It’s been a long time since I had something to post on Mystery Monday, but this one is a doozy! Before my vacation, I wrote about ordering Samuel Redford and Frances Travis’ marriage record. Now on top of the Duckworth/Redford mystery, I have a tale of two marriage records apparently.

Before I realized I could see a copy of the marriage certificate online, I ordered a copy from the General Records Office. I didn’t receive it until Saturday, which I think is pretty speedy for a record from another country! Anyway, I was cooking when the mail was brought in, so I asked my father to open the record for me. It’s always fun seeing records through a non-genealogist eyes. He immediately zeroed in on the fact that Samuel Redford was listed as a widower. Which prompted a variety of discussions, the biggest one being my shock at his widower status.

I thought it was funny that this was the first time I was hearing this, especially since I had viewed the record on FindmyPast.co.uk after I ordered it. Sunday morning when I had a little more time to investigate, I brought up the computer record and the certificate to compare. That’s where the mystery comes in! To respect the copyrights of the records offices, I’m going to just show you a transcription. You’ll just have to trust me on the differences for now!

click for full size

I changed the text color on the most significant differences on the records. You can see that on the transcription from Find my Past, it says Samuel is a bachelor and that Frances resides in Werneth. Frances’ residence makes much more sense in the FMP record since I’ve found her family’s census data for 1861, 1871, and 1881 all in Werneth. What I think might have happened when they copied the record down in the GRO (who knows when?) is that the record above Samuel and Frances’ got mixed up with theirs. You can’t tell from the GRO certificate since it only gives the one record, however on FMP I can see the full page. The other record lists the husband as a Widower and both spouses living in Hyde. So most likely a mixup happened somewhere, but it’s not a good thing when you’re researching your family tree from across the pond!

This does show that mistakes happen all the time in records and you should always double check things even from the most trusted of sources.

If you’ve been following The Diary of Llewellyn, you’ve probably become aware that Llewellyn had a very good friend named La Moss. I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure that’s not her proper name but a nickname. However, this gives me no clue as to who La Moss was. It wasn’t until I was emailing with Grace, and she mentioned it, that I realized I hadn’t done an in depth search for La Moss. She was so involved in Llewellyn’s life that I feel I must figure out who she was!

I do have one clue:

La Moss's birthday

Maybe if I were in New Jersey at the church that Llewellyn attended, I’d be pouring over the February baptism books. I know they attended that same church groups from what Llewellyn writes in her diary. However, I’m in Maryland, with only my laptop to aid me at the moment.

Using my very well developed handwriting analysis skills. (If that’s what you could call them.) La Moss has a surname of Meuner! That’s definitely a good starting off point. However, my Ancestry membership ran out and I’m not renewing it right away. So we’ll see how things go over the next few weeks and hopefully I can try out the Library Edition of Ancestry sometime soon.

I have a feeling this isn’t going to be an easy find!

This morning, just as I was about to get started on my daunting tasks with the Mays line of my family tree, a tweet came through. It was like a beacon of light in a sea of darkness, it was a scrap of toast and I was hungry… Okay enough with the dramatization, what it really was, was an excuse to procrastinate. I love procrastinating. The Halifax Public Libraries out of Canada posted a link to Scotland post office directories. They posted a link to this exact address to be precise. That link will take you to the National Library of Scotland website, just so you know.

Once there I picked out a county,  I started with Dumfries because that was the last known location in Scotland for the Menzies family. The only directory was for 1911-1912 and my Menzies were long gone by then. So I booted up my family file and peeked at the Love family. My first known Love, Andrew Love married his wife Agnes Hamilton in Ayrshire, Scotland. So I tried there next. Unfortunately, the first Kilmarnock, Ayrshire directory was for 1851, again long after my Loves were elsewhere. So I looked at Andrew’s children to see where they were baptised at. Which led me to Renfrewshire. I was especially excited to see that there are 58 directories for that county. That’s very good odds for me!

Then I got REALLY excited. That’s an awful lot of Paisley directories there, and that’s where my Love children were baptised!

I wasn’t sure what I’d hoped to find with this directory. I guess I was just hoping for something that stood out. Well that’s what I got! Listed as the second Love is Andrew Love, grocer! Half of Andrew’s children went into the grocer business together in Newark, New Jersey. The only contradictory fact is that after Andrew was in America he gave his occupation as Mason/Stone Cutter. That’s not out of the realm for him though because in the 1845 directory there is an Andrew Love listed as Cowfeeder and Mason. It could be that he went into the Grocer business, taught it to his sons and then went back to it after coming to America. To be honest though, it could be that’s how he always thought of himself. When he came to America he was in his 50′s. It’s entirely possible that for him, going back to being a Mason or Farmer was a retirement for him. I don’t know, but he is the only Andrew Love in Paisley and all the occupations fit for the family.

Anyway, that’s not why I’m writing. I’m writing because despite knowing now that Andrew Love was living at 50 George Street from 1843-1853, I still haven’t found his family in the 1851 Scotland census! Besides these directories and the baptismal records of two of Andrew’s children, I haven’t found anything on the Loves while they were in Scotland.

What I want to know:

• Where were the Loves in 1851? I can’t seem to find George street as a search parameter. I’m starting to wonder if viewing the census on Scotlands People instead of Ancestry would yield more results.
• Are the other Loves on the pages related? Most likely!

What I already know:

• Andrew Love immigrated to America in 1854 and listed his occupation as Mason.
• Andrew’s boys started Love Brothers Grocery in Newark, New Jersey.
• Andrew and Agnes were married 11 Mar 1828 in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland.
• They had 5 children that I know of, Andrew, Thomas, Jean, Agnes and William. Only Thomas and Jean had baptismal entries in the Scotland Baptismal index on familysearch.org. There could be more children.

EDIT: The power of posting does wonders. After a few hours and some search fun, I did end up finding them in 1851!

What I know about this photo:

• It was in Llewellyn’s collection of documents/photos.

What I want to know about this photo:

• Obviously, I’d like to know who it is.
• Time period would be nice, along with the place it was taken!

Unlike most of my cabinet cards, this one doesn’t have any photographer logo or brand on it. So maybe it wasn’t a cabinet card at all. I will definitely have to put my detective hat on sometime this week and start the process of learning more about the history of photography!

I thought it would be fun to re-visit some of my past Mystery Monday posts to let you know how some have been solved!

Mystery Monday: Beulah Miller – link

I’m so glad I’m going through all my photos and documents with a more experienced eye! You see I was transcribing Llewellyn’s Wedding Gift registry book to share with my new connection, and I noticed something new! Beulah Miller is listed in the registry! I quickly looked through my photos and scanned the picture again. This time I scanned the back also. As you can see, the date is given as July 22, 1923 and Beulah is listed as being from Caldwell, NJ. What struck me is Beulah’s address in the registry. I quickly verified that Beulah was living next door to Llewellyn’s future in-laws! I don’t know if the Brooklyn Moores had moved to New Jersey yet. The only thing I know is the William was working in NYC, but he always worked there so that was no help. Very interesting!

Sources

1. Llewellyn’s Photo Archives
2. Llewellyn’s Wedding Registry Book
3. 1920 United States Federal Census; Caldwell, Essex County, New Jersey; ED 22, page 17A, dwelling 366, family 382;

Mystery Monday: Duncan Walker’s Family – link

The next one I’m here to update you on is Duncan Walker’s family. Through my new connection, Grace, I learned that William Wallace Love had a sister named Martha who married Duncan Walker. I haven’t found the official proof yet, of course (I state this just so people understand it is still hearsay until I have official documentation). These women are Martha Love-Walker’s daughters!

Of course, just because it’s not official yet, doesn’t mean I’ll ignore census records! I think it’s less of a coincidence that Duncan and Martha Walker are living next door to Andrew and Agnes Love in 1880.

Sources

1. Llewellyn’s Photo Archives
2. Grace Leonard
3. 1880 United States Federal Census; Fanwood, Union County, New Jersey; ED 180, page 365C, dwelling 20, family 21;