Saturday, February 24, 2018

The Rest of the George W. Seaver Story - Part VI: Searching for "Aunt" Lucinda Fields

Returning to the George W. Seaver research quest, I want to summarize the information found for George's "Aunt," Lucinda M. Fields.  Earlier posts on this quest are in the bibliography at the bottom of this post.

In Part IV, I noted that the "nearest relative" listed on the Soldiers' Home record for George W. Seaver was "Aunt" Lucinda M. Fields.  In the post, I described the limited research I had done for her to date:
"She could be his father's sister or his mother's sister.  If she was the father's sister, then she would be a Seaver surname.  If she was the mother's sister, then that becomes more difficult to research.
"I found a Lucinda R. Fields (born about 1834 in Vermont) married to Alexander N. Fields (born 1833 in Canada) in about 1862, and they were in the 1900 U.S. Census in Santa Barbara, California.  I also found them in Los Angeles in  the 1910 U.S. Census.  Alexander Fields entered the Sawtelle Soldiers' Home in 1908 and died in April 1910.  
"A death certificate for Lucinda R. Fields may provide parents names.  However, I can't find a death record for her in California.  She may have married again and died with a different surname.  
"I did not find a public Ancestry Member Tree with an entry for Alexander N. Fields born about 1833 in Canada and a wife named Lucinda (or similar).
"The FamilySearch Family Tree profile for A. N. Field (born 1823 in Nova Scotia) shows his wife's name as Lucinda R. Pease (1834-1922), born 20 February 1834 in Weston, Windsor County, Vermont, but no parents are listed for Lucinda."
Since then, a marriage record for A. N. Field and Lucinda R. Pease was found in St. Louis, Missouri on 25 October 1863 on FamilySearch:


A search for 1850 and 1860 U.S. census records for Lucinda Pease (with name variations) found nothing helpful.  Perhaps the name was spelled differently.

My friend, Barry Sheldon, helped again and found the 1855 Massachusetts State Census on Ancestry.com with a Lucinda Pease in Lawrence, Mass., born in about 1835 in Vermont:


Four lines above Lucinda Pease (but on the previous census page) is a Lauretta Seaver, age 27, born in Vermont:


Is this just a coincidence, or are Lucinda and Lauretta related?  I need more information.

A search for Lauretta Seaver resulted in an 1859 marriage in Lawrence, Massachusetts in the Massachusetts Marriage Records, 1840-1915 on Ancestry.com:


This indicates that Lauretta F. Seaver of Lawrence, age 31, born in Vermont, no parents listed, second marriage, married Gates D. Frye on 1 November 1859.

A second marriage - so her maiden name is probably not Seaver.  What is it?

I searched for a death record for Lauraetta Frye and found one in the Massachusetts Death Records, 1840-1916 on Ancestry.com:


Lauraette Frye (maiden name Pease) died 1 December 1886 in Boston, Mass, aged 58 years, 6 months.  She resided at 1 Auburn Place, was female, white, spouse of Gates, born Chester, Vt., parents Warren (born Weston Vt.) and Fannie [Pease?] (born Chester Vt.), died of Bright's Disease and Paralysis, interred in Andover.

So Lauraetta's maiden name was Pease, just like Lucinda's!  Are they sisters?

I now had the parents names, and searched both FamilySearch Family Tree and Ancestry Member Trees for a Warren Pease married to a Fannie.

I found two of them, but the one for Warren Pease in Vermont had this family structure in FamilySearch Family Tree: 


Warren Pease (1799-1865) and Fanny Rogers Field (1797-1882) married in February 1823 and had a number of children.  Two of them were Lauraetta Pease (1827-????) and Lucinda Pease (1833-????).  No spouses were named for the profiles of Lauraetta and Lucinda.  There was also a Luinda Pease (1833-????) listed which is certainly Lucinda spelled differently.

A search in Ancestry Member Trees found essentially the same information.

So if Lucinda R. (Pease) Fields is George W. Seaver's "Aunt," is Lauraetta (Pease) (Seaver) Frye the mother of George W. Seaver?  If so, who is the father of George W. Seaver?

To be continued!  Barry and I are still discovering documents and records, but we think we have it figured out. 

I really appreciate Barry's efforts on behalf of my Seaver one-name study!  All because of a fascinating news article published in 1899.

Bibliography:

* Seavers in the News -- George W. Seaver Disappears in 1899 about a man disappearing from his home in Santa Monica, California (posted 1 February 2018)

* The Rest of the George W. Seaver Story - Part I: Newspaper Articles about George's disappearance (posted 5 February 2018)

* The Rest of the George W. Seaver Story - Part II: More Newspaper Articles about George and his wife, Lida J. Crocker (posted 7 February 2018)

* The Rest of the George W. Seaver Story - Part III: Census Entries with census records(posted 8 February 2018)

* Seavers in the News - Vice President George W. Seaver Drives a Horse Car with a story and photo of George in Santa Monica in 1904 (posted 8 February 2018)

* The Rest of the George W. Seaver Story - Part IV: Military Records with military and personal information from Disabled Volunteer Soldiers home records (posted 9 February 2018)

 The Rest of the George W. Seaver Story - Part V: Timeline for his Life provides information about George's life in chronological order (posted 15 February 2018).


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Copyright (c) 2018, Randall J. Seaver


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