The Name’s the Same

One of the biggest problem newbie genealogists have (including myself back in the day) is when you find a record you think is for your ancestor. And I mean any record. Wow! What a find! The same girl! Naturally, you attach it to your tree without reading the details of the record. Later you find out that she can’t be your ancestor because this girl was born six-years after her supposed mother died. Oops. While this sounds obvious, it happens. All. The. Time. You let your excitement get the better of you and away you go. 

Not to name names, but a fellow family researcher was ever so excited to find a baptismal record for an ancestor in Ireland: the last name was the same; Mom and Dad’s names were the same; and, the date was about right. It had to be him!

 It gave me absolutely no pleasure to debunk this theory.[1] We hadn’t been able to find his baptismal record in the U.S. so why couldn’t this be right? The first thing that got my “Spidey-Sense” tingling was that his parents were living in Massachusetts before he was born. Under this theory, they would have initially immigrated to the U.S. some years before, married, travelled to Ireland to give birth to their first child and then came back to the U.S. for the rest of their lives? While not totally out of the question, it was extremely unlikely. But. But. But. The names are the same! A further investigation of Mom and Dad on that baptismal record showed that this couple continued to live in Ireland after the birth of that child and definitely could not be our ancestor.

Insert sad-face.

Eventually, you learn to spot this mistake but only by taking a close look at the record and other records in the set, and understanding how it fits or doesn’t into your family.[2] While we still haven’t found that baptismal record, we know which one it’s not.

So, imagine my surprise when I find an ancestor in my husband’s side of our tree named “Celia Ann Baty”: my husband’s great-grandaunt. “Name’s the same” for reals.

Celia was the second of George Washington and Mary Elizabeth (Elliott) Baty’s nine children, born 14 October 1849 in Elliottstown, Illinois.[3] Just shy of her sixteenth birthday, she married her second cousin (once-removed) James Eli Sloane.[4] Born in Greene County, Indiana in 1845, James and his family lived in South Muddy, Illinois by 1860.[5]  James’ father was a physician and the family moved to Elliottstown around 1862. Celia and her mother both gave birth in 1866: Celia to first child and her mother to her last.

Tracing the family through census records, city directories, and vital records shows they bounced around a bit after they were married.[6] By 1878, they were in Texas but five-years later they were living in Arkansas. By 1885, the family had relocated to Parsons, Kansas where Celia’s brother O.P and his family had moved to the year prior. Her parents and a grandmother had moved to Kansas, six-years earlier and were living in Chanute, about thirty miles away. Less than five years later, James and Celia moved the family to Kansas City where they lived until their deaths in 1926 and 1942, respectively. I’m guessing life in a rural community did not suit James and/or Celia.

When the family first moved to Kansas City, James worked a carpenter, as he had been in Parsons. By 1905, sixty-year-old James switched occupation to “Dry Goods” and owned/operated his own store until his retirement in 1918. A “dry goods” store was essentially a smaller version of a standard department store (i.e. everything except groceries). The business moved locations a couple of times during its first four years until they moved to 3905 Woodland in 1910. The family both lived at this address and ran the business there. James must have been fairly successful because by 1914 the family’s residence moved into a house next door to the shop. 

Sadly, the buildings James and Celia lived and worked in no longer exist, but the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of 1909 shows both buildings.[7] If you look on the upper left of the map posted below, the second street down is Woodland. James’ store was the third-from-the-left pink colored building (Lot 67, street no. 3905) and the house they lived in was the yellow building at 3907 (Lot 66). 

The key to the Sanborn map tells us that the store was a one-story sixteen-foot tall “brick building with metal cornice” and composition roof. The back of the store (shaded in yellow) indicates this part was a frame building and you can see that the door opening between the two structures is noted. I am surmising this was where they lived before they moved next door. The gray shown on this part of the building indicates it had iron cladding. The “D” on the 3907 building just to the right indicates it was a “dwelling.” It was a frame building with a shingle roof. 

Celia and James’ six children stayed with them throughout their moves although their son James may well have moved to Kansas City a couple of years before his parents. All of them married in Kansas City and settled there with their spouses. When James died in 1926, their daughter Myrtle had been divorced from her first husband and was likely living with them. In 1930, Celia was still living at 3907 Woodland with son George and said Myrtle. By 1940, she was still at 3907 Woodland with Myrtle, but Myrtle was identified as the head of the house instead of her mother. Myrtle had married again in 1936, but her second husband passed away in January 1940.

As much as I love genealogy, all this information doesn’t tell me what I’d really like to know about the Sloane family: Were they happy? Did they have joy? Did they have a dog?[8] If you are reading this and your parents or grandparent (or any family members in those generations), do yourself a favor and record an interview or two (or three) with them. You won’t be sorry.

[1] Mostly because I know of my own past guilt and certain future infractions.

[2] Notice I said “spot” and not “avoid.” Embarrassingly, I still get caught, but usually not for too long.

[3] Named after her grandfather, Smith Elliott.

[4] Celia’s great-great-grandparents, John and Margaret (Pearl) Field were James’ great-grandparents.

[5] Not to be confused with North Muddy.

[6] Have I ever mentioned how much I love city directories? I know others have written about them, but I may have to devote a whole blog to them some day. 

[7] Sanborn maps are such great resources and are freely available at the Library of Congress. Sanborn Map Company, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Kansas City, Jackson, Clay, And Platte Counties, Missouri, (New York: Sanborn Map Co., 1909) Vol. 4, sheet 537; digital image, Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4164km.g4164km_g04720190904/?sp=88&r=-0.187,0.01,1.393,1.154,0 : accessed 27 February 2021). My lack of citations in the blog today is not an oversight: I thought that if I waited to publish until I got them all, I would never get this out. Hoping I will have the intestinal fortitude to go back some day and add them.

[8] If you have Irish ancestors, you actually can find out if they had a dog. Findmypast.com has 7 million Irish dog license registers with more added all the time. 

Sanborn Map Company, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Kansas City, Jackson, Clay, And Platte Counties, Missouri, (New York: Sanborn Map Co., 1909) Vol. 4, sheet 537, digital image, Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4164km.g4164km_g04720190904/?sp=88&r=-0.187,0.01,1.393,1.154,0 : accessed 27 February 2021).