How To Reconstruct a Family pt. 2 -- Play Detective!

And now for the second installment. I ended the first on a question: What to do next?

Well, I'd researched Amanda as much as I could from 1870-1930 and felt I had a pretty good idea of her life and movements. It was back to the census, armed with a little more knowledge. I decided to pick it up in 1900, the first census that was available after the 1880 when Amanda had been living in Jefferson Co., IL with her children with George Browning, John W. and Ella May.

I searched John W. first since he carried the Browning surname. With a name like John it was still going to be tough so I figured I'd first narrow it to John W. and rule those out first, it'd be easier. I searched with the parameters of his name, his possible birthday (c1874 +/- 1 yr) and birthplace (IL). A few hits came up and I just started going down the list, picking the few that seemed closest to Jefferson Co. first. One was in Franklin County and another in Edgar County but I ruled them both out pretty quickly by comparing birth places and other family living close. Another was in White County and looked promising but his mother was listed as born in Indiana. I kept him in my mind and moved on to the first one on the list that wasn't in Illinois -- John W. and Lydia A. Browning, who lived in St. James, Mississippi Co., MO.

I looked on the map and saw that Mississippi Co. bordered Alexander Co., IL and was separated from it by the Mississippi river. It was only a few counties away from Jefferson County. Hm. John W. was b. Sept 1874 in IL, both his parents had been born in IL, he and Lydia had been married four years, Lydia was born in Aug 1876 in KY, and the couple had two sons, William B. b. Oct 1896 and Jesse R. b. Nov 1899, both born in MO.

This sounded interesting! But I knew that I needed more information to rule the family in or out. I noticed that William was born in 1896 and would've had to register for the WW1 draft if he'd lived that long. I went to Ancestry, searched the WW1 Draft Registration database for a William B. born 1896 in MO (using exact search on the birthdate) and got a hit for William Bennet Browning. I got really excited reading through it! Dated 5 Jun 1918, it stated that he was born 5 Oct 1896 in East Prairie, Mississippi Co. MO. His father was born in Mt. Vernon, IL and the relative he listed was Lydia Browning who was living in Medina, Madison Co., TN.

Mount Vernon! That's in Jefferson County! That told me that the John W. Browning who'd been in the 1900 census was William's father AND it told me he'd been born in Jefferson Co., IL. The date AND the place matched the John W., son of George Browning and Amanda Raney! Whooo! I had a gut feeling that this was the right family so I began to do a bit more in-depth research on them.

I returned to the census records from 1910-1930 and reconstructed the family's movements:

3 May 1910 Wolf Island, Mississippi Co MO, ED 104, Sh 1A, image 1, HH 2, line 7
McDADE, J.B. age 46 c1865, m. 4 yrs, b. TN, fb IRE, mb, TN
McDADE, S. C. age 45 c1866, m. 4 yrs., b. MO, fb AL, mb TN
BROWNING, Liddy (sister) age 32 c1878, widowed 3 ch, 3 liv, b. KY, fb IRE, mb TN
BROWNING, Bennett (son) age 13 c1897, b. MO, fb IL, mb, KY
BROWNING, Roy age 11 c1899
BROWNING, Lee age 2 c1908
POLESTON?, D.N.(or G. N?), father in law, age 76, wid, b. AL, pb AL

1920 Wolf Island, Mississippi Co, MO; ED 116, Sh 8A, HH 143, line 6, Image 1105
BROWNING, Lydia age 44 b. KY, fb KY, mb TN
BROWNING, Bennie age 23 b.MO fb IL, mb KY
BROWNING, Ray age 19 b.MO fb IL, mb KY clerking at store
BROWNING, Lee age 18 b.MO fb IL, mb KY


Ah, the 1910 census shows Lydia living with her brother J.B. McDade so I used that last name and did a search in both available Missouri marriages databases on Ancestry. The first (Missouri Marriage Records, 1805-2002) wasn't at all helpful but the second (Missouri Marriages, 1851-1900) was! I located her marriage to John:

John W Browning m. Lydia A. McDade in Mississippi Co., MO on 16 Oct 1895

I went to go perform one last census search. I remembered that Lydia had mentioned her parents had come from Tennessee and I noticed that she and her son William were there in 1918 when he registered for the draft. I thought I needed to go look for McDade families in the state. I found the right family in the 1880 Madison Co TN census in the 16th Dist. Liddie A., aged 2, was living with her sisters and brothers: Margaret age 21, John L. age 19, William age 18, Jesse aged 15, Susan age 12, and Bennett J. age 7. Bennett and Liddie were born in KY and the rest were born in TN. I felt it very likely that this was the correct family. Liddie had named two of her sons Jesse and William Bennett.

I now had quite of bit of information on the family. John W. and Lydia A. McDade had married in 1895 and lived in Mississippi Co., MO from Oct 1895 until June 1900. They had three sons (William Bennett, Jessie Ray/Roy, and Lee) from 1896-1902 and somewhere between 1902-1910 John W. died and Lydia moved in with her brother and sister-in-law. Lydia and her son William were apparently living in Madison Co., TN in 1918 but they were back in Mississippi Co., MO by 1920. I couldn't seem to find Lydia or her sons William or Jesse in 1930 but I did find Lee. He was married and still living in Mississippi Co.

So what next? I'd pretty much covered marriages and the census. Ah, ha! The next link in the earthly chain.....death records!

I went to Family Search Beta and did a search in the Missouri Deaths and Burials, 1867-1976 collection for John with no results. Since John's death was early and likely not recorded, I then decided to try all Browning names. Only 11 appeared, none of whom matched.

All right, hm.....well, William had mentioned Tennessee. I decided to try the family names in the Tennessee Deaths and Burials, 1874-1955 collection. I tried Lydia first and got a hit! Lydia died in Medina, Gibson Co., TN, on 28 Nov 1942 at age 66. She was born in 1876 and was listed as married. Her spouse's name was John Wylie Browning. Her parents were listed as Bennett Mcdaid and Susie Davidson.

I tried William with no results, then tried Jesse and got another hit. Jesse Ray Browning died on 5 Feb 1922 and was buried on 6 Feb 1922. He died in Medina, Madison County, Tennessee at age 21. He was born 28 Nov 1900 in MO and was single. His father's Name was Wiley Browning, born IL, and his mother's name was Liddia Mcdade, born in KY.

These two records told me John's middle name -- Wiley -- and the death dates of his wife and son. I turned to the SS Death Index at Rootsweb and found William Bennett Browning. He'd died on 17 Nov 1966 in Humboldt in Gibson County, Tennessee. I took a quick trip back to the USGenWeb site for Tennessee counties and a search in Gibson County for his name in the cemetery listings gave me the following: William B. Browning, d. 17 Nov 1966, married Mealie M., b. 28 Oct 1908- 3 Feb 1998. Both were buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Humboldt, Gibson Co., TN. Lastly, I hopped over to Find-A-Grave to look for William's headstone and got lucky again! Some kind soul had taken a picture of William's stone.

Now for a synopsis.

Do I know for sure yet that the John Wylie Browning who married Lydia McDade is the son of George Browning and Amanda Ann Raney? Nope. The circumstantial evidence is pretty good though. I'd have to locate a few different sorts of documents for solid proof. Amanda's will, if she had one, might mention him or his children. And what of John's own death records? If he died c1904-1910 there might be some sort of death record (though it's doubtful it lists parents) but one never knows. He might've had a will that mentioned his parentage. Perhaps there is a funeral record? It appears that writing to Mississippi Co., MO to get what record there are is my next step to solid proof.

Sometimes, though, circumstantial evidence is all you'll have to go on. Build as strong a case as you can for it if that's what you're using. Pay attention to the smallest of hints, such as where a draft registration was processed. Think about the families that cohabited or collaterally touched yours to find leads. Trace each person back to the earliest census you can find them in for clues like who their relatives were because those people, and their movements, might impact your relatives. While I know I'm stating the obvious for most of us genealogists, for the beginners......well, it's just the stuff like this that you miss.

The moral of this story -- think outside the box!

How To Reconstruct a Family pt. 1 -- Playing Detective!

I'm super excited today to have located another branch of my Browning family. This wasn't due to a cousin's random contact but was instead something I painstakingly reconstructed by using all the resources available to me and knowing the family you're working on intimately. All I can say is thank goodness for the Internet!

First, some short background. Samuel J. Browning and his wife, Sarah Ann, have been featured on my blog already. Sam and Sarah had three children -- Effie Emmaline, George and Samuel -- before Sarah died. Samuel then remarried and when he did he married a woman named Julia Ann Dickinson. Was this woman Sarah's cousin? I didn't know. Sarah Ann was a bit of a mystery to me because I could never definitively prove her surname. Dickerson? Dickinson? There were cases for both but eventually the preponderance of evidence placed her as a Dickinson. Go here to read the whys and hows and then come on back!

Back? Now on with the show.

In my earlier post I mentioned a man named George W. Dickinson. I'd theorized that G.W. was perhaps a brother or cousin to the children's mother, Sarah, which was only one of the many reasons I'd initially pegged her as a Dickinson. G.W. became Effie Emmaline (b. 1851) and George (b. c1854) Browning's guardian after the death of their father Samuel in 1862. Their little brother Sam had died a month after his father.

I found Effie Emmaline Browning easily. She'd married John T. Fulling in Crawford County and lived there until her death. George, however....well, I had George in the 1870 census but lost him in the 1880. He was missing until just the other day.

I'd looked at the will of G.W. Dickinson before and it had given me no clues. My ah-ha moment on this came not with G.W. (who d. 1908) but with HIS father, George Dickinson (d. 1876)! The senior George's probate records mentioned two things of significance:

1) heirs were George W. Dickinson, James Dickinson, David Dickinson, Samantha Stiles, Elizabeth Storms, Emaline Browning & minor children of George Browning, Dec'd.

2) one of the signed Receipts is from Manda Short, guardian, who signed for John W. Browning and Ella May Browning, children of George W. Browning (dec'd), Mount Vernon, Jefferson Co, IL.

This told me that as of March 1876, George Browning, the son of Samuel and Sarah, had married a woman named Manda, had two children (John W. and Ella May) and had died. Manda had gone on to marry a man with the last name of Short and the family were living in Mount Vernon! YAY!

I went to the IL Marriage database, where I located the following marriages:
BROWNING, GEORGE W. m. RANEY, AMANDA S 1873-12-18 003/ JEFFERSON
SHORT, ALFRED m. BROWNING, AMANDA 1878-01-24 006/0113 JEFFERSON

Ahhhh....so Manda was Amanda S. Raney!

Next stop, the 1880 census. I'd tried it before, of course but then I'd been looking for George Browning. I didn't realize he'd died and his widow had remarried by then. Oh, he'd had children but I didn't know that or their names either! But now, armed with the knowledge of the surname Short, I found them in Mount Vernon very easily. Amanda was listed as Ann. She was 22, Alfred was 52. They were living with his three youngest from his first marriage, their 10 month old daughter Tampy, and John W. (age 5) and Ella May (age 4) are listed as his stepchildren.

There was no 1890 census so I moved on to the 1900. By then I knew that if both her Browning children had lived it was likely they were both married so I figured first things first, I'd try to follow Amanda for as long as I could and perhaps one or both her children had stuck close by. I found Amanda and Alfred in 1900 still living in Mount Vernon with their children (I made notes of the names of her Short children as well.) I moved on to the 1910 with no luck and thought that Alfred had likely died, leaving Amanda a widow. Perhaps she moved in with one of her children? I looked for all the Shorts with no luck. On to the 1920. I found her in Boone in Boone Co., IA, living with her son Alfred Short. I looked in the 1930 and couldn't find her then either. I did notice, however, that there was no sign of John or Ella. Rats.

So what next? Ah yes, the Jefferson Co., IL USGenweb page! I wanted to see when Alfred had died. I started pouring through the cemetery pages and found that Alfred Short had died in 1904 in the county and was buried in the Atkinson Cemetery. I got really lucky because attached to the notation of his stone was his obituary too! Alfred's obituary said the couple had seven children but the 1900 census said that Amanda had been the mother of 11. So since she'd two with George Browning, that meant she'd had not seven but nine with Alfred Short -- Alfred, Ernest, Homer, Eugene, Ada (could she be the Tampy listed in the 1880 census or are they two separate girls?) Minnie, and two or possibly three others who died before 1904.

It might seem silly to research a family (in this case, the Shorts) that didn't really have anything to do with my Brownings. But it's not silly at all! They were intimately entwined in life and the good researcher doesn't overlook these sorts of things. Besides, in my forays into the census I'd learned quite a bit about Amanda.

She was Amanda Ann (not S. -- likely a mistranscription) Raney, born in IL in Sept 1858. I went back to the 1870 census and found her (Ann, aged 12) living with her parents George Warren Raney and Mary Holaway in Montgomery Twn. in Crawford County. She'd married George three years later in Dec 1873 in Jefferson County. Goodness, she was barely 15, can you imagine? I can't. Anyway, she gave birth to eleven children, had married a man 30 years her senior when she was 20 years old, and by the age of 46 she'd buried two husbands. She didn't marry again after her second husband Alfred died. She lived until at least 1910 and was in Iowa at that time. You know, Amanda sure strikes me as a tough lady!

But what about her Browning kids? I poked around again in the IL Marriage database to look for John or Ella but to no avail. Hmm.....what to do next...

That comes in the second installment!