I'm still looking for this illusive ancestor and after three years of
searching I am beginning to get discouraged. She shows up as the mother of
Lottie May BIDWELL, born in Kingsley, Paradise Township, Grand Traverse
County, Michigan in January of 1899. It does not appear that she was married
to my grandmother's father - Nelson BIDWELL, as he already had a wife, Jessie
FINN AKA Ella. My grandmother was raised by various family members, or so it
seems, but in the 1900 MI Census she was with Nelson and Jessie. On my
grandmother's birth certificate it says that Lottie May CASEY was from
Vermont, but it appears that Vermont seems to have the worst genealogy record
keeping in the world, and I can find no record of her. The same certificate
says that Nelson BIDWELL came from South Carolina, but there is no record of
him there either. I do know that his father was Joseph BIDWELL and was born
in Ireland and his mother, also born in Ireland, was Mary RAY/WRAY/RAE/REA. I
have no idea where any of these people really came from as I have only found
dead ends every where I look.
Karon