Hi folks,
I am new to this particular list, but I have been working on my family's
genealogy for almost 2 years. I guess I'm still a newbie compared to those
who have been at it for 20 years or more, but I like to think I have some
vague idea what I'm doing. :)
I have one line that is driving me a bit nutty. Just when I think I've got
at least part of it figured out, I find something that throws a monkey wrench
smack dab into the middle of the whole thing.
Here's what I think I know: My gggrandfather, Charles Smith, immigrated to
the U.S. from Sweden (the name is reported to have originally been
Christiansson) in December of 1869 at the age of about 14 or 15 years. In
February of 1875, in Allegheny Co., PA, he married Agnes Dixon. In October of
1876, in Clay Co., IN, he filed his Declaration of Intention to become a
citizen. I have a copy of this DI, which is how I am certain of his date of
immigration and country of origin. The DI also lists his age at the time as
21, which give me some idea of how old he was when he immigrated. I have had
prior contact with a Clay Co., IN researcher, and she indicated that she could
find nothing further among any of her resources concerning this man, and
inquiries to various counties in PA have not been successful in turning up any
further naturalization activity for him. By October of 1881, the family was
back in PA, because that is when and where my ggrandmother was born, although
the exact location is in dispute. Charles Smith was a coal miner. My
ggrandmother married in 1898, her mother died in 1899, and her father died in
the early 1900s.
So far, so good, but now comes the puzzler. My grandmother had told me
that her mother had one sister (Violet) and one brother (Henry). (Apparently
Henry was a coal miner as his father had been, because when a mining accident
killed his father, Henry was also injured and permanently disfigured.)
However, after my grandmother's death last month, a baptism certificate was
found among her belongings. This baptism certificate was for a George Smith,
son of Charles and Agnes. The date given for his birth is April 22, and the
year is confusing. It looks like someone wrote 1878 (which was the year in
which the baptism was held), but then wrote over it to change it. It looks as
though the number it was changed to might be 4, which would mean that George
was born in 1874, almost a year before his parents were married. According to
this bapt. cert., the birth took place in Clay Co., IN. The date of the
baptism is a bit confusing as well. Although the year is clearly 1878, the
month and day appear to have been altered...the month was originally written
as January, then changed to February, and the day originally written as 2?,
and changed to the 10th. As far as I can tell, these changes were done in the
same hand and ink color as the original writing. I can understand how the
date of birth might have been written in error, because how many of us
haven't, when writing a date that was supposed to be for some earlier year,
written the current year instead? The reason for the alteration of the
baptism date is not as clear, however, but does not really seem to be
significant. Further details that are presented on this bapt. cert. are that
it was apparently held at the Methodist Episcopal Church and the officiating
minister was Aaron S. Simonson Now, I don't know if this was the name of a
particular church, or the name of the denomination. I don't even know for
sure if this baptism occurred in Clay Co., IN, but that is my best guess for
now, unless I find out otherwise.
It has occurred to me that this could be a child that died young, before
other siblings would have any memory of him or even before they were born.
The fact that he may have been born prior to his parents' marriage would make
it that much more likely that he wouldn't have been mentioned, if indeed he
later died. It has also occurred to me that this could be Uncle Henry, but
that he was christened George Henry (although no middle name is indicated on
the bapt. cert.) and just called Henry.
So, does any kind soul out there have any idea how I should proceed to
figure out this puzzle? Any ideas or thoughts will be greatly appreciated.
Irene Crawford
JTJTJ5(a)aol.com
P.S. Lois Moss, are you out there?