Saturday, May 26, 2012

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Who Is Your Most Recent Unknown Ancestor?

Hey, genies, did you miss SNGF over the last two weeks?  Well, it's Saturday Night again, time for some Genealogy Fun!!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (where's my Mission Impossible music...drat, lost it), is:

1) Who is your MRUA - your Most Recent Unknown Ancestor? This is the person with the lowest number in your Pedigree Chart or Ahnentafel List that you have not identified a last name for, or a first name if you know a surname but not a first name. 

2) Have you looked at your research files for this unknown person recently? Why don't you scan it again just to see if there's something you have missed? 

3) What online or offline resources might you search that might help identify your MRUA?

4) Tell us about him or her, and your answers to 2) and 3) above, in a blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook or Google Plus. 

Here's mine:

Number 26 on my Ahnentafel List is Devier James Lamphear Smith. I don't know who his parents are - they are Numbers 52 and 53 on my Ahnentafel List. Here are the vital records, and a synopsis of what I know about Devier's parentage:

Devier James Lamphere alias Smith was born 07 May 1839 in Henderson, Jefferson County, NY, and died 01 May 1894 in McCook, Red Willow County, NE. He married Abigail A. Vaux 04 April 1861 in Rolling Prairie, Dodge County, WI, daughter of Samuel Vaux and Mary Underhill. She was born 28 October 1844 in Aurora, Erie County, NY, and died 11 September 1931 in San Diego, San Diego County, CA.

Based on the available personal, public and government records, this person was born with the name Devier James Lamphear, probably in Jefferson County, New York. His birth parents have not been identified to date. He was adopted by Ranslow and Mary (Bell) Smith of Henderson, Jefferson County, New York, before 1843, when the Smith family moved from Jefferson County, New York to Dodge County, Wisconsin.  In March 1866, Devier was granted a name change, by the Wisconsin State Senate and Governor, to Devier J. Smith from Devier Lamphear (although all available records listed him as Devier J. Smith), and he was named as an adopted son in the will of Ranslow Smith.


My hypotheses are that (1) Devier's father had the surname Lamphear (and variants) or (2) that his mother, with the surname Lamphear, had him out of wedlock and gave him up for adoption.

I have written extensively about my search for the birth parents, ostensibly named Lamphere/Lamphear/Lamphier/Lamfear or Lanphere/Lanphear/Lanphier/Lanfear or any other reasonable spelling of the surname, in Jefferson County, New York in the 1840 time frame. One of my posts, which links to others, is Finding Lamphears in Jefferson County, NY - Post 3.

In my search, I have exhausted the court records in Jefferson County NY that are available on FHL Microfilm, the history books, the online databases, the land record indexes, etc. I've also exhausted the Dodge County, Wisconsin records available on FHL Microfilm and online databases. I visited several repositories in Dodge County and the Wisconsin State Historical Society in Madison last September, and found no records, newspaper articles or vertical files in those places that identified Devier's birth parents. That leaves other unfilmed, unindexed, non-digitized records that might be found in historical societies, genealogical societies, local libraries, and state archives, and private collections.

If anyone has other research ideas, I would love to hear them!



The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/05/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-who-is.html


Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

8 comments:

Jean said...

I've posted one on my blog about my #33: "Who Was Miss Tarr?"

Judy G. Russell, CG said...

Number 16 for me is FNU LNU. And I've written about him in Friedrike, how COULD you?. Sigh... Unless there's something in Friedrike's marriage record a few years later (from the Royal German Court which had to give permission), I'll probably never find out who he was.

Sara Greenleaf said...

Here's my post - my MRUA is no. 40, though the post is mostly about what I know (or don't) his son - http://bit.ly/LpmUKA. Thanks for another great challenge!

Jen Smart said...

Here's my post about my #53. I knew more than I thought I did and actually found some answers! Thanks, Randy.

Lois said...

My MRUA is one great-grandmother. Her name is Clara.

I have found her last name is Henry. It is on her marriage record in Franklin Co Iowa Oct 8 1884. She married Lewis Collins.
She is listed as 20 in her marriage record in 1884 in Iowa. That makes her born in 1864. It also says her father was John Henry & her mother was unknown. This is the 1st record I have for her.

!CENSUS:
1885 Iowa state census, Hamilton county, Independance Township, page 286. The 1885 Iowa state census also states that her parents were foreign-born.

She is listed as 26 in the 1890 Oklahoma Territory census (Payne county) and born in Michigan. This was only 1 year after the first land run in Oklahoma. Her father-in-law, Ransom Collins had gotten a homestead claim. Apparently Clara & Lewis & their 2 sons joined them & Clara had another son in Okla.

Then she isn't listed in the 1900 Oklahoma Terr. census at all. I think she may have died before then. Her husband, Lewis and the 2 older boys are there. The baby was not. I suspect he died. Father-in-law Ransom was also there.

I couldn't find anything in 1880 that I thought was her. I looked for a John Henry with a Clara daughter.

!DEATH: In her son Homer's mental hospital admission records in 1916, it states that his mother died in a mental hospital in Kansas. I suspect it was before 1900 as she isn't with her family in the 1900 census, but that is conjecture.

Homer was my grandfather. He had dark skin & hair (from photo). I have suspected that his mother was mixed race-Indian or black. But again that is conjecture.

Any ideas? I’m out of places to look.
Lois Robertson

Melody said...

I'm a little bit late. Here's my blog entry for my unknown ancestors, the parents of Harry Kenneth Jackson. http://www.researchjournal.yourislandroutes.com/?p=2979

Sierra said...

My MRUA is #41, an unknown female. This has me excited to do more research on this family.

http://upinthetree.blogspot.com/2012/05/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-on-monday.html

William Kernan said...

Here is my MRUA

http://amongmybranches.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/genealogy-challenge-who-is-your-most-recent-unknown-ancestor/