I've tried to enrich my genealogy database over the years by trying to find descendants of the siblings of my ancestral families. I've been fairly successful adding dates, places, events and relationships to the siblings, and descendants of the siblings, using online resources at websites like Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, GenealogyBank.com, Rootsweb.com, FindAGrave.com, AmericanAncestors.org, etc.
However, there are times I've made a mistake, but sometimes I figure out what's right and what's not. This happened this past week, as I searched for descendants of Edith Kemp, one of my first cousins twice removed. Her father, James A. Kemp (1872-1934) and my great-grandmother, Georgianna (Kemp) Auble (1868-1952), were siblings who both ended up in Southern California. James A. Kemp married Bertha Fuller (1874-1951) and the family resided in Los Angeles, California.
Here is my research path as I reconstruct it, and I offer some lessons learned at the end of it:
1) There is no birth record for Edith Kemp in the
California Birth Index, 1905-1995 (now on Ancestry.com) with a mother's name of Fuller.
2) The
1910 U.S. Census entry for the James A. Kemp family in Lakeside, San Diego, California has three children, including daughter Edith Kemp, age 6, born in California (found on Ancestry.com).
3) The
1920 U.S. Census for the James A. Kemp family in Calumet, Fallon, Montana includes daughter Edith M. Kemp, age 16, born in California (found in Ancestry.com).
4) The
1930 U.S. Census finds James and Bertha Kemp residing in El Monte, Los Angeles, California, but there is no listing for Edith Kemp (born 1903 +/- 2 in California), including given name and surname permutations, but there are over 700 listings for an Edith (no surname, 1903 +/- 2 born California, etc.). Too many. Perhaps Edith died or was married.
5) The 1940 U.S. Census finds no Edith Kemp, James Kemp (died 1933) or Bertha Kemp (with given name and surname permutations) residing in Los Angeles County, California.
And there it stood until I tried to get creative. Since the 1920 Census was taken on 1 January 1920, i t appears that Edith M. Kemp (age 16) was born in 1903.
6) I searched the
California Death Index, 1940-1997 on Rootsweb.com for an Edith, born 1903, mother's maiden name Fuller. There is an Edith Louise Kemp, born 21 December 1903 in Pennsylvania, mother's maiden name Fuller, died 14 November 1980 in Los Angeles County, California.
Here's the mistake - I added the birth and death dates to my database at this point in time, and merrily went searching for her husband. The middle name of Louise and the birthplace of Pennsylvania did not strike me as important at the time - the birth year and mother's maiden name had me convinced that this was Edith Kemp..
7) I found
Edith Niemeyer in the 1940 U.S. Census with husband Leo, and daughters (at least of Leo) - Patricia (age 7), Paula (age 6) and Mary (age 4).
I added the family names to my database, with approximate birth years and birthplaces..
8) I checked the
California Death Index for Leo, and found Leo's death date of 12 February 1955 in Los Angeles County, California.
9) I checked the
California Birth Index, 1905-1995 on Ancestry.com, for the three known children, and found birthdates and birthplaces for two of them, but the mother's maiden name was listed as Drumm.
Uh oh, RED FLAG. Did I have the wrong Edith? Did Edith Kemp marry a Drumm before she married Leo Niemeyer?
10) A check of the 1930 U.S. Census revealed no Edith married to a Drumm (or surname variants) in California. There is a single Edith L. Drum born 1905 in Burbank, with a mother Alice ... hmmm, that may be the Edith who married Leo.
11) I checked
FindAGrave.com for Leo Niemeyer and found an
excellent memorial for him, which listed his birth and death dates, his marriage to Edith Louise Drum in August 1931, and a transcription of an obituary that listed his children. There was a link to
Edith's memorial also, with her birth date (21 December 1904 in the memorial, not 1903), death date, and links to her parents (including mother Alice). There was also a link to one daughter's record on Find-A-Grave.
I decided, based on the evidence at hand, that Edith M. Kemp, daughter of James A. and Bertha (Fuller) Kemp, did not marry Leo Niemeyer...so I unlinked Edith from Leo, added Edith Louise Drumm to the database, and saved all of the information in these records in my genealogy database (since I had worked hard to find them). I now need to unlink Edith from Leo in my online trees also.
So that leaves the question - what happened to Cousin Edith? I went back into the Ancestry.com, GenealogyBank and Chronicling America newspaper collections, and was not able to find a record for her. I checked the
California Death Index, 1905-1939 on FamilySearch.org and
1940-1997 for an Edith Kemp and did not find her. She may be in the over 700 Ediths in the 1930 U.S. census in California born between 1901-1905.
Perhaps a descendant of Edith M. Kemp, or a descendant of a sibling of Edith, if there are any, will read this and contact me with information about Edith Kemp.
Lessons learned:
* Be more careful adding information to my database before finding other records. I.e., do a reasonably exhaustive search.
* Don't assume that because first name, birth year and mother's maiden name are correct that the listing in a database is for the person you think it is. Remember that ASSUME does not mean reality...I feel like I failed Genealogy 101 here!
* My need for blog fodder can make me write about my mistakes so that they can be held up as a bad example!
What resources do you think I've missed in this search? What corners have I cut? What else would you search? What lessons did you learn from my experience?
The URL for this post is:
http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/11/what-happened-to-cousin-edith.html
Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver
