EVER HAD ONE OF THOSE “SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD” MOMENTS IN YOUR RESEARCH?

Here are a couple of examples of those “DUH” moments we all have.  And maybe wish we didn’t.  The idea for this post came from a fellow genealogist who shared her moment.

EXAMPLE #1
 
Several years ago I was trying desperately to locate the death record and/or burial location of my 2nd great grandmother, Susan Caroline BOGGS.  She was born in 1842 in Lawrence Co., Ohio (daughter of William Allen BOGGS and Nancy Delilah LUNSFORD) and died in 1913.  Along the way she married James Gillen HUNTER with whom she had 9 children and after his death she married William CRESSE.  

At least that’s the information I had.  Some of that information was found in my research, other information was from the journal of names & dates kept by her granddaughter (my maternal grandmother).  Other information was taken from a handwritten obituary found among my grandmother’s effects.

Here is that record.
(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)



So why couldn’t I locate a death record for her?

I have notes of my various research strategies beginning in 2006.  I even sent a death certificate request to the State of Ohio, based on the information I had.  NO RECORD FOUND.

THE BREAK THROUGH….SLAP MY FOREHEAD  MOMENT

I had placed the obituary document in page protectors back in 2006.  One day in 2008, I realized I had never scanned the document.  

I take it out of the page protectors to scan it and…………….DRUM ROLL……….when I turned over page 3 there on the back was the following:

        “OBITUARY OF S. C. HANKINS”

WHAT?  She married a third time?  Is that what this means?

 

Yes, that’s exactly what that meant.  My next steps were:

• Check the Ohio Historical Society Death Index – Found her listed in Volume 1017, cert #13435 and the date of death listed exactly as my grandmother had it in her journal.  I sent for her death certificate immediately.
• Sent an email to the Service Director for Miamiville, Ohio, where the death index had indicated she died.  I received an email in return verifying she was buried at Evergreen Cemetery, Section B, Lots 128.  The email from the very kind Director included photos of her headstone and the headstone next to her which was her oldest son.  Surprise!  I didn’t know where Clyde was buried until I received this information.

Here is her death certificate, verifying all I had learned.

EXAMPLE #2

I was given permission to share this situation by a fellow genealogist in a group I belong to on Facebook called The Lawrence Register.  We are a group of people with ancestors from Lawrence County, Ohio.

 

Here is the exact entry she shared with us.

 

“Sometimes you just want to smack yourself up side the head, kick yourself in the butt and yell stupid!!! My gr-grandfathers 2nd marriage was recorded in the family bible so I never bothered sending for the original certificate. I have been trying to 20 years to find his mothers maiden name. 20 years. It is on the original certificate. Don't know whether to jump for joy or bang my head against the wall. Maybe I'll do both.”

 

LESSONS WE LEARNED

• Just because we have names & dates in our family Bible, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still seek records to give further proof.  What if the person making those Bible entries was wrong?
• Scan ALL documents BEFORE you put them safely away in binders, page protectors or files.
• Look at every document you receive from anyone or any place.  Look at it again and then look at it a third or fourth time. 
• For gosh sakes – turn pages over and look on the back. 
• Maybe it’s time to take another look at your documents or Bibles?

Thanks for letting me share this with you.  If you’ve had similar “moments” I would love to hear about them.  We can all laugh and shake our heads together, knowing we aren’t alone.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
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EVERNOTE - A VERY USEFUL AND FREE TOOL TO HELP YOU ORGANIZE GENEALOGY AND EVERYTHING ELSE

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

SIBLING SATURDAY–THE HUNTER SISTERS

MEET THE HUNTER SISTERS

Back row – left to right – Grace Hunter 1874-1946, Daisy Dean Hunter 1876-1948, Ada Emily Hunter 1865-1949.

Front row – left to right – Estelle “Stella” M. Hunter 1867-1947, Florence Hunter 1860-1946 (my great grandmother) and Myra Hunter 1859-1938. 

There were also two brothers in the family, Clyde Hunter 1861-1901, and Raphael Hunter, 1871-1952.  Another sister, Lenorah Hunter 1863-1892 is not in the picture as we believe the photo was taken after her death.

These women are the children of James Gillen HUNTER 1832-1884 and Susan Caroline BOGGS 1842-1913.  This couple married in Lawrence County, Ohio on 29 Aug 1859.  The first five children were born in Lawrence County, Ohio.  The other four were born in Kentucky.  James Hunter was a Carpenter.  Sadly, he died in 1884, at the age of 52.  That left 8 of the 9 Hunter children still at home from ages 23 down to 8 years.  It certainly cannot have been easy for Susan with all those children to care for.  She didn’t remarry for 13 years.  

Marriage record for James G. Hunter & Susan C. Boggs

THE ORIGIN OF THE PHOTOGRAPH

I obtained this lovely 8 x 10 photograph from my cousin, Rick, in Michigan.  When I went back for a visit in 2007 he brought a box down from the attic that contained some items from our grandmother, Florence Bowden Milne.  Rick said he didn’t know who any of the women in the photograph were.  However, I immediately recognized our great grandmother, Florence Hunter, front row, center.  And, I also recognized two of her sisters, Ada & Myra, from other pictures I have.  Eventually I was able to correctly identify the other 3 sisters, Daisy, Stella & Grace. 

GREAT STORY ABOUT ASKING COUSINS FOR PHOTOS

Another cousin from this side of the family lives here in California.  We were talking on the phone and I mentioned that I had this particular picture of the Hunter sisters, one of which is her great grandmother.  She said “I have a photo of the six sisters also.”  She emailed her photo and I emailed her mine.  There were the sisters at the same sitting, only seated in a different order.  I’d love to show you the other photo here, but I haven’t asked permission.

THE STORY ABOUT THE TWO PHOTOS MADE IT INTO MAUREEN TAYLORS PHOTO DETECTIVE POSTING ON 1 DEC 2008.

Now this was exciting!  I read Maureen’s columns all the time and she is always asking for people to submit photos to her for dating and identifying.  She’s the author of several books about identifying photos (which I have in my library) and I love to read her articles.  When I submitted this photo and said I wanted to narrow down the date, she accepted it and wrote the following article.  I hadn’t been doing genealogy for very long, maybe 5 years, and this was exciting to me.  There was my family in an online article.  

Here is a link to that posting: http://blog.familytreemagazine.com/photodetectiveblog/default,month,2008-12.aspx   
I ENCOURAGE YOU TO GO TO THIS LINK TO VIEW MAUREEN'S ENTRIES.  YOU CAN LEARN A LOT ABOUT PHOTO DATING BY READING HER MATERIAL.

HERE IS THE ENTRY FROM THAT WEB PAGE.

 

Since all of this occurred I have learned so much about the Hunter sisters and their families.  All the girls (except Lenorah) went on to marry and four of the six had children.  Of the two brothers, Clyde died in 1901 at the age of 40.  I never located any marriage records for him and in the 1900 census he is living with his sister, Myra, and her family, as a single man.  

The other brother, Ralph, married twice and had two children.  He first married Helena Hill and they divorced.  Next he married Lucy Della Siler.  

Of the four sisters who did have children, they had 12 between them.  I’ve had plenty of descendants to follow up on and have thoroughly enjoyed learning about this family.

A couple more pictures of the ladies in this family:

Florence, Myra & Ada Hunter circa 1910

Four generations

In the picture above are, standing left to right, Florence Hunter Bowden Bell (my great grandmother), Florence Bowden Milne, (my grandmother) and seated is the mother of all the HUNTER children Susan Caroline Boggs Hunter with Dorothy Milne, her great granddaughter in her lap - 1907    

Here is a quick listing of the family:

James Gillen Hunter married Susan Caroline Boggs on 29 Aug 1859 in Lawrence Co., Ohio.  Here are all the children born to that union.

1.  Myra Hunter married Jacob Seigle 6 Oct 1880, probably in Ohio
     Children: Grace 1882-1882, Mary Ada 1883-1939, Arthur George 1889-1936
2.  Clyde Hunter 1861-1901
3.  Lenorah Hunter 1863-1892
4.  Ada Emily Hunter married William James King 26 Nov 1884 in Lawrence Co., OH
    Children: Charles Louis 1886-1961, Joseph Edward 1889-1974, William Albert 1891 – ?  Grace Leona 1896-1990, Unknown child born bet 1900-1910, Edith Lucille 1900-1976
5.  Estella “Stella” M. Hunter married 1st Leon R. Leigh 28 May 1893 in Cook Co., Illinois, married 2nd William J. Ferguson 27 Aug 1901 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, married 3rd Albert Frederick Pfeiffer 18 Dec 1913 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois.
    Children: Albert Herman Pfeiffer 1910-1979
6.  Florence Hunter married 1st Robert Lee Bowden 10 Mar 1887 in Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio.  They divorced in 17 Jul 1899.  She then married George Keatley Bell on 16 Oct 1904.
   Children: Florence Lenora Bowden 1888-1986, Edna Mabel Bowden 1890-1932
7.  Raphael Hunter married 1st Helena Hill 25 Jun 1901, they divorced.  Married 2nd Lucy Della Siler 15 Apr 1916 in Jackson, Madison, Tennessee
    Children: Joseph Jackson 1913-1938, Helen Marian 1917-1994
8.  Grace Hunter married 1st Charles Henry Fenner on 16 May 1891 in Belmont Co., Ohio.  He died and she later married John A. Jenkins.  She had no children.
9.  Daisy Dean Hunter married George A. Skinner bet 1900-1910.  She had no children.

There is my Mother’s mother’s family.  If you are related to or researching anyone listed here or anyone descended from these families, please contact me.  There is still a lot I don’t know about them and I would love to exchange information.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl  

Copyright © 2014 Diane Gould Hall

SURNAME SATURDAY - BOGGS & LUNSFORD

SURNAME SATURDAY

William Allen BOGGS and Nancy Delilah LUNSFORD

 

William Allen BOGGS and Nancy Delilah LUNSFORD are my 3rd Great Grandparents.  The unexpected pictures of them came from a cousin.  One of those cousins I found through my research who has provided several good family photos and some information.  There's that cousin connection I spoke about in my earlier posts.  William & Nancy were married 11 Apr 1839 in Lawrence County, Ohio.  

This family has connections in Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio.  Their daughter Susan Caroline BOGGS married James Gillen HUNTER on 29 Aug 1859 in Lawrence Co., Ohio.  They had 9 children, seven girls and two boys.  The first five children were born in Ohio, in, I believe, Lawrence County.  Sadly he died in 1884, when several of their children were still living in the home. His widow, Susan, married two more times.  

If anyone reading this has any connection to the BOGGS or HUNTER family, please contact me.  I have never found out where James Gillen HUNTER died or where he is buried.  It's probable that  he died in Kentucky, since the family was living there in the 1880 census.