Finding Olive's Maiden Name, and More!

I have many persons, mostly female, with only a given name and no last name.  Most of these are where I have a male relative whose surname I know has married a woman and the only information I have is from a census record.

An example is Albert Henry White (1827-1910), son of Jonathan White (1805-1850) and Miranda Wade (1804-1850).  He is the brother of my second great-grandfather, Henry Arnold White (1824-1885).  Did Albert Henry White marry?  Did he have children (who might be on my DNA match list)?  Here are my profiles for Albert Henry White and Olive A. from my Ancestry Member Tree:

I knew, from the 1900 U.S. census that Albert Henry White married Olive A. in about 1866, based on the 1900 United States Census.  I also found them in the 1870 and 1880 census records.  There were no children.  I also found them in Find A Grave, where their memorials (and gravestones) provided the birth and death dates for both Albert and Olive White in Grove Street Cemetery in Putnam, Connecticut.  I also found death records in Connecticut Death and Burials Index, 1650-1934 for both of them, but they did not list parents or birth dates.  However, I did not have source citations for any of their records.

Can I find Olive's maiden name?  Can I find a marriage record for Olive and Albert?  What about birth and death records other than the Find A Grave memorials?

I searched Ancestry.com for a marriage record of Albert Henry White, and did not find one.  So I searched FamilySearch.  Bingo!

There is a death record in the Rhode Island Marriages, 1724-1916 collection on FamilySearch (this is from the IGI, which was extracted from town records) which lists "Albert Harris White," son of Jonathan and Maranda, marrying "Olive Almira Northup," daughter of Sidney and Olive Griffiths, on 29 November 1866 in Warwick, Kent County, Rhode Island.

They have Albert's middle name wrong (Harris instead of Henry), and it is unclear if Olive's father's surname is Griffiths or something else.  But I'm very sure that this is the Albert and Olive I am seeking.

A search for Olive White's death in 1926 revealed a Rhode Island death record in the Rhode Island, Deaths and Burials, 1802-1950 collection:

This record indicates that Olive Almira White died in Pascoag, Rhode Island, and provides the same birth date and death date shown on the gravestone.  It also lists her parents as Sydney Griffith and Olive Owens.  I then searched the 1850 and 1860 U.S. Census records and did not find Olive residing with Sidney and Olive Griffith, but did find her in 1860 residing in Warwick, Rhode Island.

So it appears that Olive's maiden name was probably Griffith, born 14 July 1839, died 4 August 1926 in Pascoag, Rhode Island, the daughter of Sydney Griffith and Olive Owen, and she was married 29 November 1866 to Albert Henry White in Warwick, Rhode Island.   I'm done, right?  I fulfilled all of my goals.

But wait, the 1866 marriage record said her name was Olive Almira Northup?  Was she married before?  Was the marriage to Albert Henry White a second marriage?  There's still this nagging loose end.

A marriage search for Olive Griffith easily found another Rhode Island Marriages, 1724-1916 entry:

Olive Griffith married Sylvester A. Northup on 18 August 1860 in Warwick, Kent County, Rhode Island.

Now the question is - Did Sylvester Northup die before Olive married Albert Henry White in 1866?  A death record was found in the Rhode Island, Deaths and Burials, 1802-1950 collection:

Sylvester A. Northup was born in 1839 and died 12 March 1865 in Warwick, Kent County, Rhode Island, the son of Thos S. and Mary [Northup].  I checked the 1850 and 1860 U.S. Census records for Sylvester and found him in the family of Thomas and Mary Northup in Rhode Island.

So I have filled out the vital information about Olive Almira (Griffith) (Northup) White in my RootsMagic database, along with source citations for all of the records found.  The one vital record I could not find was a birth record for Olive Griffith, perhaps in Connecticut or Rhode Island.  I need to update Olive's profile on the FamilySearch Family Tree also.

It appears that Albert Henry and Olive (Griffith) (Northup) White had no children, so I don't have to worry about DNA matches from this line at this time.

NOTE:  I know that almost source I found about Olive is an index, and therefore a derivative source.  However, the indexes are taken from town records which were original records.  I don't have an incentive to spend money for certificates that will tell me what I think I already know.  If I were writing this for a peer reviewed article, I would make the investment.  But since I'm not, I judge the index information to be "good enough" for my purpose, which  is to find information about collateral people in my family tree database.

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Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

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