middle name, and Ralfa I am sure, was a misspelling on the part of some well-meaning census worker. The M in Anna M. stood for Maud, so again, they had been easy to match up. Of course, Hazel and Ethel were pretty obvious matches.
What of the other children? Well, I knew from 1900 that my great-grandmother had nine children and eight were living. I noticed in 1910, the number of living children had dropped to six. Two of my grandfather’s siblings had died. We knew for sure the four children listed on the 1910 Census were alive. The four not on this census were Millard D., Oscar R., Boyd, and Lucy D.. Which two had lived, and which two had died?
I wondered what had brought my great-grandparents to Arkansas. You could almost draw a line straight down from Daviess County to Sevier County. What had sparked their southern migration? And why, within 10 years, had they returned to Missouri, this time settling in the southeast corner of the state?
It was certainly a long and winding road I had discovered on my great-grandparents’ journey to the West. From the information I had gathered so far, they had left West Virginia some time prior to 1885 (the approximate year their oldest known child was born in Nebraska). They stayed in Nebraska long enough to have at least five children. From there, the family traveled to Daviess County, Missouri, which is likely where my grandfather was born (and possibly at least two other siblings as well). The unknown 9th child could have been born in any of these locations. All we know for now is that as of 1900, the child no longer was alive.
By 1910, the family had lost two more of its children, and gained one new family member, a mother-in-law (which means this would be my great-great-grandmother). The name is listed as what appears to be Luveza Olaker (Ancestry.com listed the name as Luvcza Olaker, but I think my interpretation of the handwriting is closer to the truth). Two of the children had also moved on to their own paths in life. The family had also moved south and slightly west to Sevier County, Arkansas, a county just to the east of the Oklahoma border, and not too far away from the northeast border of Texas.
Ten short years later, the family returned to Missouri, this time residing in Dunklin County in the town of Malden. The 1920 Census only shows my grandfather residing in the home with his parents. There is not information given on this Census to indicate whether there are fewer living children now; we only know that by 1920, my grandfather’s remaining siblings had left their parents’ home. In 1920, I also learned that my great-grandfather was running a furniture store, and my grandfather was listed as being in sales (was he working for his father?).
By 1930, my grandfather had already moved out on his own and was working on raising a family of his own in Flint, Michigan. His parents, still residing in Malden, were no longer working. They lived in a house they owned.
I had exhausted this path for the moment, and so I turned to yet another detour. However, a surprising piece of information would soon come my way that would confirm much of the research I had just done.
In my earliest post, I mentioned that part of my motivation to begin research on my family tree was a request by my Dad to track down his brother’s children, whom the family had lost track of after their parents divorced. I had decided to try and use the past to help make the link to the present.
However, my uncle was a rather elusive character in the past. Part of that was the lack of information I had on him. Sure, I had his full name. I had his military service number. I knew some of the general places he had lived, and one specific place (the one place we had as a family visited several times when I was young). From census data, I was able to get an approximation of when he was born. But as far as specifics, I knew little.
While I had gotten from the US Census data on Ancestry.com a year and a month of birth, I did not have an exact date. My uncle had been in the Air Force. I did not know when he enlisted or when he left the service. My searches on Ancestry.com were not revealing much of anything on the Air Force at all. It seemed strange, so I started expanding my search. which led me to the National Archives.
As I was looking around, I happened to spot a link about a fire in 1973, and so I decided to follow it. I was dismayed by what I read. Fire had devastated several of the records for both Army and Air Force personnel; 75% of the records for those in the Air Force discharged between September 25, 1947 to January 1, 1964 that were in alphabetical order after Hubbard, James E. were gone. There had been no copies, and no indexes. They were totally destroyed.
I felt I had reached my first major road block to any progress in finding the information I sought. Military records might have listed information on my uncle’s dependents, so I might have gotten more information about them that way. Without those records though, I might not ever be able to find the information about my aunt or my cousins.
However, this particular road block could possibly be cleared. After all, what if my uncle was discharged after January 1, 1964? What if his was one of the 25% that somehow survived the fire? Without investigating further, I would not know whether the fate of my uncle’s military records was safe or in flames.
Since I knew that military records could be requested free by next of kin, I turned to the only living next of kin I knew of: my Dad. I made it as easy as I could for him. I filled out the forms with all the data we had for my uncle, and then sent them on to him to sign and then mail.
While we waited for those records, I wasn’t going to stay idle. I did take some detours on my journey at this time. I decided to see how far back I could go on the Taylor side of the family tree. I had found information on my great-grandfather, William H. Taylor, in Missouri in 1900, but not anywhere near where I expected him to be. I knew based on the census data that he was born in West Virginia. How had he gotten from West Virginia to Missouri, and from the upper part of Missouri down to the southeast corner?
My second detour would actually be a jump from the Taylor path completely. I would begin researching my mother’s side of the family.
Finally, my third detour would not even be about my own family tree at all. I would begin looking at my husband’s family tree. My husband’s paternal grandparents had immigrated to the US from Hungary. I wondered when and where they had arrived in the US, and from whence their journey had begun.
While I had hoped that at least part of this adventure would be a snap, it was proving to be a bit more arduous in the earlier stages. Answers were not going to always come easily. Genealogical records were not always going to be out in plain site, and not every person on my tree at Ancestry.com would have a hint leaf next to their name. I would need to dig to uncover the information. My ancestors were out there, waiting to be discovered, and I knew the best way to find them was to keep looking. One path may be blocked, but others were open to travel and be discovered.