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.

What We Are Looking For Can Determine What We Find – Part One

I once saw a television show about child prodigies. One of the interesting things they talked about was that we see what we are looking for. If we are only looking for children who are super good in math or science or even in athletics, we fail to see or appreciate children with a remarkable gift for say compassion. One of the analogies offered was that if you go into a grocery store with a small list, you will only come out with a small number of items. [Obviously none of those people had ever met me, but I digress…]

In genealogy when we are looking for something specific, we can fail to notice interesting facts that aren’t related to our current inquiry. I’ve learned this lesson before, but as with many lessons, apparently I needed to learn it again. So here’s the story – or maybe more of a confession – of how I solved a “brick wall” starting with information that was in my own files. [It’s in quotes specifically for James Tanner who has blog about this concept a number of times including here.]

This particular brick wall is named Herbert Amos Evans. He is my great-grandfather – the father of my mother’s birth mother, Ruth Evans. I really didn’t expect this branch to be so problematic. My mother's birth certificate shows her mother as Ruth Penrose Evans, who is listed as being born in Broomfield, Colorado. On top of that I have my mother's baby book with the section for "Baby's Ancestry" nicely filled out.  So tracing this line should be a piece of cake, right? Nope, not even close.

The first dilemma was that while Ruth was born in Colorado I was unable to find an Evans family that looked right in the 1910 or 1920 census in the Denver area . The first time I searched I was immediately rewarded with a family that had a “Ruth” of exactly the correct age. Unfortunately the parents were all wrong as was the information on where everyone had been born. This was a nice Welsh family that I could trace forward and back – NOT my Evans family. I also searched for the Evans parents listed, Henry and Alma, thinking that possibly they also lived in Colorado – no such luck.

Years went by from the time I did that first search and then one day as I was searching on the Colorado State Archives site for my Colorado grandparents' divorce. I typed in “Evans, Anna” – Herbert’s wife – on a lark and there was a divorce case listed! I felt fairly confident, in spite of the common name because the husband was listed as Hurbert A and Anna was listed as “Anna Gertrude” and finally the timing was so perfect. It was not going to be cheap – I actually called the Archives before I ordered to find out what I was signing up for – but I HAD to have this information so off went the check.

After waiting an eternity in genealogy time, which was about a week or two in calendar time, I received a thick packet in the mail. I tore into it and rapidly read through the contents with things jumping out at me like, “married in Shoshone, Idaho” and “deserted me in Portland, Oregon” and “gave me money to return to my father’s home in Broomfield.” My head was spinning to say the least. Because Gertrude was born in Colorado, as was her daughter, it never occurred to me to look anywhere else. Here she had been roaming around other states getting married and having children!

With this information I was able to find Gertrude in 1910 in the Oregon census with her husband and first child (who had been born in Oregon.) I also found a marriage record for the couple in Idaho although originally I found just an index. It wasn’t until quite a number of years later that the image was on-line.   It allowed me to see that this was not a first marriage for Herbert and that he listed his birthplace as Minnesota.

But I was happily on Gertrude’s trail now and traced her through 3 more marriages right up to the 1940 census. Herbert was another case however – my “brick wall.” Before I saw the image of the marriage record I was working with what would later prove to be a false hypothesis that he was the Herbert Evans in the Colorado census of 1900. I even blogged about it.   The age was right and I figured that he and Gertrude ran off to Idaho to get married. Even with the Minnesota information, it wasn’t clear. I did find a few possibly matched in early Minnesota censuses, but was pretty much resigned to him being my dead end.

Then I signed up for one of Michael John Neill’s classes on “Organizing Genealogical Information” Mostly because of Susan Petersen’s Organized Genealogist website and Facebook group  the title just caught my eye. Tomorrow I’ll thrill you with the tale of my actual discovery as a result of our first homework assignment.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun ~ A Tad Late

I know that's I'm late to the party - and on top of that, I'm going to cheat! Several years ago we did a similar exercise for SNGF and I've mostly copied it here. I did do the extra credit pie chart for this go round.

So, here is our "mission" from Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings:

1) List your 16 great-great-grandparents with their birth, death and marriage data (dates and places). [Hint - you might use an Ancestral Name List from your software for this.]

2) Determine the countries (or states) that these ancestors lived in at their birth and at their death.

3) For extra credit, go make a "Heritage Pie" chart for the country of origin (birth place) for these 16 ancestors. [Hint: you could use the chart generator from Kid Zone for this.] [Note: Thank you to Sheri Fenley for the "Heritage Pie" chart idea.]

4. Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a post on Facebook or google+.

 Here is mine - copied from my original post from August, 2009.

1. James Ritchie ~ born on 4 May 1844 at Blebo Craig, Kemback, Fife, Scotland. He married on 26 Jun 1868 in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. He died on 7 Oct 1891 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ethnicity – Scottish.

2. Jane Swinton ~ born on 13 Aug 1846 in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. She died on 31 Dec 1912 in Strathmiglo, Fife, Scotland. Ethnicity – Scottish.

3. William Benzie ~ born on 18 Oct 1843 at Oyne, Scotland. He married on 20 Jun 1874 at Inverurie, Scotland. He died on 3 Mar 1922 at Inverurie, Scotland. Ethnicity – Scottish

4. Hellen Lumsden ~ born in 1849 in Udney, Scotland. She died on 16 Apr 1919 in Inverurie, Scotland. Ethnicity – Scottish

5. John Ulrick Saurer ~ born on 23 May 1823 in Berne, Switzerland. He died on 24 May 1899 at Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

6. Caroline Flory ~ born on 20 Mar 1844 in Wayne County, Ohio. She died on 16 May, 1884 in Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

7. Rudolph Graber ~ born on 13 Sep 1853 in Berne, Switzerland. He married on 15 Mar 1881 in Apple Creek, Ohio. He died on 5 Aug 1918 at Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

8. Emma Zaugg ~ born on 13 Sep 1860 at East Union Twp, Wayne County, Ohio. She died on 7 Sep 1919 at Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

9. Edwin S Quick ~ born circa 1855 in Maryland. Ethnicity – Unknown.

10. Susie H Hungerford ~ born 09 April 1867 in Prince Frederick, Maryland. She died 02 Jul 1937 in Baltimore, Maryland. Ethnicity – possibly English.

11. William Eickelberg ~ born on 24 Mar 1863 in Mecklenburg Strelitz, Germany. He married on 1 Jan 1884 in Charleston, West Virginia. He died on 11 Dec 1934 in Denver, Colorado. Ethnicity – German.

12. Nellie Auflick ~ born on 29 Apr 1864 at Minersville, Ohio. She died on 27 Sep 1940 in Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio and is buried in Denver, Colorado. Ethnicity – English.

13. Henry Evans ~ unknown

14. Alma ~ unknown

15. August Heinrich Nissen ~ born abt 1850 in Schleswig Holstein, Germany. He died 06 Apr 1914, Broomfield, Colorado. Ethnicity – German.

16. Anna Elizabeth Parkson born abt 1856 in Ohio, Died 11 May 1900 in Broomfield, Colorado. Ethnicity – German.

This was a very interesting exercise! My ethnicity is 25% Scottish, 25% Swiss-German, 18.75% German (or 43.75% Germanic), 12.5% English and 18.75% anybody's guess.

And here is my extra credit pie chart:

This was fun ~ thanks Sheri & Randy!!

Family Events ~ September 27 - October 3

September 27 ~ On this day in 1839 my 2x great-granduncle James BENZIE was born in Insch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

This day is also marked by the death of my 2x great-grandmother, Nellie [AUFLICK] EICKELBERG in Pomeroy, Ohio. (See my post here for my discovery that she died in Ohio and NOT Colorado as I had always assumed!)


Finally this day is also marked by the death of my great-grandaunt, Edna Mary [GRABER] SAURER in 1965.



September 29 ~ On this day in 1912 my grandmother, Ruth Penrose [Evans] QUICK [?] was born in Broomfield, Colorado. Her actual birth date was something I had been looking for over the past many years. I need to write about her for a Madness Monday post as there are still many other things I need to find out.

September 30 ~ On this day in 1832 my 3x great-grandmother, Anna Barbara [BARTCHEY] ZAUGG was born in Switzerland.

This day is also marked by the christening of the above James BENZIE.

October 2 ~ This day in 1885 is marked by the death of my 3x great-grandaunt, Margaret GOURLAY in Ceres, Fife, Scotland.

October 3 ~ On this day in 1906, Cotys Milner MOUSER, my brother-in-law’s grandfather, is born in Louisiana.

This day is also marked by the death, in 1924 of my 2x great-granduncle Alexander RITCHIE in Toronto, Canada. I’ve posted a picture of his gravestone in a previous Tombstone Tuesday post.

Saturday Night Fun ~ Genealogy Style

Once again Randy Seaver has given us our Saturday Night Genealogy Fun assignment:

• List your 16 great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.
• Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.
• Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 - 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).

I have a couple of holes in my sixteen, but I am going to go ahead and use this list anyway. I only have 2 that are totally unidentified and 1 with rather shaky birth and no death information.

1. James Ritchie ~ born on 4 May 1844 at Blebo Craig, Kemback, Fife, Scotland. He married on 26 Jun 1868 in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. He died on 7 Oct 1891 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ethnicity – Scottish.

2. Jane Swinton ~ born on 13 Aug 1846 in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. She died on 31 Dec 1912 in Strathmiglo, Fife, Scotland. Ethnicity – Scottish.

3. William Benzie ~ born on 18 Oct 1843 at Oyne, Scotland. He married on 20 Jun 1874 at Inverurie, Scotland. He died on 3 Mar 1922 at Inverurie, Scotland. Ethnicity – Scottish

4. Hellen Lumsden ~ born in 1849 in Udney, Scotland. She died on 16 Apr 1919 inInverurie, Scotland. Ethnicity – Scottish

5. John Ulrick Saurer ~ born on 23 May 1823 in Berne, Switzerland. He died on 24 May 1899 at Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

6. Caroline Flory ~ born on 20 Mar 1844 in Wayne County, Ohio. She died on 16 May, 1884 in Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

7. Rudolph Graber ~ born on 13 Sep 1853 in Berne, Switzerland. He married on 15 Mar 1881 in Apple Creek, Ohio. He died on 5 Aug 1918 at Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

8. Emma Zaugg ~ born on 13 Sep 1860 at East Union Twp, Wayne County, Ohio. She died on 7 Sep 1919 at Apple Creek, Ohio. Ethnicity – Swiss-German.

9. Edwin S Quick ~ born circa 1855 in Maryland. Ethnicity – Unknown.

10. Susie H Hungerford ~ born 09 April 1867 in Prince Frederick, Maryland. She died 02 Jul 1937 in Baltimore, Maryland. Ethnicity – possibly English.

11. William Eickelberg ~ born on 24 Mar 1863 in Mecklenburg Strelitz, Germany. He married on 1 Jan 1884 in Charleston, West Virginia. He died on 11 Dec 1934 in Denver, Colorado. Ethnicity – German.

12. Nellie Auflick ~ born on 29 Apr 1864 at Minersville, Ohio. She died on 27 Sep 1940 in Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio and is buried in Denver, Colorado. Ethnicity – English.

13. Henry Evans ~ unknown

14. Alma ~ unknown

15. August Heinrich Nissen ~ born abt 1850 in Schleswig Holstein, Germany. He died 06 Apr 1914, Broomfield, Colorado. Ethnicity – German.

16. Anna Elizabeth Parkson born abt 1856 in Ohio, Died 11 May 1900 in Broomfield, Colorado. Ethnicity – German.

This was a very interesting exercise! My ethnicity is 25% Scottish, 25% Swiss-German & 18.75% German (or 43.75% Germanic), 12.5% English and 18.75% anybody's guess.

It was also interesting for me to note that 8 of my great-great-grandparents where not born in this country, 4 were born in this country to immigrant parents and there is only one that I believe had parents born in this country - Susie H Hungerford*. (and then my 3 with almost no information)

*Of course, I just TODAY found this name and I will admit right now that I do not yet have good documentation for this line. I was just so excited when I saw the death certificate because it sure appears to be the person I am looking for. This is all part of my wild rush to put together pieces of my Baltimore ancestors so I will have a productive trip there at the end of the month.

Thanks Randy for this idea!!

Saturday Evening Time Travel

Randy Seaver, at Genea-Musings wants to take us Time Traveling and asks us to, "Decide what year and what place you would love to visit as a time traveller. Who would you like to see in their environment? If you could ask them one question, what would it be?"

These questions made me ponder so many possibilities in my family history.

I would so love to go to Canada in 1891 to find out why my great-great-grandmother, Jane [SWINTON] RITCHIE left her children with her brother-in-law, Alexander and herself returned to Scotland. Actually, I'd like to figure out WHEN she returned to Scotland!

Or possibly I would want to go to Germany, in 1866 when it really wasn't "Germany" yet as we know it today but rather to the duchy of Mecklenburg-Stelitz and find out exactly what it was that prompted William EICKELBERG to bring his young family to Pomeroy, Ohio - to a country that was just emerging from a civil war. Did they know people there? Where were they between their arrival and when I can first find them in the 1880 census? And most of all, WHO is the young girl, Anna, listed in 1880 as a granddaughter at 1yr old who I can never find again?

But no, the winner of the Time Travel contest has to be this:

The year is 1909 and the place is Broomfield, Colorado. I would like to see what life was like out on a farm for a young girl of 18, Anna Gertrude NISSEN. Without her mother, who had died when she was 9, did she have any female to share whispered confidences with when her father wasn't around? Did she long to go into the big city of Denver? Most importantly, Who else knew that she was going to run off with Herbert EVANS to Shoshone, Idaho to be married?

So, great-grandmother, Gertrude, my question to you is, "Who was this Herbert EVANS?" I think he might have been the same Herbert Evans, a 20 years old boarder and a railroad laborer in the 1900 census of Weld Co, Colorado. That would make him about 10/11 years older than Gertrude, which fits with other facts I've found.

I'm breaking Randy's rules a little bit, but I don't want to ask ONE question. I want the whole story of this romance that ended with a pregnant Gertrude and her 2 year old son, Harold, returning from Portland, Oregon to her father's home in Broomfield, Colorado where her daughter, my grandmother, Ruth Penrose EVANS was born on 29 Sept 1912.

Saturday Night Fun ~ on Saturday For a Change!

I usually don't manage to participate in Randy Seaver's "Saturday Night Genealogy Fun" until sometime on Sunday. Tonight, however, I am sitting at home watching "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and thinking of rhymes in my head. So, without further ado, here is my offering:

Some ancestors seem to fall in my lap ~

I find Ritchie’s in Scotland with ease!

I can look at their records from the 1700’s,

From home - anytime of the day that I please.

There are other who seem to be more elusive ~

Though they’re much closer in time to me.

There are Nissens and Quicks and Evans to find,

But it seems the more I look, the more they flee!

Saturday Night Fun ~ WOW

Once again it's Sunday before I manage to get around to the "Saturday Night Fun" that Randy Seaver, or his alter ego, Randy the Easter Bunny, posted here. [and by the way - nice ears Randy!!]

I have to admit that I saw it last night and thought, "Yeah, right, that won't work for me. I've been searching the internet for YEARS." So, I come here today to make a public confession that I was wrong and Randy was RIGHT!

I used [Nissen Colorado genealogy society] as my search criteria. This is would be my Mother's birth mother's mother's family. I have found a little bit about them including a picture of a grave stone that a wonderful person on Find-A-Grave posted for me. I don't really know much about the family though.

So, what did I find? Not a whole lot, but what I found is intriguing and has definitely put me on to some things to follow up. It also reminded me that I need to keep looking and that visiting all the area historical societies next time I am in Colorado would be a great idea. I guess the "WOW" is because I didn't expect to find anything and was surprised when the following appeared:

The link of interest is to the Foothills Genealogical Society and it's page titled "Jefferson County, Colorado Residents Index." On that page is a listing for Clara, Minnie and August NISSEN. August would be my great-great-grandfather. Clara and Minnie are older sisters of my great-grandmother, Anna Gertrude NISSEN. At one point [as listed in the 1920 census] Gertrude's son, Harold EVANS, was living with his Aunt Minnie. Gertrude's daughter, my grandmother Ruth EVANS' full name is Ruth Penrose Evans. Minnie's married name is Minnie PENROSE. So, this should be the right group of people.

The listing of NISSEN's in Jefferson County also has several listings for John and August had a brother John.

The information for Clara and Minnie is given as "Foothills Inquirer." This is a publication of the Foothills Genealogical Society and I will be following up with them today!

For August, besides a listing in the Foothills Inquirer there is note of a mention in History of Pioneer Wheat Ridge as well as mention in an agricultural index for the area. From what I read on the webpage it sounds like the information could be obtained at the Denver Library as well as the local Genealogical and Historical societies. I really need to plan another trip to Colorado soon - and this time I will remember that my ancestors didn't always live in Denver!!

Thanks again Randy ~