I went to bed last night wondering what happened to Virgil Corporon, the 13 year old boy in 1913 who was found on the streets of Kansas City by the cops after his parents divorced and nobody wanted him. He seemed like an enterprising lad. I was hoping that he turned out to be a successful person.
In the 1910 census, he resided with his parents Edward and Annie Corporon in Centerville, Appanoose County, Iowa. I couldn't find him in the 1920 census records. I did find him in the 1930 census records, living in Norwalk, Los Angeles County, CA, with a wife Edith and a daughter Viola. He was a truck driver.
There are no WW 1 draft registration or World War 2 Army enlistment records for him. The CA death records (1940-1997) and SSDI did not reveal a death date. There are no obituaries or newspaper articles about him in the Ancestry.com newspaper and obituary collections. He is not listed at www.interment.net or at www.findagrave.com.
A good Google search revealed nothing but the Kansas City story. He is in the LDS Pedigree Resource File, based on the KC story (it was a Sebree (one of the cop surnames) researcher).
There are several entries for Lewis Virgil Corporon in the Ancestry World Tree files. It says he had a second child by Edith, that he married a second wife Nettie Mae Barton in 1942, and that he served in the US Navy during World War 2, and that his daughter Viola Corporon married Earl Jones in 1946. The WW 2 military records at www.militaryindexes.com were searched without finding a record of him.
Unfortunately, we don't have online access to ALL of the newspapers of the past, nor to ALL of the state death indexes, nor to ALL of the military, land and court records. But isn't it amazing what resources are available online now, and just think what it will be like in 5 to 10 years!
I'm glad that Virgil found a job, got married, and had at least one child. I still hope that he was successful in life.
UPDATE 7 January, 7 PM PST: Sharon Elliott took the new information about Virgil and found Louis Corporon in the SSDI - he died in 1975 in Oklahoma. She also found him in the 1920 census in Iowa living with his brother, Leo. Thanks, Sharon!
Saturday, January 6, 2007
More UFO attempts
I posted three days ago about my search for the Robert Leroy Thompson family here.
UPDATE 7 January: Note that "UFO" refers to "Unidentified Family Origin" in the original post.
Sharon Elliott was kind enough to find another sighting of Leroy Thompson in a Shelby County TN hospital after WW 1, and commented that perhaps the birth date I have is incorrect - he may be younger.
I tried more searches tonight using only the given names:
1) Lois (and Loi* and Lou*) born 1924-28, with father Rob* (and Lee* and Ler*) and mother Lil* (and Lel*). Lois/Rob*/Lil* turned up 13 hits in the whole USA - none close to Thompson, and only one in TN. And a few more with the alternate spellings, but again nothing close.
2) My friend and her sister thinks the family was in Kingsport, Sullivan County, Tennessee in 1930, based on the birthplaces of the children (the one born in 1926 is still living). So - on the theory that the family is hiding under another surname - either intentionally or by an enumerator mistake - I searched Sullivan County TN for all Loi* (and Lou*) to see if I could uncover a family with about the right structure (father b. ca 1885, mother born ca 1900, daughter Gwen b. ca 1922, daughter Lois born ca 1926). There were 12 Lois hits, but none of them had the family structure. There were no Gwen hits at all.
3) Perhaps they all used their middle names? I searched for (Gwen) Margaret and (Lois) Elizabeth in Sullivan County TN without success.
My next step is a line-by-line review of Kingsport, Sullivan County, TN to see if the family was missed by the indexers. Any bets on this? Any suggestions?
UPDATE 7 January: Note that "UFO" refers to "Unidentified Family Origin" in the original post.
Sharon Elliott was kind enough to find another sighting of Leroy Thompson in a Shelby County TN hospital after WW 1, and commented that perhaps the birth date I have is incorrect - he may be younger.
I tried more searches tonight using only the given names:
1) Lois (and Loi* and Lou*) born 1924-28, with father Rob* (and Lee* and Ler*) and mother Lil* (and Lel*). Lois/Rob*/Lil* turned up 13 hits in the whole USA - none close to Thompson, and only one in TN. And a few more with the alternate spellings, but again nothing close.
2) My friend and her sister thinks the family was in Kingsport, Sullivan County, Tennessee in 1930, based on the birthplaces of the children (the one born in 1926 is still living). So - on the theory that the family is hiding under another surname - either intentionally or by an enumerator mistake - I searched Sullivan County TN for all Loi* (and Lou*) to see if I could uncover a family with about the right structure (father b. ca 1885, mother born ca 1900, daughter Gwen b. ca 1922, daughter Lois born ca 1926). There were 12 Lois hits, but none of them had the family structure. There were no Gwen hits at all.
3) Perhaps they all used their middle names? I searched for (Gwen) Margaret and (Lois) Elizabeth in Sullivan County TN without success.
My next step is a line-by-line review of Kingsport, Sullivan County, TN to see if the family was missed by the indexers. Any bets on this? Any suggestions?
Friday, January 5, 2007
Tough times in Iowa
One of the surnames I'm working with in my friend's ancestry is Corporon. She has a family by that name in Centerville, Appanoose county, Iowa. When I put the surname into the Linkpendium surname search, and clicked on the message board link, I was surprised to find this message on the board:
======================================
"The Kansas City Times" (Missouri) Monday, April 21, 1913
AGREEABLY ARRESTED.
A 13-year-old boy walked into the station between J. F. Darnell and S. J. Sebree, the largest two patrolmen on the police force, last night. When Samuel I. Reed, sergeant, asked what his crime was, he said: "Nothing, only asking these gentlemen where I could get something to eat."
Darnell and Sebree explained that the boy was so gentlemanly that they had taken him to a restaurant, where he ate a steak, four eggs, two cups of coffee and two stacks of hot cakes. He said his name was Virgil Corporon and he formerly lived in Centerville, IA. He said his parents were divorced and each had remarried and he was welcome in neither home.
"When I went to my father's home," he said, "my stepmother would tell me I had better go and live with my mother and when I went there my stepfather would tell me to get out. Mother cried and begged my stepfather to let me stay with them."
Here the boy paused and wiped away a tear. "But he said that he didn't want anybody else's brats about."
"I worked my way to Kansas City be sweeping out the caboose of a freight train. I got here yesterday morning and the brakeman bought me something to eat. I tried all day yesterday and today to get a job, but nobody wanted a boy. Tonight I got so hungry that I stopped these policemen."
He was taken to the Detention Home. An effort will be made today to obtain a job for him.
=====================================
Virgil is not my friend's ancestor, but he certainly must have been her distant cousin.
I can't help wondering what happened to Virgil Corporon. Did he go back to his family? Did he survive his teenage years and become a working man and a family man? I hope so - he sure sounds like a responsible 13 year old young man in the article. Hungry too.
======================================
"The Kansas City Times" (Missouri) Monday, April 21, 1913
AGREEABLY ARRESTED.
A 13-year-old boy walked into the station between J. F. Darnell and S. J. Sebree, the largest two patrolmen on the police force, last night. When Samuel I. Reed, sergeant, asked what his crime was, he said: "Nothing, only asking these gentlemen where I could get something to eat."
Darnell and Sebree explained that the boy was so gentlemanly that they had taken him to a restaurant, where he ate a steak, four eggs, two cups of coffee and two stacks of hot cakes. He said his name was Virgil Corporon and he formerly lived in Centerville, IA. He said his parents were divorced and each had remarried and he was welcome in neither home.
"When I went to my father's home," he said, "my stepmother would tell me I had better go and live with my mother and when I went there my stepfather would tell me to get out. Mother cried and begged my stepfather to let me stay with them."
Here the boy paused and wiped away a tear. "But he said that he didn't want anybody else's brats about."
"I worked my way to Kansas City be sweeping out the caboose of a freight train. I got here yesterday morning and the brakeman bought me something to eat. I tried all day yesterday and today to get a job, but nobody wanted a boy. Tonight I got so hungry that I stopped these policemen."
He was taken to the Detention Home. An effort will be made today to obtain a job for him.
=====================================
Virgil is not my friend's ancestor, but he certainly must have been her distant cousin.
I can't help wondering what happened to Virgil Corporon. Did he go back to his family? Did he survive his teenage years and become a working man and a family man? I hope so - he sure sounds like a responsible 13 year old young man in the article. Hungry too.
Surname Searching in Linkpendium.com
I listed a number of free databases in my post yesterday that I frequent when I'm starting my search on a new family, and then I posted about an "all-in-one" web site to do some of those searches.
Today, I went to www.Linkpendium.com and used their surname search, and was really impressed by the number of links to different web sites, many of them free. These searches encompass my own list, and adds a few more database opportunities.
For example, I started on the LeMaster surname today in Iowa, because that is one of my friend's family names. I quickly found them in the 1900, 1880, 1870 and 1860 census records. Then I went to the www.FamilySearch.org databases, the Rootsweb WorldConnect database, and the surname message boards and found some information on the particular line that settled in Monroe County and then Appanoose County, Iowa.
Tonight, at http://www.linkpendium.com/genealogy/USA/sur/, I found more links to information about this family (by inputting "Lemaster" into the surname box), including:
* Cemetery listings (using www.findagrave.com)
* Searches in www.DistantCousin.com databases
* Searches in Rootsweb databases (WorldConnect, USGenWeb archives, etc)
* LDS Family History Library sources
* Mailing lists and message boards
* Surname distribution
* LDS Ancestral File, IGI and PRF search
* Rootsweb site search (includes Home Pages and Free Pages)
* Photographs (at www.DeadFred.com)
All in all, I like Linkpendium even more than I like the other genealogy search engine I posted about yesterday!
Are you using www.Linkpendium.com for your survey searches of surnames? If not, you might want to try it.
Today, I went to www.Linkpendium.com and used their surname search, and was really impressed by the number of links to different web sites, many of them free. These searches encompass my own list, and adds a few more database opportunities.
For example, I started on the LeMaster surname today in Iowa, because that is one of my friend's family names. I quickly found them in the 1900, 1880, 1870 and 1860 census records. Then I went to the www.FamilySearch.org databases, the Rootsweb WorldConnect database, and the surname message boards and found some information on the particular line that settled in Monroe County and then Appanoose County, Iowa.
Tonight, at http://www.linkpendium.com/genealogy/USA/sur/, I found more links to information about this family (by inputting "Lemaster" into the surname box), including:
* Cemetery listings (using www.findagrave.com)
* Searches in www.DistantCousin.com databases
* Searches in Rootsweb databases (WorldConnect, USGenWeb archives, etc)
* LDS Family History Library sources
* Mailing lists and message boards
* Surname distribution
* LDS Ancestral File, IGI and PRF search
* Rootsweb site search (includes Home Pages and Free Pages)
* Photographs (at www.DeadFred.com)
All in all, I like Linkpendium even more than I like the other genealogy search engine I posted about yesterday!
Are you using www.Linkpendium.com for your survey searches of surnames? If not, you might want to try it.
Isaac Buck in the Woodpile? - Post 1
One of my most challenging genealogy mysteries has been to identify the father of Isaac Buck, born in 1757 in Southborough MA.
According to the Southborough (MA) Town Record book:
"Born to Mary Richards, a son named Isaac Buck reputed by her to be a son of Isaac Buck on Sepr 27, 1757."
This record is on the same page, and just below, the list of children born to Joseph and Mary Richards, including their daughter Mary in 1733.
While browsing through The American Genealogist for 1992, I found an article called "Southborough MA Notifications", which included the following:
"I have taken into my house ... a famaley Last from Framingham the
name of Isaac Buck and his wife Ruth and ther Children Susanna and
Joseph, March ye 25:1756. Joseph Richards."
This Joseph Richards is the son of Joseph (died 1748) and Mary (died 1755) Richards who also were the parents of Mary Richards (born 24 September 1733 in Lynn MA). It may be that the young Mary Richards lived with her brother Joseph Richards (and his wife Lydia) when Isaac and Ruth (Graves) Buck moved into the home of Joseph Richards in 1756. Isaac and Ruth went to Southborough to close out her father's estate.
It would appear that Isaac Buck, husband of Ruth, or some other, perhaps younger, Isaac Buck had the opportunity to impregnate Mary Richards. It is most likely to have been a younger Isaac Buck.
In 1765, "spinster Mary Richards" and her siblings conveyed their share of the homestead land to their brother, William Richards. This is the last found record of Mary Richards, and indicates she was known as Mary Richards and not Mary Buck at that time.
A Mary Richards married John Phillips in 1774, according to records in both Southborough and Lancaster MA. They had no children recorded.
Isaac Buck, son of Mary Richards, married Martha (Patty) Phillips, daughter of John and Hannah (Brown) Phillips, on 18 May 1780 in Lancaster MA.
It is apparent to me that Mary Richards, mother of Isaac Buck, married John Phillips, father of Martha (Patty) Phillips. Isaac and Martha were probably living in the same house in Lancaster MA as teenagers!
But - the question remains - who is the Isaac Buck that fathered Isaac Buck in 1757 by Mary Richards? Was it the older Isaac Buck, husband of Ruth Graves? Or was it another Isaac Buck who was perhaps an unrecorded son of the older Isaac and Ruth (Graves) Buck?
More later about a probable solution to the mystery.
According to the Southborough (MA) Town Record book:
"Born to Mary Richards, a son named Isaac Buck reputed by her to be a son of Isaac Buck on Sepr 27, 1757."
This record is on the same page, and just below, the list of children born to Joseph and Mary Richards, including their daughter Mary in 1733.
While browsing through The American Genealogist for 1992, I found an article called "Southborough MA Notifications", which included the following:
"I have taken into my house ... a famaley Last from Framingham the
name of Isaac Buck and his wife Ruth and ther Children Susanna and
Joseph, March ye 25:1756. Joseph Richards."
This Joseph Richards is the son of Joseph (died 1748) and Mary (died 1755) Richards who also were the parents of Mary Richards (born 24 September 1733 in Lynn MA). It may be that the young Mary Richards lived with her brother Joseph Richards (and his wife Lydia) when Isaac and Ruth (Graves) Buck moved into the home of Joseph Richards in 1756. Isaac and Ruth went to Southborough to close out her father's estate.
It would appear that Isaac Buck, husband of Ruth, or some other, perhaps younger, Isaac Buck had the opportunity to impregnate Mary Richards. It is most likely to have been a younger Isaac Buck.
In 1765, "spinster Mary Richards" and her siblings conveyed their share of the homestead land to their brother, William Richards. This is the last found record of Mary Richards, and indicates she was known as Mary Richards and not Mary Buck at that time.
A Mary Richards married John Phillips in 1774, according to records in both Southborough and Lancaster MA. They had no children recorded.
Isaac Buck, son of Mary Richards, married Martha (Patty) Phillips, daughter of John and Hannah (Brown) Phillips, on 18 May 1780 in Lancaster MA.
It is apparent to me that Mary Richards, mother of Isaac Buck, married John Phillips, father of Martha (Patty) Phillips. Isaac and Martha were probably living in the same house in Lancaster MA as teenagers!
But - the question remains - who is the Isaac Buck that fathered Isaac Buck in 1757 by Mary Richards? Was it the older Isaac Buck, husband of Ruth Graves? Or was it another Isaac Buck who was perhaps an unrecorded son of the older Isaac and Ruth (Graves) Buck?
More later about a probable solution to the mystery.
Thursday, January 4, 2007
GenealogySearchEngines.com
Having written the post below, I knew that there was a "catch-all" web site that will perform many of the searches mentioned for you - all in one place.
The site is http://www.genealogysearchengines.com/ . At this site you can enter names for the Rootsweb WorldConnect database, the LDS FamilySearch databases, Genealogy.com databases, and many more.
Many of the sites listed are pay sites or link to pay sites like Ancestry.com, but if you want just one Favorite or Bookmark to help you remember where to go, this site is pretty good.
The site is http://www.genealogysearchengines.com/ . At this site you can enter names for the Rootsweb WorldConnect database, the LDS FamilySearch databases, Genealogy.com databases, and many more.
Many of the sites listed are pay sites or link to pay sites like Ancestry.com, but if you want just one Favorite or Bookmark to help you remember where to go, this site is pretty good.
Genealogy Database Searches
I'm occasionally asked "what steps do you take to perform a search for a person in databases available on the Internet?" This usually occurs during or after one of our society's Research Group meetings.
In response, several years ago I prepared a checklist of Internet databases to visit and investigate. The updated list includes:
1) The WorldConnect database (includes Ancestry World Tree submissions) at www.rootsweb.com.
2) The LDS IGI, Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File databases at www.familysearch.org.
3) The Family Finder database at www.genealogy.com. The only free part is the Family Web Pages and the links to Genforum message boards.
4) The MetaSearch facility at http://resources.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/metasearch .
5) Surname and locality archived mailing lists at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search .
6) Surname and locality message boards at http://boards.rootsweb.com/.
7) Surname and locality message boards at http://genforum.genealogy.com.
8) The USGenWeb archives at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/.
9) Find online web pages with specific names using Google (www.google.com) or other search engines (e.g., put names in quotes, use husband and wife like "Isaac Seaver" "Lucretia Smith" to find pages with those names).
All of the above are free of charge and don't link to a subscription site. Some are easy to use, some more difficult - you have to learn the best way to work on each site.
If you have access to an Ancestry.com subscription, whether your own at home or a local library's Ancestry Library Edition subscription, www.ancestry.com offers a wealth of data, especially census, military, passenger list, newspaper, member submitted data, etc.
However, let the researcher beware! The Internet does not have all the genealogy data in the world - yet!! Far from it, actually, although more and more digitized information is available every month. You still have to track down vital records, probate records, land records, military records, naturalization records, etc. for your ancestor, using traditional resources in libraries, archives, courthouses and local or state genealogical/historical societies.
What other genealogy databases, especially free ones, do you recommend? Please help me update my list.
In response, several years ago I prepared a checklist of Internet databases to visit and investigate. The updated list includes:
1) The WorldConnect database (includes Ancestry World Tree submissions) at www.rootsweb.com.
2) The LDS IGI, Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File databases at www.familysearch.org.
3) The Family Finder database at www.genealogy.com. The only free part is the Family Web Pages and the links to Genforum message boards.
4) The MetaSearch facility at http://resources.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/metasearch .
5) Surname and locality archived mailing lists at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search .
6) Surname and locality message boards at http://boards.rootsweb.com/.
7) Surname and locality message boards at http://genforum.genealogy.com.
8) The USGenWeb archives at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/.
9) Find online web pages with specific names using Google (www.google.com) or other search engines (e.g., put names in quotes, use husband and wife like "Isaac Seaver" "Lucretia Smith" to find pages with those names).
All of the above are free of charge and don't link to a subscription site. Some are easy to use, some more difficult - you have to learn the best way to work on each site.
If you have access to an Ancestry.com subscription, whether your own at home or a local library's Ancestry Library Edition subscription, www.ancestry.com offers a wealth of data, especially census, military, passenger list, newspaper, member submitted data, etc.
However, let the researcher beware! The Internet does not have all the genealogy data in the world - yet!! Far from it, actually, although more and more digitized information is available every month. You still have to track down vital records, probate records, land records, military records, naturalization records, etc. for your ancestor, using traditional resources in libraries, archives, courthouses and local or state genealogical/historical societies.
What other genealogy databases, especially free ones, do you recommend? Please help me update my list.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
15th Carnival of Genealogy is Posted
The 15th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is posted at Jasia's Creative Gene blog at http://creativegene.blogspot.com/2007/01/carnival-of-genealogy-15th-edition.html . The topic this time is New Year's Genealogy Resolutions, and she had 12 submittals for this carnival. Read them all - there are some interesting newer genealogy blogs on this list.
The next Carnival of Genealogy will be about Food and Family Recipes, with a submission date of January 15. I'm afraid that I'm a red-blooded meat, potatos, vegetables, chocolate, ice cream type of guy - and my mother was not a creative cook by any means. I am a clean plate soldier of my wife's wonderful cooking. I'll have to see if she can do a guest blog post about her grandmother's favorite dishes.
Go visit the latest carnival and think about submitting one next time. It's easy to do at http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_346.html.
The next Carnival of Genealogy will be about Food and Family Recipes, with a submission date of January 15. I'm afraid that I'm a red-blooded meat, potatos, vegetables, chocolate, ice cream type of guy - and my mother was not a creative cook by any means. I am a clean plate soldier of my wife's wonderful cooking. I'll have to see if she can do a guest blog post about her grandmother's favorite dishes.
Go visit the latest carnival and think about submitting one next time. It's easy to do at http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_346.html.
Rootsweb Message Boards are better - but not great
I posted about a month ago complaining, along with others, that the change to the Rootsweb/Ancestry message boards appearance and user-friendliness were a step backwards. I also opined that I was sure that they would fix all of the bugs and try to improve the mailing list functionality, but that it would take time.
I took a look at some of the message boards today, and noted that there have been many improvements, including:
1) The useful screen area has increased, and the posts are now along the left hand margin of the web page rather than centered. The post titles are fully displayed.
2) For each thread, you can select "Thread View" where you see the original post and links to the responses, or you can choose "Flat View" where you can see the post and all responses on a single page (max of 25). I like "Flat View."
3) You can now view all the posts of a given author. Of course, that assumes that the author's name has stayed the same through time - mine hasn't! It's still a good feature.
4) When you do a Search, you have to choose "All Boards" or a specific board. I usually search in a specific board. However, to search again in the same specific board, you have to return to the first Search box. This is frustrating - I'd like to search a specific board several times for certain strings, but I have to waste clicks and pageloads to do it.
5) The Search algorithms do not search for word strings, only the words themselves. If I want only posts with "Robert Seaver" in them I also get the ones with "James Seaver" and "Robert Smith." Is it that hard to do?
6) They still do not have web links active inside of messages. They were in the pre-change format. Perhaps they will in new posts, but not update older posts?
The Rootsweb Newsroom blog is at http://bigfile.rootsweb.com/newsroom/ I check it out occasionally to see what has been done recently. Several posts in the last month explain how they responded to the user and admin uproar over the format change.
All in all, I think the Message Boards have improved somewhat over their capability right after the change, but they can still be improved significantly.
I took a look at some of the message boards today, and noted that there have been many improvements, including:
1) The useful screen area has increased, and the posts are now along the left hand margin of the web page rather than centered. The post titles are fully displayed.
2) For each thread, you can select "Thread View" where you see the original post and links to the responses, or you can choose "Flat View" where you can see the post and all responses on a single page (max of 25). I like "Flat View."
3) You can now view all the posts of a given author. Of course, that assumes that the author's name has stayed the same through time - mine hasn't! It's still a good feature.
4) When you do a Search, you have to choose "All Boards" or a specific board. I usually search in a specific board. However, to search again in the same specific board, you have to return to the first Search box. This is frustrating - I'd like to search a specific board several times for certain strings, but I have to waste clicks and pageloads to do it.
5) The Search algorithms do not search for word strings, only the words themselves. If I want only posts with "Robert Seaver" in them I also get the ones with "James Seaver" and "Robert Smith." Is it that hard to do?
6) They still do not have web links active inside of messages. They were in the pre-change format. Perhaps they will in new posts, but not update older posts?
The Rootsweb Newsroom blog is at http://bigfile.rootsweb.com/newsroom/ I check it out occasionally to see what has been done recently. Several posts in the last month explain how they responded to the user and admin uproar over the format change.
All in all, I think the Message Boards have improved somewhat over their capability right after the change, but they can still be improved significantly.
My UFOs are hiding
My latest research project concerns the ancestry of Robert Leroy Thompson (born 12 Aug 1880 Huntland TN) and Lillian Daniel (born 14 Feb 1900 Coal Creek TN). I had little problem finding Lillian's Daniel and Slover lines online in the census and Rootsweb's WorldConnect database, aided by names and dates provided by my friend.
However, the hunt for Robert Leroy Thompson has turned into a frustrating chase of his Unidentified Family Origins (UFO). My friend's family papers say his parents were William A. Thompson and Frances Elizabeth Childress (or Lydia Frances Childress??), and that Frances' parents were Joseph Childress and Jane Johnson. I have asked for the source of these names and dates - whether Bible records, family papers handed down, someone's memory, etc.
The first frustration was trying to find Robert and Lillian (Daniel) Thompson's family. The family data says they were married 21 July 1917 but we don't know where - probably TN. Robert was in the Army and served overseas in WW I, and is buried in the National Cemetery in Salisbury NC. They had two daughters, Gwen in 1921 and Lois in 1926 (born in Kingsport TN) before the 1930 census. I tried using Gwen and Lois as given names, with no surname, and Rob* / Ler* / Lee* with Lil* as parents given names with no success. Lillian was not found in the census with the two daughters, but I only searched in TN. After many tries, I can confidently say that they are not in the 1920 or 1930 census in TN with Thompson or a similar surname.
There was one Robert L. Thompson of about the right age in eastern Tennessee in 1920 who ended up in Guilford County NC, with a wife Lila and daughter Hazel, in 1930 but I don't think that is him, unless he is a bigamist. His age and birth date don't match up with August 1880 from the family records.
My next tack was to try to find Robert Leroy Thompson as a younger man in the 1900 census (since the 1880 census was taken before his supposed August birthdate). More frustration - I can confidently say that he is not in the 1900 (or 1910 for that matter) census with the Thompson (or similar) surname. I tried variations on Thomp* / Thoms* / Toms* with given name Rob* / R / Ler* / Lee, etc to try to find him, searching in the entire USA.
Next I turned my attention to Robert Leroy's parents - if he was born in Huntland, Franklin County, TN in August of 1880, his parents probably are in that area when the 1880 census was taken. Since Franklin County is on the Georgia border, I decided to expand my search area to include at least TN, northern GA, western NC and western VA. For this search, I checked all Wm / Will* / W given names with Thomp* / Thoms* / Toms* surnames with a spouse given name Fran* / Fan* / Lyd* / Eliz* / Liz* looking for potential parents for Robert Leroy Thompson. There was one potential family of a William Thompson (age 25) with Frances Thompson (age 27) in Overton County TN. But Overton County TN is some distance from Franklin County TN, so I can't be sure that this is the correct couple.
From my search so far, I fear that these folks may have never been enumerated between 1900 and 1930. That seems far-fetched, so I'm starting to think of other possibilities:
1) Is the Thompson name correct? The daughter Lois is living and all the records say Thompson. I think it probably is correct.
2) Perhaps Robert Leroy went by another name before he had children - but his Army records say Leroy Thompson.
3) The odds are pretty small that he was enumerated with another surname in 1910, 1920 and 1930 - like maybe 1 in 1,000.
4) Is my search too limited? One family member thought that Robert L. Thompson was from Arkansas. Perhaps - I haven't looked there yet, but I think that's my next step.
If you have any good ideas, please pass them along. I've spent about 6 hours chasing these UFOs and I'm not ready to stop. But I am a tad frustrated!
However, the hunt for Robert Leroy Thompson has turned into a frustrating chase of his Unidentified Family Origins (UFO). My friend's family papers say his parents were William A. Thompson and Frances Elizabeth Childress (or Lydia Frances Childress??), and that Frances' parents were Joseph Childress and Jane Johnson. I have asked for the source of these names and dates - whether Bible records, family papers handed down, someone's memory, etc.
The first frustration was trying to find Robert and Lillian (Daniel) Thompson's family. The family data says they were married 21 July 1917 but we don't know where - probably TN. Robert was in the Army and served overseas in WW I, and is buried in the National Cemetery in Salisbury NC. They had two daughters, Gwen in 1921 and Lois in 1926 (born in Kingsport TN) before the 1930 census. I tried using Gwen and Lois as given names, with no surname, and Rob* / Ler* / Lee* with Lil* as parents given names with no success. Lillian was not found in the census with the two daughters, but I only searched in TN. After many tries, I can confidently say that they are not in the 1920 or 1930 census in TN with Thompson or a similar surname.
There was one Robert L. Thompson of about the right age in eastern Tennessee in 1920 who ended up in Guilford County NC, with a wife Lila and daughter Hazel, in 1930 but I don't think that is him, unless he is a bigamist. His age and birth date don't match up with August 1880 from the family records.
My next tack was to try to find Robert Leroy Thompson as a younger man in the 1900 census (since the 1880 census was taken before his supposed August birthdate). More frustration - I can confidently say that he is not in the 1900 (or 1910 for that matter) census with the Thompson (or similar) surname. I tried variations on Thomp* / Thoms* / Toms* with given name Rob* / R / Ler* / Lee, etc to try to find him, searching in the entire USA.
Next I turned my attention to Robert Leroy's parents - if he was born in Huntland, Franklin County, TN in August of 1880, his parents probably are in that area when the 1880 census was taken. Since Franklin County is on the Georgia border, I decided to expand my search area to include at least TN, northern GA, western NC and western VA. For this search, I checked all Wm / Will* / W given names with Thomp* / Thoms* / Toms* surnames with a spouse given name Fran* / Fan* / Lyd* / Eliz* / Liz* looking for potential parents for Robert Leroy Thompson. There was one potential family of a William Thompson (age 25) with Frances Thompson (age 27) in Overton County TN. But Overton County TN is some distance from Franklin County TN, so I can't be sure that this is the correct couple.
From my search so far, I fear that these folks may have never been enumerated between 1900 and 1930. That seems far-fetched, so I'm starting to think of other possibilities:
1) Is the Thompson name correct? The daughter Lois is living and all the records say Thompson. I think it probably is correct.
2) Perhaps Robert Leroy went by another name before he had children - but his Army records say Leroy Thompson.
3) The odds are pretty small that he was enumerated with another surname in 1910, 1920 and 1930 - like maybe 1 in 1,000.
4) Is my search too limited? One family member thought that Robert L. Thompson was from Arkansas. Perhaps - I haven't looked there yet, but I think that's my next step.
If you have any good ideas, please pass them along. I've spent about 6 hours chasing these UFOs and I'm not ready to stop. But I am a tad frustrated!
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