Week 44: Trick or Treat #52Ancestors

Of course, this week’s prompt is “Trick or Treat.” I have always loved Halloween. It was a big deal in the town I grew up in and back when our son was small, we went all out for Halloween - lots of displays, parties, and even a head-less guy sitting on our front porch. Since our son moved away, our Halloweens are low-key affairs – just candy for the kids.

For family historians, “Trick or Treat” can have many meanings. Mostly the “Trick” part relates to all those ancestors who have the same name. Many of my husband’s male Appleby ancestors were named John. To make matters worse they all lived in the same area, they were all “nailors,” and they all married a woman named “Mary.”[1] Good luck figuring out which one is which. On my side of the family, many of my male German ancestors were also named John (or rather, “Johann”). Thank goodness that the Germans had this “thing” where they would many times give a son a second name and this was the name they went by.[2]

As for genealogical “Treats,” these can happen all the time, whether due to stead-fast work on a designed research plan or plain-old serendipity. Since I do most of my research on-line, even if I have finished a research project I have to be mindful that new records are published on the internet every day. You never know when a little “treat” will surface.

I found a great “Treat” only last week. One of my many brick-walls was Reverend Richard T. Marlow, my husband’s 2nd great-grandfather. I had a lot of information on his life because he was a relatively prominent preacher (initially with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church). He co-founded the Iberia College in the Ozarks in 1890 and organized the First Congregational Church in Perry, Oklahoma Territory, in 1893.[3] I love his report in January of 1894 to the Home Missionary Society where he described life in Perry which was founded just after he arrived. He lived in a “rude tent” and was constantly buffeted by “wild” winds.[4] He reported that the large tent he had erected for services blew down one night and a thief stole the wall canvas.[5] He ended his missive this way: “May God help me to reach and try to save this wicked city.”[6]

Anyway, while I had a lot on his life, I had no idea who his parents were. His obituary didn’t mention them, no death certificate is available, and I had not been able to find him in the 1850 U.S. census – the first where all household members were enumerated by name (he was only twenty at that time, so I thought it would be reasonable that he was still living with his parents. Unfortunately, that was not the case).

Last week, I had a little bit of free time – not enough to devote to a full-blown project, but just enough time to undertake my continuing search for Reverend Marlow in some on-line newspaper sites. In order to do a thorough search for a person, it’s important to keep in mind the various ways they could have been identified in the news. I could have just searched for “Marlow” but that would have been over-kill and I didn’t have THAT much time. For the good Reverend, he was identified in all of these ways: Richard, Richard T., R.T, Reverend, and Rev. Using a “wildcard” in a search can help avoid multiple searches, but in this case, that was not a huge help.

Since I had searched for Richard previously (I already had twenty-eight newspaper stories on him), I felt sure that I had done thorough research. But because new papers are coming on-line all the time, it’s always worth going back and duplicating a search. This time, it paid off in a big way.

Scene: Cele in her office doing a little “happy dance.”

 Darned if I didn’t find a small obituary for Richard’s MOTHER! This little four-line obituary was published as a “Special Dispatch” from Colorado Springs, Colorado to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.[7] Richard was named: “Rev. R.T. Marlow.” His mother had been living in Colorado Springs with her son, Dr. William D. Marlow and presumably the Globe-Democrat picked this up because Richard was living in Iberia, Missouri then. The obituary also mentioned another son, Captain Henry Clay Marlow of Paducah, Kentucky. GOLD MINE!

With that bit of information, I was able to find his father (Stephen), his mother’s maiden name (Aly Reynolds), and four other siblings (Aly had twelve children, so I have some more work to do).[8] I’ve also located a record documenting Stephen and Aly’s marriage, numerous census records, Civil War pension records (for Capt. Marlow), more obituaries, and on and on. 

A lovely Halloween Treat!

Of course, Stephen and Aly are my new brick-walls. Ha!

[1] A “nailor” in this area of England was a “metalworker who produced nails.” Duh. Family Research, “Dictionary of Old Occupations,” (https://www.familyresearcher.co.uk : accessed 31 October 2019), “nailor.”

[2] Family Search Research Wiki, Germany Names, Personal,” rev. 10:13, 11 June 2019. I’m pretty sure Germans didn’t call this a “thing.”

[3] “College at Iberia is Interesting,” The Sedalia (Missouri) Democrat, 8 September 1940, p. 14, col. 3-4. Rev. R. T. Marlow, “A Word from Perry, Oklahoma,” The Home Missionary for the Year Ending April 1894, Vol. LXVI (New York: Congregational Home Missionary Society, 1894), 465-66; digital images, Archive.org (https://archive.org : accessed 9 August 2013).

[4] Marlow, “A Word from Perry, Oklahoma,” 465.

[5] Ibid, 466. 

[6] Ibid.

[7] “Mrs. Alva Marlow,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 8 August 1901, p. 4, col. 4.

[8] 1900 U.S. census, El Paso Co., Col., pop. sch., ED 28, p. 219 (stamped), p. 6 (penned), dwel. 103, fam. 115, for Ala Marlow in Wm. D. Marlow household; NARA microfilm pub. T623, roll 124.

Reverend Richard T. Marlow, his wife Rebecca Frances Suite (seated) and their seven children.

Photograph of the family of Rev. Richard T. Marlow, undated; digital image, MoGenWeb Project, MoBarry, Rootsweb.Ancestry.com (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mobarry/photos/Mystfly.htm : accessed 9 July 2017).