DISCOVERIES
WIDOWED? NOT SO FAST...
In the 1930 Federal U.S. Census for Struthers, Mahoning Co., Ohio, Ella S. Bradley is 50 years and reported to be a widow. She appears with her husband, Thomas Bradley, and children in the 1920 census. For years, I searched for Thomas dying after 1920 and before 1930. I could find nothing in all the places he should be. Then, a few years ago, with the release of new Social Security records, Thomas Peter Bradley is found applying for a Social Security number in 1941 in Iowa. For some women, it was more acceptable to be a widow than explain a missing husband. Lesson: Sometimes the records aren't accurate. And if a record isn't where it should be, that may be a clue to question what you think is true.
SOMETIMES PEOPLE JUST LIE
On Nov. 12, 1931 at St. James, Westminster in London, the widowed Adam Cooke Robertson Miller married Hermione Waylen. He was 37; she was 34. Actually she was 44, born in 1869 in India. In the 1881 British Census, Hermione is 12, listed with her parents in Chelsea, London, England. Long after she and Adam divorced and he had died, when she died in 1950, her older sister, who certainly knew her real age, continued to perpetuate an 1879 birthdate. Maybe the thought of marrying an older women was more than Hermione thought Adam could handle? Lesson: Sometimes records are wrong because people don't tell the truth.
RECORDS THAT MAKE YOU LAUGH
On the marriage license application for serial bigamist Thomas Flannagan's third marriage on Jan. 19, 1891 at Morris, Grundy Co., Illinois, it says across the top "Groom says do not publish." And for good reason. He had abandoned two wives and six children, with the second wife living just 100 miles up the road in Rockford. He said he was "single" and that this was his first marriage. He also said he was 41, not his actual age of 51. At least he used his real name. His new wife wasn't totally honest, either. She said this was her second marriage when it was actually her fourth. But Anna Josephine (Shepherd) Gates Averill Hullinger divorced her prior spouses, unlike Thomas who simply moved on. Lesson: Single records don't often tell the whole story. It's a collection of records in the context of the time and analysis that paint a more colorful and complete narrative.
NOT EVERYONE IN THE CENSUS ACTUALLY EXISTED
Agnes Harrington is 11 in the 1880 Federal U.S. Census for Henry, Marshall Co., Illinois, living with her parents, James and Margaret, and siblings, William, Joseph, Thomas and Peter. But her actual existence is doubtful. She is not with the family in 1870, is not buried in the family plot with other siblings who died young and is not mentioned in any other single record relating to this family. Was she included in error by the census taker? Did a neighbor report for this family and didn't get it quite right? Lesson: Every record has the potential to contain errors.