52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #12 ~ Mary Ann Zaugg **UPDATED**

Written for Amy Johnson Crow's Challenge 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. (click on the icon in the sidebar for details at Amy's blog)

First just the facts:
Name: Mary Ann Zaugg
Born: Sept-1858, Wayne County, Ohio
Married: Philip Arnold, possibly 04-Aug-1898
Died: 12-Sept-1920 [Find-A-Grave memorial]
Relationship: 2nd great-grand-aunt, sister to my 2nd great-grandmother, Emma Zaugg

I am descended from Emma through:
 - her daughter, Ella Rosa (Graber) Saurer (1883 - 1963)
 - her daughter, Lela Mabel (Saurer) Ritchie (1913 - 1991)
 - her son, my father, Donald John Ritchie (living)

As I've been working on collecting information on my Zauggs, I recently asked for a photo of Mary Ann's grave through Find-A-Grave.  The person taking the picture mentioned that there was another wife of Philip Arnold listed on the other side of the stone.  Because Mary Ann is not a direct ancestor, I hadn't done much research on her, but this led me to some late-night searching and I found some oh-so-interesting things!

First, it was relatively easy to find Philip's marriage to his first wife as well as the birth of their numerous children on Family Search.  I could see that his first wife, Laura, died in 1892 so I decided to see if I could find a marriage after that for Mary Ann and Philip.  I quickly find a marriage for Philip Arnold and Mary Anne Zeuagg.  Normally I'm willing to accept all sorts of spellings for ZAUGG.  Obviously this one is very close so I was good with it.

THEN I moved on to looking at census records.  The 1900 census for this family is very interesting:

The two children listed at the bottom are clearly born well before the marriage I found, Sarah is born well before wife #1's death, and both children are listed as Zaugg, not Arnold.  Scrambling back to Ohio births I immediately find Sarah Zaugg being born to Mary Ann Zaugg and Albert Parker!  As this birth is the only one listed with the child being given the mother's maiden name I feel that Sarah is now accounted for as an illegitimate birth.

Just out of curiosity, I also look for Albert Parker in Wayne County, Ohio and find the only Albert Parker is in Salt Creek Twp, (also where Mary Ann is living) He is a  married man in the 1880 census with 5 children - the youngest ALSO Sarah born about a year and a half before this Sarah.  He is 12 years older than Mary Ann.

Huldah, however remains a puzzle as does the exact marriage date of Mary Ann and Philip.  Based on this census information I would be willing to entertain the idea that Mary Ann had two illegitimate children before marrying a widower with 8 children of his own.

My problem is that I can't seem to find a birth record for Hulda(h).  In the 1910 & 1920 census she is enumerated as Hulda(h) Arnold and on her son's marriage record her maiden name is given as Hulda Arnold.  Of course being so young when her mother married - if, indeed, the 1898 record IS her mother - I can see that she might have taken her step-father's name even if there was no legal adoption.

For the youngest child on this census, William G (who later went by Glen William), I find a birth record clearly stating his father as Philip with a birth after the 1898 marriage record.

One of the last thing I found in this search was Mary Ann's obituary [above].  It is clear about which children are her's and which are step-children but I knew that.  Her husband Philip died after her and I was hoping that maybe his obituary would be more forthcoming.  I couldn't find it on-line, but the nice people at the Wayne County library sent it to me.  Extremely brief and no further clarity on his children.

So, I am left with the mystery of Hulda(h) Zaugg/Arnold, later Zerrer.  I'd really love to dive into it, but I have so many other things to work on that are more directly related to my line.  I'll have to let this one be for awhile.

***UPDATE***

I found Huldah!  I started looking at her husband and children and found Anton and HILDA Zerrer buried in Wayne County.  So I did a search for Hilda Zaugg with a 2-year range for her birth and believe I've found her here:

That name surely looks like Huldah to me, but in further looking at census records, I believe she morphed it into Hilda later in life. 

The memorial I found for her son, William, states in part, "He was born March 16, 1931, in Smithville to Anton Sr. and Hilda (Arnold) Zerrer and had been a Smithville resident all of his life."

So that's a little more evidence on the side of my speculation that Mary Ann had two children out of wedlock prior to marrying Philip Arnold in 1898.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #11 ~ Hattie Jackson

Written for Amy Johnson Crow's Challenge 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. (click on the icon in the sidebar for details at Amy's blog) 

First just the facts:
Name: Hattie Jackson
Born: 30-Jun-1882, Shongaloo, Webster Parish, Louisiana
Married: Enoch Mouser, 04/09-May-1902, Columbia County, Arkansas
Died: 23-Jul-1952 Columbia, Louisiana [Find-A-Grave memorial]


Relationship: My nieces' and nephew's great-great-grandmother



They are descended through:
 - her son, Cotys Milner Mouser (1906 - 1991)
 - his son, John Melvin Mouser (living)
 - his son, their father, Christian Mathis Mouser (living)

I hadn’t even planned to do a post on Hattie and then I received some wonderful information based on a picture I found on Ancestry. I sent off an e-mail asking if Hattie was the young woman or one of the children. You all know those e-mails – it seems that all too often there is NO response. In this case, however, I not only received a response, but information and stories about the Jackson side of the family – AND a contact to call for even more information. Wow ~ and as a bonus I now have a picture of Enoch Mouser so just had to write about the family.  There are also more pictures to come - which, of course, really excites me.

In the mean time I have relatively little on Hattie.  There is a nice obituary at the Louisiana United Methodist Church site but it, naturally, focuses more on her spiritual accomplishments.

The picture above shows Hattie and Enoch with the first 4 of their eventual 6 children.  The children in the picture are:
Vinson Matthew (1904 - 1969)
Cotys Milner (1906 - 1991)
Hazel (1908 - 1991)
Ruby Pearl (1911 - 1993)

There would later be two more children:
Marie (1914 - 1970)
Roy Enoch (1920 - 2007)

That's all for now ~

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #10 ~ Ruth Penrose Evans

Written for Amy Johnson Crow's Challenge 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. (click on the icon in the sidebar for details at Amy's blog) 

Ruth at 16

First, just the facts:
Name: Ruth Penrose Evans
Born: 29-Sep-1912, Broomfield, Colorado
Married: Jack H Quick, 03-Jul-1932, Denver, Colorado
Died: Unknown

Relationship: Maternal Grandmother
I am descended through:
- her daughter, my mother, Jacqulin Ann Quick

 One of the things that Amy mentioned in her original challenge was that our post could be anything - "It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor."  So this week I am going to write about my research problem.

My mother's parents were divorced when she was very young and her father was given custody.  For various reasons, my Mom had very little contact with her mother so it's always been a challenging research area for me.  Over the years I've discovered quite a lot - including Ruth's birth date.  I first found that mentioned in Ruth's own parents' divorce papers.  I then requested her birth certificate from Colorado which confirmed the date.

Without going into all the twists and turns, the thing I'm still missing is when (and where) Ruth died. Ruth remarried at least once after her divorce, but I've been unable to find a marriage for her in Colorado so at this point I don't know her final last name.

I talked about this problem with Harold Henderson during FGS in Fort Wayne last year and we searched the SSDI for Ruths born on the exact date that I have.  There are only 2 results with a final location of Colorado - and my Dad is sure that's where she was last living.  Of course "last" was in about 1958.

 

Harold encouraged me to look into those to see if I could prove or disprove them.  For the first, Ruth Koch, I found an obituary on GenealogyBank. It mentioned 2 daughters (my Ruth had no other children) and a sister (my Ruth had only 1 brother).  So, this was definitely not my Ruth.

I've asked my Dad several times is he can remember Ruth's name but no luck.  However he told me it's not Starr.  Also, Durango, Colorado is down on the southern boarder and Dad is sure that Ruth and her husband were living in Denver. 

I know my next move should be to order the second Ruth's SS-5, but I'm hesitant to spend that money when I don't think this is her.  All of her known locations were in and around Denver.

There are a total of 41 Ruths on the SSDI with the exact birthdate I have for my Ruth.

So, that's my problem.  I'm thinking about requesting that SS-5 but I'm open to any other ideas. This is a very abbreviated version of the story.  I have found Ruth in all the census records except 1940 as I am not sure of her name at that time.

I do have another picture of Ruth - she's in front on the right.  I blogged early on about how I received this picture - it was one of the first amazing things as I was researching Ruth.  Now I need a few more amazing finds.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #9 ~ Enoch Melvin Mouser

Written for Amy Johnson Crow's Challenge 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. (click on the icon in the sidebar for details at Amy's blog) 

I wanted March to be "A Month of Mousers" but I'm woefully unprepared!  This is the line that is not mine, but my brother-in-law's.  It's also the line that I believe I could use to get the girls into the DAR, but I've been dragging my feet on researching.  So, I thought I'd at least put one of the ancestors out there - sort of to taunt me into working on them.

This week it will be short and sweet, because I have no pictures - yet.  There is a picture on Ancestry that might be Enoch & Hattie, but I need to hear from the person whose tree I found it on to be sure.

First, just the facts:

Name: Enoch Melvin Mouser
Born: 13 [15?]-Apr-1879, near Hope, Arkansas
Married: Hattie Jackson, 04-May-1902, Columbia County, Arkansas
Died: 21-Mar-1966,  Grayson, Louisiana [Find-A-Grave memorial]

Relationship: My nieces' and nephew's great-great-grandfather

They are descended through:
 - his son, Cotys Milner Mouser (1906 - 1991)
 - his son, John Melvin Mouser (living)
 - his son, their father, Christian Mathis Mouser (living)

Enoch was a minister - even his gravestone has Rev. Enoch Melvin Mouser and that's how I always think of his name - with the Reverend included, almost as if it were his first name.  Here is a wonderful obituary/memory of Reverend Mouser written by this son, Roy.

I'm afraid that's all I have for now...so I guess I'd better get to work!