FamilySearch has New Hampshire Town Clerk Records

One of the most recent additions to the FamilySearch Record Collections is the New Hampshire, Town Clerks, Vital and Town Records, 1636-1947 (added on 31 October 2012).

I have some real ancestral brick walls in New Hampshire, so I'm hoping that perusing these records will help me identify the parents of Hannah Smith (1767-1827) in Brookline, Hillsborough County, and help me identify Jerusha (--?--) Metcalf's maiden name and parents in Piermont, Grafton County, New Hampshire.

In this post, I'm going to try to find the birth record for Hannah Sawtell (born in Brookline in 1789 to Josiah and Hannah (Smith) Sawtell, one of my third great-grandmothers.

1)  Here is the New Hampshire, Town Clerks, Vital and Town Records, 1636-1947  collection  page:

This is a browse-only collection, so I clicked on the "Browse through 402,443 images" link./

2)  The list of New Hampshire Counties in this database is listed:

3)  Since Brookline is in Hillsborough county, I clicked on that county and saw the list of towns:

 4)  I clicked on the link for "Brookline" and saw:

There are four sets of documents for this town.

5)  I selected "Town Records, 1758-1907)" and the first image (out of 167 images) opened:

I browsed as bit away from this page.

6)  On Image 13 (below, penned page 33) is the record for the birth of Hannah Sawtell:

Hannah Sawtell's birth record is in the right-hand page of the image, and it says:

"Hannah Sartell the daughter of Josiah Sartell
and Hannah his wife born November the 6th 1789"

A source citation for this record might be (using the RootsMagic 5 source template for "Website (with multiple databases):"

"New Hampshire Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1636-1947," digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 8 November 2012), Hillsborough County, Brookline Town, "Town Records, 1758-1907," Page 33 (penned), Hannah Sawtell birth entry, 6 November 1789; imaged from FHL US/CAN Film 15,354; citing New Hampshire Town Clerk Records.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/11/familysearch-has-new-hampshire-town.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

SDGS 10 November Meeting Features Barbara Renick

The Saturday, November 10th meeting of the San Diego Genealogical Society is at 10 a.m. at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church (8350 Lake Murray Drive, just south of Jackson Drive). 

The featured speaker is Barbara Renick for both sessions:   

 1)  New Tools at FamilySearch - The FamilySearch Catalog:  

FamilySearch has not only designed a new search system for its updated catalog, but the Family History Library Catalog is being renamed the FamilySearch Catalog to reflect its expansion to include links to digital records on-line (from both books and microfilms) and materials available for searching in its 4500+ Family History Libraries/Centers around the world (slowly being added).

According to usage statistics, few researchers plumbed the depths of the old catalog. With its new use of wildcards and filters, the new FamilySearch catalog (still under construction with many features yet to be added) provides even more of a challenge to search effectively.

2)  SNAGIT for Genealogists:  

SNAGIT is a wonderful tool for genealogists. Grab and keep your audience’s attention. SNAGIT gives you all the tools to create engaging images and videos for presentations, feedback, tutorials, training documents, and more. SNAGIT makes communication easier everywhere! That’s why many genealogists are using SNAGIT tools for image and video capture to enhance their presentations and insert digital images into their family history data bases. Snag any image and enhance it with effects or create a quick video of your computer screen. Then share your content instantly with your group, family, or save it for other uses.

Barbara Renick serves as a genealogical computing instructor at the Regional Family History Center in Orange, California. She has taught genealogical computing classes since 1985 and frequently lectures at regional and national conferences. She writes for several genealogy publications and authored Genealogy 101: How to Trace Your Family's History and Heritage for the National Genealogical Society's 100th Anniversary. She speaks at the SCGS Burbank Jamboree and the National Genealogical Society’s prestigious annual Family History Conference. 

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/11/sdgs-meeting-features-barbara-renick.html

Treasure Chest Thursday - 1870 U.S. Census Record for D.J. Carringer Family

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

The treasure today is the 1870 United States Census record for my Carringer great-great-grandparents and their family in Jackson township, Washington County, Iowa:

The entry for the D. Carenngtr family is:

The extracted information for the family (indexed on Ancestry.com as "Carenngtr"), residing in Jackson township, Washington County, Iowa, taken on 6 August 1870, is:

*   D. Carenngtr -- age 40, male, white, a farmer, born P, a male citizen of the U.S. upwards of 21 years

*  Rebecca Carenngtr -- age 38, female, white, K. House, born Pa

*  Harvy Carenngtr -- age 18, male, white, school, born Pa, attended school within the year

*  Henry A. Carenngtr -- age 16, male, white, school, born Pa, attended school within the year

*  Effie Carenngtr - age 11, female, white, school, born Ia, attended school within the year

The source citation for this census entry is:

1870 United States Federal Census, Washington County, Iowa,  Population Schedule,  Jackson township: Page 131 (stamped), house #49, family #49, D. Carenngtr household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives Microfilm Publication M593, Roll 424.

It took me a while to find this record the first time I tried, due to the strange surname spelling by the enumerator on the form, and the enumerator's poor handwriting.  A search for "Car*r" in Iowa smoked the entry out from the enumerator's rendition.  The only other error I see is the age of D[avid] Carringer - he should be age 41, not age 40.  He went by "D.J." and "Jackson" so I wasn't surprised to see only a first name initial for this entry.  The enumerator used two letter abbreviations for the birthplace states, rather than longer abbreviations.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/11/treasure-chest-thursday-1870-us-census.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

FamilySearch has New York Marriages, 1908-1935

FamilySearch.org keeps adding new record collections - they are up to 1,312 collections as of today.  One of the record collections added (or last updated, I don't know which) on 31 October 2012 is the New York Marriages, 1908-1935.

The collection description says:

"Name index and images of New York county marriage records. New York state began requiring marriage records for each county in 1908. The collection includes the following counties: Allegany, Broome, Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Chautauqua, Chemung, Chenango, Clinton, Columbia, Delaware, Essex, Fulton, Genesee, Greene, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lewis, Livingston, Madison, Monroe, Montgomery, Nassau, Niagara, Oneida, Ontario, Orange, Orleans, Oswego, Otsego, Putnam, Rockland, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schuyler, Seneca, St. Lawrence, Steuben, Sullivan, Tioga, Tompkins, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Westchester, Wyoming, and Yates. The collection does not include New York City nor its boroughs. Currently this collection is 41% complete. Additional records by county will be added as they are completed."

While I don't have any ancestors in this time period, I will mine it for information about Seaver, Vaux, Carringer and Auble families in my database.  I went looking for Seaver entriesto determine what information might be available in these records:

1)  Here is the record collections page for New York Marriages, 1908-1935:

I entered "seaver" in the Last Name field, and checked the "exact" box.

2)  After clicking on the aqua-colored "Search" button above, the list of matches appeared:

If I wanted to, I could narrow my search for a specific first name, or for a birth year range, or a marriage year range or location, etc. by using the search fields in the left-hand sidebar.

3)  I clicked on the first name on the list (for Charles H. Seaver) and saw:

The record summary provides the indexed information - name, event type, event date, event place (state only), age, estimated birth year, father's name, mother's name, spouse's name, spouse's age, spouse's birth year, spouse's father, spouse's mother, reference number, film number, digital folder number, and image number.

4)  I clicked on the "View image" link in order to see the actual record:

In this instance, the marriage information is on a page with five records, and on an image with 10 records.  The County is not on this particular marriage record (I think it is Cattaraugus County).  The information for the groom and bride includes name, color, residence, age, occupation, birthplace, father's name, father's birthplace, mother's name, mother's birthplace, consent by, date of license, date of marriage, place of marriage, official's name, profession, and witness(es).

5)  Thinking that different counties, or different years, might have more information, or a different form, I clicked on the third name on the list in the second image above.

The record above is also from Chautauqua County, New York, in 1921, and has two records per page, and four records per image.  There is more information in this record, in sections for Marriage License, Marriage Certificate, Affidavit for License to Marry, and Certificate of Consent.

The form used, and the information thereon, may vary for year and county.

The value of these records for someone like me "mining" the records for information are the names of the bride and groom, their ages, the  marriage date and place, and the names of the parents.

So I can enrich my database by going through these 113 records one at a time adding content and source citations.

If you have ancestors or relatives marrying in New York between 1908 and 1935, this may be a very useful collection.  Of course, the collection is only 41% complete...so you may have to revisit it after more information is added.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/11/familysearch-has-new-york-marriages.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Yearbook Collection FREE on Mocavo

Mocavo has posted a new Infographic and a blog post about their FREE School Yearbook collection - see Mocavo Announces our Yearbooks Collection!

I couldn't resist looking for my people - I started with my mother, who graduated from San Diego High School  in 1936, and from San Diego State College in 1940.  I found some new information in this search.  

Here is my search process and my results:

1.  The Mocavo Yearbook page is http://www.mocavo.com/yearbooks:

As you can see, I entered my mother's name in the Name fields.

2)  After clicking on the blue "Search Now" button, I was presented with a list of 10 matches in the Yearbook collection:

In the list in the left sidebar, the search results are shown - 10 Documents, 2 Records, and 438 on the Open Web.  The Documents contain the Yearbooks.

In the screen above, each Document is listed with a link, a text snippet, and an image snippet.

3)  I scrolled down a bit and found an image from the 1940 San Diego State College Yearbook, and clicked on it (two screens):

The screen above provides a summary of Betty Carringer's work for the Senior class.  There is a transcription of the text at the bottom of this web page.  Yes, the picture to the right and just below Betty's article is a picture of her - a picture I had never seen before.  I can right-click and "Save Image As" to capture the document page.

I can navigate to a previous page or next page by clicking on the left and right arrows in the line above the image, or by clicking the links below the image.  I can navigate to other pages for Betty Carringer in this specific Yearbook by clicking on the blue page numbers above the menu bar with the blue background.

I had found several of the SDSC Yearbook pages in the Ancestry.com collection last year - see Treasure Chest Thursday - Betty Carringer's 1940 College Yearbook Pictures.  But I had not seen the specific page shown above - that is new for me, as were several other pages.

I did look for other persons who might be in this Yearbook collection - myself, my father, and my Aunt Geraldine - without any success.

I don't know exactly which Yearbooks are available in this collection, but it is not yet as extensive as the Ancestry.com Yearbook collection.  Mocavo says they have 17,000 yearbooks with 3.5  million images, while Ancestry says they have 35,000 yearbooks and 7 million images.  But Mocavo's collection is free, while Ancestry's is behind their membership wall.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/11/yearbook-collection-free-on-mocavo.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday - Post 230: My Seaver family in 1956

 I am posting photographs from my family collections for (Not So) Wordless Wednesday (you know me, I can't go wordless!).

Here is a photograph from the Marion (Seaver) (Braithwaite) Hemphill family collection handed down from my Aunt Marion in 2000 after her passing.  

This is a picture of the Fred and Betty (Carringer) Seaver family taken in March 1956 in San Diego, California.  From the left are:  Randy, Fred, Scott on Fred's lap, Betty and Stanley.  Randy and Stan are holding kittens (we got kittens, mom and dad got Scott).  Checked shirts appear to be "in."

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/11/not-so-wordless-wednesday-post-230-my.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

California Voter Registration Records for My Carringer and Auble Females

It's Election Day (again), and I thought it would be interesting seeing when and how my female Carringer and Auble ancestors registered to vote.

Ancestry.com has California Voter Registration records for 1900 to 1968, but not all years are available for all counties.  Here is the list for San Diego County:

There are records for 1900-1906, 1908-1912, 1914, 1916, and every two years until 1944.

1)  The first mention of my great-grandmother, Della A. (Smith) (1862-1944) is in the 1908-1912 listing:

Interestingly, she is listed as Male in the record above...a housekeeper, residing at 2105 30th Street in San Diego, registered as a Republican.  Della is listed in:

*  1908-12:  Mrs. Della A. Carringer, a housewife, residing at 2105 30th Street, a Republican
*  1914:  Mrs. Della A. Carringer, a housewife, residing at 2105 30th Street, a Republican
*  1916:  Mrs. Della A. Carringer, a housewife, residing at 2105 30th Street, a Republican
*  1918*:  Mrs. Della A. Carringer, a housewife, residing at 2105 30th Street, a Republican
*  1922*: Mrs. Della A. Carringer, a housewife, residing at 2105 30th Street, a Republican
*  1924*: Mrs. Della A. Carringer, a housewife, residing at 2105 30th Street, a Republican
*  1926*: Mrs. Della A. Carringer, a housewife, residing at 2105 30th Street, a Republican
*  1928*: Mrs. Della A. Carringer, a housewife, residing at 2115 30th Street, a Republican
*  1930: Mrs. Della A. Carringer, a housewife, residing at 2115 30th Street, a Republican
*  1934: Mrs. Della A. Carringer, a housewife, residing at 2115 30th Street, a Republican
*  1936: Mrs. Della A. Carringer, a housewife, residing at 2115 30th Street, a Republican
*  1938:  Mrs. Della A. Carringer, a housewife, residing at 2115 30th Street, a Republican

She is not listed, and neither is her husband, Henry A. Carringer, in the 1920, 1932 and 1940 listings.

2)  The first mention of my great-grandmother, Georgia (Kemp) Auble (1868-1952) is in the 1914 listings.  She and her husband, Charles Auble (1849-1916) moved to San Diego in about 1911.  She is listed as:

*  1914:  Mrs. Georgia K. Auble, a housewife, residing at 767 14th, a Republican.
*  1918:  Mrs. Georgia K. Auble, a housewife, residing at 2100 First, a Democrat
*  1922*:  Mrs. Georgia K. Auble, a housewife, residing 2130 Fern Street, a Republican
*  1924:  Mrs. Georgia K. Auble, a housewife, residing 2130 Fern Street, a Republican
*  1926:  Mrs. Georgia K. Auble, a housewife, residing 2130 Fern Street, a Republican
*  1928:  Mrs. Georgia K. Auble, a housewife, residing 2130 Fern Street, a Republican
*  1930:  Mrs. Georgia K. Auble, a housewife, residing 2130 Fern Street, a Republican
*  1934:  Mrs. Georgia K. Auble, a housewife, residing 2130 Fern Street, a Republican
*  1936:  Mrs. Georgia K. Auble, a housewife, residing 2130 Fern Street, a Republican
*  1938:  Mrs. Georgia K. Auble, a housewife, residing 2130 Fern Street, a Republican
*  1942:  Mrs. Georgia K. Auble, a housewife, residing 2130 Fern Street, a Republican
*  1944:  Mrs. Georgia K. Auble, a housewife, residing 2130 Fern Street, a Republican

She is not listed in the 1916, 1920, 1932 and 1940 listings.

3)  The first mention of my grandmother, Emily (Kemp) Carringer (1899-1977) is in the 1922 listings:

*  1922:  Mrs. Emily K. Carringer, housewife, residing at 2130 Fern Street, Republican
*  1924*:  Mrs. Emily K. Carringer, housewife, residing at 2130 Fern Street, Republican
*  1926:  Mrs. Emily K. Carringer, housewife, residing at 2130 Fern Street, Republican
*  1928:  Mrs. Emily K. Carringer, housewife, residing at 2130 Fern Street, Republican
*  1930:  Mrs. Emily K. Carringer, housewife, residing at 2130 Fern Street, Republican
*  1934:  Mrs. Emily K. Carringer, housewife, residing at 2130 Fern Street, Republican
*  1936:  Mrs. Emily K. Carringer, housewife, residing at 2130 Fern Street, Republican
*  1938*:  Mrs. Emily K. Carringer, housewife, residing at 2130 Fern Street, Republican
*  1942:  Mrs. Emily K. Carringer, housewife, residing at 2130 Fern Street, Republican
*  1944:  Mrs. Emily K. Carringer, housewife, residing at 2130 Fern Street, Republican

She is not listed in the 1920, 1932, and 1940 listings, and neither is her husband, Lyle.

4)  The only listing for my mother, Betty V. Carringer (1919-2002) is in the 1942 listings:

*  1942:  Betty V. Carringer, student, residing at 2130 Fern Street, Democrat

I looked in the 1944 listings for her as Betty Seaver, but did not find her.

I noted that the indexing for these records was imperfect - every one of the persons searched above was not indexed for several years, but they were in the listings.  I noted the missing index listings above with an * next to the year.  The only way I found them all was to search for other family members who were indexed.

The images linked to the 1920 San Diego county listings are from 1907 and San Francisco County for some reason.

I searched in the 1932 and 1940 listings for the addresses, and did not find a listing.  I did not go page by page to see if the indexing missed all of the people in those years.  My guess is that the listings are incomplete.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/11/california-voter-registration-records.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Interesting Ancestry.com Search Quirk

I've thought that I'm pretty good at searching Ancestry.com record collections, know the "rules," but I keep finding little quirks.  The latest one popped up today.

I wanted to find all of the records available on Ancestry.com for Cornelius A. Carringer (1834-1916), born in Pennsylvania.

I did several searches, starting with:

1)  Given name (exact) = "cornelius," last name (exact) = "car*nger," born in "Pennsylvania" between "1832-1836" (exact).  Here is the search screen:

And the search results:

One 1860 census record, one 1910 census record, one Civil War Draft Registration Record, and 6 Public Member Trees.

2)  I added the "Records where only initials are recorded" option to the Given Name field:

And the results page:

In addition to the records found in 1), there are now records from the 1870 census and the 1880 census.  In both of them, he was enumerated as C.A. Carringer.

3)  I wanted to cover spelling variations of the first name, so used Given Name = "Cor*" and kept the "Records where only initials are used" option.  Here is the search screen:

And the results:

The results are similar to #1 above - the matches found in #2 for matches with initials were not found.

My conclusion from this is:  If you use a wild card for a given name, then any other search criteria ("Phonetic matches," "Names with similar meanings or spellings," or "Records where only initials are recorded") is not operative. 

The Ancestry.com "Using Advanced Search Features" guidelines say:

"You can use wild cards with exact matches. If you choose the Soundex, phonetic or similar options and use wild cards, then we will only apply the wild cards to the exact matches."

I didn't know that!  Now I do, and so do you.  But you might have known it before...

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/11/interesting-ancestrycom-search-quirk.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Tuesday's Tip - Ancestry.com's YouTube Channel

This week's Tuesday's Tip is:  Check out Ancestry.com's YouTube Channel for educational videos about genealogical records and Ancestry.com.

The Ancestry.com YouTube channel is at http://www.youtube.com/user/AncestryCom/.  There are over 300 videos of various lengths on this channel - all of them are FREE.

Here is the top of the home page (with most recent videos listed first):

I clicked on the first one listed - Death Clues in Census Records and saw:

I could watch this video with Ancestry Anne (Anne Mitchell of the Finding Forgotten Stories blog).

Anne Mitchell and Crista Cowan have been doing weekly video programs (in the Ancestry.com Desktop Education series) that viewers can watch live online, or view from the YouTube video archive.  Their sessions are about 30 minutes in length and demonstrate how to find and use genealogical records on Ancestry.com.  If you watch the video live online on the Ancestry LiveStream channel, there is a Chat board to ask and answer questions during the video.

The most recent videos include:

*  Death Clues in Census Records

*  Descending From Evil: The Story of Herman Webster Mudgett

*  Family History Clues in Death Records on Ancestry.com

*  You've Received Your AncestryDNA Results.  Now What?

*  Alternatives to Death Certificates in Genealogy

*  Ancestry.com Facebook App: Your Questions Answered

*  Searching for Death Records

*  How to Up Your Genealogy Game with Ancestry Anne

*  Ancestry.com: Lincoln - Unite

*  Genealogy Brainstorming: I'm Stuck! Now What?

*  Hamburg Passenger Lists and Other Image-First collections

Those are from the last three weeks - there are many more!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/11/tuesdays-tip-ancestrycoms-youtube.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Crowd-Sourcing Cousin Edith

I tried something last week - I needed a blog post for Friday while we were out of town and unable to post regularly on Genea-Musings - and it worked better than I could ever imagine.

I tried crowd-sourcing a genealogical research problem.  What is that?  The definition is:  "the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community."

In What Happened to Cousin Edith? I explained my earlier research errors (thinking that they might be good examples of how not to jump to conclusions) and listed my failed attempts to find out what happened to Edith M. Kemp, one of my first cousins twice removed.  I did not know who she married, or when she died, and my last information about her was in the 1920 U.S. Census..

Several of my Genea-Musings readers contributed by helping me find more information about Edith over the weekend.  Here's how they helped and what they found:

1)  Alissa Booth searched the 1930 US Census for an Edith M born about 1905, and found one that might be the correct Edith.  It wasn't, but I appreciate the effort!

2)  Jay at 1FamilyTree said:  "I'm shocked you did not consult the obituaries of her parents and siblings! An important step!"  Indeed it is, and was the ultimate solution to some of the puzzle.  I did check Ancestry and GenealogyBank newspaper collections, but did not see a match for Edith Kemp.  Kemp is a fairly common name.  In retrospect, the brother's name might have found them easily.

3)  Finn noted:  "Randy, I looked for Edith, no luck, did find her older brother, Leroy Gordon Kemp in the Pedigree Resource File on FamilySearch. He appears to have some descendants. There is a submitters name, but that was a long time ago. Leroy died 12 Oct 1933 in Bell CA. Maybe there is an obituary."  I had not checked Family Tree.

4)  Joel Weintraub helped:  "LA Times Oct 13, 1933. Obit:  'Kemp, Oct 12, Leroy Kemp, beloved husband of Laura E Kemp; father of Jimmie Kemp. Mr Kemp is also survived by his parents Mr and Mrs James Kemp of El Monte and two sisters, Mrs Myrtle Marley of Santa Ana and Mrs Edith Conklin of Los Angeles....' "  Now we're getting somewhere!  Thank you, Joel!  This indicates that Edith was married, at some point, to a Conklin.  

5)  Gerald Cohail did some serious work:  "The Marley Family Tree on Ancestry.com appears to be the original tree to provide the following birth date for Edith M Kemp, daughter of James A and Bertha Kemp: 25 Sep 1903 in California. As is typical with online trees, there is no source listed. Contacting the owner of the tree is likely to be fruitless, as his last log in was 'Over a year ago.'

"However, a search of the Social Security Death Master File (http://ssdmf.info/) produced one Edith born on that date who received her Social Security Number in the state of California (the most likely place): "EDITH OTT was born 25 September 1903, got Social Security number 562-10-2970 (indicating California,) and died October 1971."

"I then searched the California Death Index at Ancestry.com and found the following: Name: Edith M Ott; Social Security #: 562102970; Gender: Female; Birth Date: 25 Sep 1903; Birth Place: California; Death Date: 2 Oct 1971; Death Place: Los Angeles (county).

"The Social Security Death Index on Ancestry.com lists her last residence as Montrose, Los Angeles, California."

Well done, Gerald.  Great sleuthing - using a derivative source (an online tree) to find a key date (birth date) and using it to find a married female's surname and death date/place in the SSDI and CDI.  

6)  Joel also noted:  "On the 1930 Census Edith Conklin of Los Angeles shows as divorced.  So Edith Ott could also be the same person with a remarriage."  Bingo!  Great tip, Joel!

7)  So now I know a birth date (25 September 1903), a death date (2 October 1971), and the surnames of at least two spouses!  I'd better try to find more information and hold up my end of this problem:

*  It turns out that I had already found the Leroy Kemp obituary some time ago (but I had forgotten about it) on GenealogyBank in the San Diego Union newspaper, dated 13 October 1933.  The obituary was also in the Los Angeles Times dated 13 October 1933 (in Ancestry.com's "Historical Newspapers, Birth, Marriage and Death Announcements, 1851-2003" collection):

I had neglected to enter this information into my database when I captured the image...another unforced error!  But it also provides the Conklin lead.

*  Here is the James Kemp notice that I found in the Los Angeles Times dated 13 September 1934 (in Ancestry.com "Historical Newspapers, etc." collection:

*  Here is Bertha Kemp's obituary in the Los Angeles Times dated 27 January 1951 (in the Ancestry.com "Historical Newspaper, etc." collection):

*  I looked on both Ancestry.com and GenealogyBank and did not find an obituary or death notice for Edith (Kemp) (Conklin) Ott, or for Myrtle (Kemp) Marley.

*  Now I'm wondering what the given names of Mr. Conklin and Mr. Ott are!  I searched the 1930 U.S. Census for Los Angeles County, California for divorced male Conklins - and found four:

Only one of those is close to Edith's age - the Robert P. Conklin born about 1904 in Colorado (a lodger at 2408 South Figueroa Street in Los Angeles).  This might be the right one, but without more information it's difficult to know.

*  The California Death Index lists a Robert P. Conklin born 6 March 1904 in Colorado, died 28 February 1982 in Los Angeles County.

*  I checked the Los Angeles City Directories for Edith Conklin and Edith Ott on Ancestry.com (they have some but not all of them in the 1940 to 1960 time period).

**  1937, Mrs. Edith M. Conklin resided at 1060 Klingerman in El Monte.
**  1943, Mrs. Edith Ott, a dressmaker, resided in Pasadena at 741 Olivewood Court.  I don't think that this is the right Edith.  In earlier years, the listing was Edith K. Ott.
**  1951, Edith M. Ott, a clerk, resided at 2030 Broadview Drive in Glendale - the same address given in her mother's obituary.

*  The California Voter Registrations for Los Angeles County on Ancestry.com might help also:

**  1944, Mrs. Edith M. Ott, a housekeeper, a Democrat, resided at 628 N. Kingsley Drive, Los Angeles City.
**  1946, Mrs. Edith M. Ott, a Democrat, is listed in the same address as the 1944 listing.
**  1948, Mrs. Edith M. Ott, Democrat,  resides at 1932 North Wilton Place in Los Angeles.
**  In 1950, Mrs. Edith M. Ott, Democrat,  is not listed.
**  In 1952, Mrs. Edith M. Ott, Democrat, resides at 1941 W. 41st Drive in Los Angeles
**  In 1954, Mrs. Edith M. Ott, Democrat, resides at 1941 W. 41st Drive in Los Angeles

**  In 1946, Mrs. Edith M. Ott, resided at 1511 Broadview Drive in Glendale, a Republican.  The line below lists Dennis M. Ott at the same address (a DS = Democrat Socialist?).
**  1948, Dennis M. Ott, Democrat, and Mrs. Edith M. Ott, Repulbican, are listed at the same address.
**  1950, Mrs. Edith Ott, a Republican, resides at 2030 Broadview Drive in Glendale (the address given in Bertha Kemp's obituary).

From this I could deduce that there were two Edith M. Ott persons in the Voter Registrations in the 1946-1950 time period - one Democrat and one Republican (alternatively, one Edith M. Ott was registered twice!).  I could also deduce that the Republican Edith M. Ott was married to Dennis M. Ott, and their house was close to the house on Broadview in Glendale where her mother resided at her death.

*  The California Death Index lists Dennis M. Ott, born 8 September 1903 in Colorado, died 24 January 1965 in Los Angeles County.  If this was Edith's second husband, they may have divorced after 1948, but before 1950.  Dennis M. Ott's World War II Army Enlistment record on Ancestry.com in July 1943 states that he is divorced.  In the 1940 U.S. Census in Los Angeles County, Dennis M. Ott has a wife named Audrey.  So, if this is the same Dennis M. Ott, he may have married Audrey before 1940, divorced Audrey by 1943, and married Edith before 1946.  Or not!

8)  There are still too many conflicting records on the lists above to draw conclusions from, and more information from other resources may resolve some or all of the conflicts.

Thank you to all of my commenters and crowd-sourcers - I appreciate the time and effort taken in order to find Edith (Kemp) (Conklin) Ott's married names and death date.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/11/crowd-sourcing-cousin-edith.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver