The Smith Cousin...

Genealogy is not just about reaching out to find dead ancestors. It is also about connecting with living relatives. This concept was highlighted recently when a gentleman came into our Tuesday afternoon Genealogist Is In session.

His name is Smith and he was looking for a long lost cousin also named Smith...

GROAN!

For anyone who doesn't already know, SMITH is the most common surname in the United States., with 2.376 MILLION people having the name. That is half a million more than the runner-up surname: JOHNSON. So tracking down a SMITH can be problematic just because it is so common.

SMITH is the most common surname in all but a handful of  states.
Map and key found on WikiCommons, contributed by User:MB298/Maps

Another complication is that the gentleman believes that this cousin is still living. More recent records, of people still living, can be harder to find just because of various legal restrictions put into place to protect privacy and inhibit identity theft.

But the gentleman had a fair amount of information, so I was willing to try to help him.

This is the information he had:

His cousin's name at birth was Doris Jean SMITH, born around 1945 somewhere near McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Her parents were Kathrerine (WALLACE) SMITH and Denis SMITH. She had a brother named David. She married a man named KENNEDY and they had a daughter named Michelle.

OUCH! KENNEDY? Another fairly common surname. Oh, well, we carried on.

McKeesport is in Allegheny County in Pennsylvania. You might be more familiar with another city in Allegheny County - Pittsburgh.

So, we are searching in the vicinity of a major metropolitan area for the surname KENNEDY, nee SMITH.

Kathryn and Denis had divorced and were both deceased. Kathryn never remarried. The gentleman had many little stories about the family and shared a handful of family photos. Everyone in the photos shared the surname SMITH.

We searched in both Ancestry LE and FamilySearch.org, but was only able to turn up one item that might be Doris Jean SMITH. It was a yearbook picture from Indiana University of Pennsylvania that said the individual was an Elementary Education Major and was from Clariton, PA. Clariton is also in Allegheny County. The record indicated that her birthdate was 1947, a few years off. However, there wasn't a clear link to his Doris Jean. But she was a possible.

We spent a full hour searching from different angles, like looking for her mother's obituary, but still wasn't finding anything. He shared that he had several living cousins, one who organized the family reunion, that he could call and ask. As we had run out of time, I encouraged him to phone his cousins and wished him luck.

The Genealogist Is In! is a weekly program held at the Medina Library
every Tuesday from 1-4 p.m. One of the staff genealogists works with
members to help solve family research problems.

He came back the next week. He had called his cousins and they had no information on Doris Jean.

Then he pulled out one of the little snapshots he had shown me before that included his cousin as a young child. And he pulled out the yearbook photo we had found. The smile, the dimples, the nose, the eyes were the same! While it wasn't a positive identification, there was a definite resemblance.

He shared something that he hadn't before, Aunt Katherine was known by the nickname "Kay". So we started searching for that name, hoping that her obituary would list information on her daughter. We weren't turning anything up, but then I noticed a detail that made all the difference. Katherine spelled her name Kathryn. Now both Ancestry LE and FamilySearch.org return close matches when displaying their results, so I didn't think it would have made that much of a difference. But it did!

Now, we were finding high school yearbook pictures of Kathryn WALLACE (maiden name) and those photos also bore a striking resemblance to the lady, mother of Doris Jean, in his snapshots.

So we went back to looking for her obituary, using the correct spelling of her given name. And  WE FOUND IT!

Now we were making some progress. The obituary listed her daughter as Doris Jean KENNEDY, wife of John and her granddaughter as Michelle. But seriously? John KENNEDY. We knew he hadn't been president of the United States, but still there had to be scores of John KENNEDYs.

And there were. DOZENS of them showed up in the Reference USA White Pages Directory for Pennsylvania. We tried cross referencing for Doris Jean KENNEDY and only 3 appeared. But none of them shared an address or a phone number with the dozens of John KENNEDYs.

Reference USA is a subscription database available to Medina County
District Library card holders. It is primarily a database for business
statistics, but has a very reliable White Pages section.

The obituary also gave a nickname for Doris Jean. "Dee".

Then we tried what I often try when hitting a brick wall. I Googled "Doris Jean Kennedy Pittsburgh Pa". And one of the first sites that popped up was the site Spokeo. Now I am not a huge fan of Spokeo, but one of the things it does is groups together people who might be related based on other records. And there they were: Doris Jean Kennedy, also known as Dee J. Kennedy. David Kennedy. Michelle Kennedy. John Kennedy. All the people we know are Doris Jean's relatives.

And locations: Lived in: Pittsburgh, PA.  Notice the past tense? Lived in? And then we looked at the current location. A totally new location. But a totally plausible location for someone of retirement age.

Back at the Reference USA database we did a new search using the new city and state name and found a listing for Doris Jean KENNEDY that totally matched up with a John KENNEDY at the same address. And a phone number.

Now the gentleman is only a phone call away from reconnecting with his cousin.


Remember to utilize all types of techniques when doing family history research! Don't limit your searches to genealogy resources.

NEW BOOKS!

The following books were added to the local history collection in the month of April:

April 2018:

• First Congregational Church of Lodi 
• Granger’s Greats in Coddingville Cemetery 
• Granger’s Greats in East Granger Cemetery 
• Granger’s Greats in Reid Hill Cemetery 
• New Lakeshore Electric 
• Trolley Trails through Greater Cleveland and Ohio 
• Trolley Trails through Greater Cleveland and Ohio from 1910 to Today

SOURCES:

Ancestry Library Edition
FamilySearch.org
Findagrave.com
Reference USA - White pages
Google
Spokeo
Surname frequency in the US
Smith surname

Finding AMERICA!

Columbus "discovering" America. But, you know it wasn't lost, right?

No, this blog isn't about Columbus discovering America. It is about discovering my 3 X great aunt, America MASON! Whoopee!  And just like Columbus, I wasn't looking for America when I found her!

You might remember from my blog on January 12th  that America MASON was the fifth child of my 3 X great grandparents, William B. and Elizabeth R. MASON. She is also one of three that disappeared after an appearance in several census records. You will also remember that I resolved to research this family further in 2017.

On Friday the 13th (who says that is an unlucky day?) a search for Elizabeth MASON on the West Virginia Vital Records site revealed an E. MASON as the mother of a A. A. MELTEN who died 25 January 1874 in Putnam County, West Virginia. Remember, Putnam and Kanawha counties share a border and my MASON family lived right along that border for generations. The deceased father's first initial was given as "M" but from personal experience I know that an "W" is often confused for a "M" when transcribing handwritten records. A.A. MELTON's birth year was given as 1854, close enough to the Dec 1853 date I had for America's birth date to warrant a closer look.

Transcription of the death record for A.A. MELTON. Could this be the missing America MASON?
Mother's initial is E, possible for Elizabeth? Father's initial M? Is it a transcription error?

However,  the West Virginia Vital Records site was experiencing difficulties and the images were not available for display. This problem persisted for 4 days. Frustrating to say the least. Contact with their web master revealed that they were aware of the problem and their technology gurus were working on a solution.

So, what to do in the meantime? The abstract for the record gave her husband's name as "B.F. MELTEN". Since America was last listed with her family in the 1870 census, that was checked first for "B.F. MELTEN". A Benjamin F. MELTON was listed with Elizabeth MELTON's family along with 7 other supposed  family members in Putnam County. The 1870 census does not list relationships. A possible match for "B.F. MELTEN".

Benjamin F. MELTON was also listed in the 1880 Census for Kanawha County, with a wife and 2 children, the oldest of which was 3 years old. Still no conflicting information to eliminate him as a possibility as a husband for America.

But what about a marriage record for A.A. MASON and B.F. MELTON? It wasn't listed in the West Virginia Vital Records site, and while birth & death registrations can be hit or miss, marriage records seem to be better recorded. Multiple searches using different variations of their names did not help.

Time to employ an old "fall-back" search mechanism. GOOGLE! Yes, when I get stuck in my family research I will turn to Google to see if anyone else has already done the work. A search for "Benjamin MELTON" and "America MASON" did turn up a clue. Someone had posted on MyTrees.com  that a Benjamin MELTON had married and America MASON in 1873 in OHIO! WOW! Names and time period are right. But OHIO? from all accounts this family was poor. Why travel to Ohio to get married?

A FamilySearch query did not turn anything up. But the MELTON surname was familiar. A quick check of the family group chart for William B. MASON's family reminded me that America's sister, Nancy, had married a MELTON in 1877 in GALLIA COUNTY, OHIO! Really? Could it be?

My still- packed-away genealogy research boxes had some books on the marriages in Gallia County, Ohio, as that is where my father's family had resided. Dragged out the appropriate box from the cold garage and located at the bottom was Marriage Records 1851-1900 Gallia County, Ohio compiled by Michael L. Trowbridge. It is NOT indexed by every name, but does have a surname index and there on page 103, near the bottom is a listing for the marriage of Benjamin F. MELTON  and America A. MASON on 10 April 1873.

With this information in hand, finding the original record on the FamilySearch web site was easy.

Marriage Record for Benjamin MELTON and America MASON from the FamilySearch web site

While all of this information was intriguing, it still wasn't enough to convince me that A.A. MELTON was America MASON. I needed to see the original death record.

Finally, on Tuesday the 17th, the site was fixed and I could access the record image.

PART1: Red Arrow points to death Record for A.A. MELTON. Note that she was 20 years old and died in childbirth.
Green arrow points to death record for B.A. MELTON who died on 20 July and was 6 months old. THIS is her baby.

The transcription for B.A. MELTEN says that the baby's full name was Blanche. The record below reveals that her parents are B.F. and A.A. Melton. Since America MASON and Benjamin MELTON were married in April of 1873, their daughter was born almost exactly 9 months later.

PART 2: The red arrow on the left points to A.A. MELTEN's parents.

When compared to the "W" on the line above, it is clear that that is a letter "M".  Does this mean that A.A. MELTEN isn't America, the daughter of William B. & Elizabeth MASON?

Not necessarily. The red arrows on the right reveals who the informant  was for the record, "W.F. MELTEN", "Brother." He clearly isn't the brother of A.A. MASON, so he must be B.F. MELTEN's brother. How familiar would he be with his brother's in-law's, when the marriage had only lasted 9 months? 

I believe the initial "M" for A.A.'s father is a mistake, made by her brother-in-law. For now, I believe I have solved the disappearance of America MASON. And just as I guessed,  she must have "married or died". In reality, she had done both.

Is the case completely closed? 

No. New information found in the future could cause me to look at this assumption again. But for now...

BTW: My research plan for the MASONs for 2017 has been formulated. It will require field trips to other libraries, ordering FHL microfilms and maybe a trip to West Virginia!

AND, once I returned to searching for Elizabeth MASON (America's mother), a review of the records I already had gave me a clue to her. In the 1910 Census for her son, William H. MASON, an Elizabeth LISLIE is listed as his mother-in-law. William H.'s wife was Elizabeth HARMON and her mother was Rebecca BESS. Who is this Elizabeth LISLIE? Could the census taker misinterpreted the relationship?

In the 1900 Census for her daughter, Nancy MELTON, Elizabeth LESLIE was listed as the mother-in-law to Nancy's husband, Elisha MELTON. Could this be the elusive Elizabeth MASON?

A query in FamilySearch  turned up a marriage record for Elizabeth MASON to Samuel LESLEY in 1886. They are both listed as widow(er)s and she is listed as 50 years old. In the census records her age fluctuates as much as 7 years, so this is inline with that info.  Further search revealed a death record for Elizabeth LESLIE in 1916.

If this Elizabeth MASON LESLIE is the same woman as Elizabeth MASON wife to William B. MASON, I have discovered what happened to her, and narrowed William's death date to sometime between June of 1880 when he last appeared in the census and January 1886, when his wife Elizabeth remarried.

Unfortunately, I still have not found a death date for William B., nor the marriage record between him and Elizabeth, whose maiden name is still unknown.  And THAT is why you set goals!

Now, I know you aren't all that thrilled to learn about my research into the MASON family, but what this posting illustrates is:

1. Using multiple records to prove a connection.
2. Looking critically at sources. Who provided the information? Could mistakes have been made?
3. Examining details of resources you already have for clues.
4. Willingness to re-evaluate suppositions as new information is discovered.
5. Realization that spelling of names and dates of birth are very fluid in early records.

Curious about which DNA test is right for you? 

Check out this article from Family History Daily: Which Genealogy DNA Test is the Best?  I still like what Judy Russell, The Legal Genealogist, says; "Test with as many companies as you can afford." That strategy gives you the greatest chance of making connections.





SOURCES:
West Virginia Vital Records
FamilySearch
Google
MyTrees.com
Family History Daily
The Legal Genealogist