Alderson Family Photo

Three Generations

Photo taken end of 1902/beginning of 1903

Standing Left: Elva Alderson (Adams)- she married Ernie Adams son of Emma Daniels (sister of Arthur Daniels) i.e. she married the nephew of Ellen's husband
Standing Right: Estne Alderson (never married)

Seated Left to Right:
William Wesley Alderson
Lora Blanch Daniels (Barksdale) daughter of Ellen and Arthur Daniels
Ellen Otilla Alderson Daniels (My Great-Grandmother)-wife of Arthur Thomas Daniels
Frankie Helen Daniels (Monical) daughter of Ellen and Arthur Daniels
Isadora Winders Alderson

*original photo in posession of my grandma*

Tangent from the Daniels Line

This evening I was going through some of the comments that Gladys has added to my blog with specific information about individuals and putting the information into the summary post and ended up on a major tangent that resulted in me finding more information on a completely different line.  [Happy Dance!]

I started looking at Edith L Daniels, sister to my great grandfather Arthur Daniels.  Gladys had posted some information about her spouse and children.  As a side note she included the information that Edith's husband was a widower with four children.  In the process of looking up the informaiton on Edith and her husband Henry I also looked in the marriage index for Henry's first wife.  Her name was Nancy L Alderson.  Ding ding... Red Flag!  Alderson is one of my family lines also in Marion county, Illinois.  Arthur actually married an Alderson.  Now my curiousity was peaked.  There aren't many Alderson's in Marion County, Illinois and most are somehow related.  The 1880 census finds Nancy Alderson living with her sister Matilda Mulvaney (another surname that rings a bell but I haven't pulled out of my memory were exactly it comes up yet) in Omega Twp, Marion County.  The 1870 census is Nancy L. Alderson living with her mother also name Nancy and brothers Samuel M, William W, and Elijah E. DING there it is!  William W. Alderson is the father of Ellen Otilla who married Arthur Daniels. 

I continued down the line of census' and looked at the 1860 for the Alderson family and find James C Alderson and his wife Nancy in Marion County with 5 children (I'll post the census images here eventually!) but there was still no mention of a Matilda Alderson (I looked up the marriage record for Matilda Mulvaney and her maiden name was indeed Alderson and she was married in 1857).  I went another census earlier and looked at the 1850, this time in Tennessee because many of the children listed their parents or themselves as born in TN (though the mother Nancy also had SC and Miss listed as birthplaces).  I easily found them in Maury County, Tennessee and there was Matilda the eldest daughter.  Interestingly there is only a 15 year age difference between the mother Nancy (23) and Matilda (8).  Nancy's age is fairly consistent throughout the census records.  James C Alderson is 32 years old in 1850.  Makes me wonder if Nancy could be a second wife??  Something to look into.  

Anyway thanks to the census and the fact that Nancy was living with her sister in the 1880 census I was able to pull the entire family together through FOUR census years.  Another line of research totally seperate from the Daniel/Daniels line though suprisingly more connected than I thought.

William Wesley Alderson: Summary

b. 10 Apr 1858 Illinois -Cemetery Record
m. to Isadora Winders on 5 Sept 1878 Marion County, Illinois -Illinois Statewide Marriage Index 1763-1900
d. 16 Dec 1943 Marion, Illinois -Illinois Statewide Death Index 1916-1950
Buried in Parker Cemetery, Songer Twp, Clay, Illinois

Parents:
James Alderson
Nancy --- (Hoag or Bundy)

Children:
Ellen Otilla Alderson Daniels
Ethel L. Alderson b 1883
Estna M. Alderson b 1885
Elva B. Alderson b 1888

Source Records: 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 Census, Marriage, Cemetery

Census Clues and Cemetery Records

While I was doing my census record sweep I came across a tiny clue that led me to believe that I was missing a child of one of my ancestors, William Wesley Alderson and his wife Isadora Winders Alderson. The clue came from the 1900 census where one of the questions asked by the enumerator was how my children were living versus how many total. The answer for Isadora was 3 of 4, hinting to the existence of a child born after the 1880 census that died before the 1900 census. There was also a pretty distinct gap in the ages of the living children.

I was unable to find any helpful information on the internet and made a point to look for the missing child while I was in Utah at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Time was short at the library and I had multiple things I was looking for, but I was by chance (though probably not really chance at all, just not somewhere I would have logically looked so early in the game) I was able to find the cemetery record for the Aldersons and the Winders (Isadora’s parents). Turns out this was a classic case of the cemetery being just across the county line, not in Marion County, Illinois where I knew the family to have lived and died and had come up empty in the Marion County cemetery records, but in Clay County, Illinois right next door to the East.

Clay county happens to be a county where one of my very elusive ancestors, George Daniels born in England (if you know anything about him, please oh please let me know!) lived and presumably died before 1880 in Oskaloosa, Clay, Illinois. Anyway, while we were looking at the cemetery records for Marion County my mother suggested we look in Clay county for good old George. The books happened to be close to each other on the shelf so I picked up the book Cemetery Inscriptions of Clay Co. Illinois (977.3795 V3t). This book turned out to be a gold mine though not for George Daniels (alas he will have to continue to wait).

Thank goodness for INDEXES! Without them we would never have found my missing Aldersons and the Winders. We found EIGHT of my ancestors buried in Parker Cemetery in Songer Township, Clay, Illinois (just across the county line from Omega, Marion County, and multiple pieces of information that I did not know!

Page 357
Alderson, W. W. Apr. 10 1858 (my great great grandfather)
Isadora-his wife-June 7, 1859-Nov. ?, ???? (my great great grandmother)
Alderson, Estna M. Apr 5, 1885 d. Oct 14, 1958 (daughter of William and Isadora Alderson)
Daniels, T. Arthur 1875-1958 (my great grandfather)
Ellen O. 1878-1957 (my great grandmother, daughter of William and Isadora Alderson, wife of Arthur T. Daniels)

Page 355
Winders, Wm. W. b. Oct 25 1824 d. July 26 1877 (my great great great grandfather)
Sarah wife of Wm. b. Dec 15, 1826 d. Aug 16, 1901 (my great great great grandmother, maiden Mosier)
Ethel L. dau of Wm W. and Dora Alderson b. June 14, 1883 d. July 1, 18??

Tada! There she is, my missing child, Ethel! (With sisters named Ellen, Estna, and Elva. Oh my.) Unfortunately her death date is not complete, apparently the transcriber was unable to read the death year, BUT I will take what I can get. She fits in exactly where I thought she would. She is buried with her grandmother, who lived with the Aldersons after her husband died. I didn’t have birth or death dates for Sarah or William W. either and was very surprised and happy to see them in the Parker Cemetery too. Talk about one of those moments when you want to stand up and do a jig in the library (don’t worry I restrained myself to a low five).

Well, my point is to never ignore even the smallest of clues and follow those little urges to look somewhere you didn’t think about initially (thank you, mother!). Doors can open and ancestors can be found. It is an amazing thing to be a part of.

Citation and Notes:

Cemetery Inscriptions of Clay Co. Illinois 977.3795 V3t

Parker Cemetery, Songer Township
Location? NW/4 of Sec. 18, township 3 North, Range 5 East
North of Xenia on Xenia-Oskaloosa Road to Songer Town House (3 miles), West about 3 miles across Railroad to County-line Road, right 1 ½ miles to cemetery.

1880 Census

Federal Census Records hold a wealth of information and give a great peek at a family in 10 year intervals. Federal Census Records are available from 1930 back every ten years with the exception of 1890 which was destroyed by fire. The further back you go, the less information you will find until eventually all you are getting is the name of the head of household and tally marks.

All of the census's are available online for searching but require a membership to do so. The two biggest places I do census searches are Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest. As mentioned last week, Ancestry is a paid membership whereas with Heritage Quest you can get access through the BYU library with your student/alumni log in (I imagine there are other ways to get in though this is the only way I know. Heritage Quest not only does census's, it has a large collection of family and local histories with original images online).

The 1880 census is an exception. It is available for FREE through Ancestry and also through Familysearch.org

What will you find in the 1880 Federal Census Records?

You will find full names of all people living in the household, their relationship to the head of household, their marital status, race, age, birthplace, occupation, father's birthplace, mother's birthplace, who their neighbors were (this is useful for establishing family relationships) and more.

Because the 1880 is free on Ancestry you should be able to follow the following links (that is if you are interested) and view the actual census records online. It is helpful to zoom in once or twice (150%) in order to be able to read the names. The names will appear in list form down the left side. Sometimes the surname comes first, sometimes it does not, depends on the census.
My ancestors in the 1880 census:

Charles Everette Condon with parents Jacob and Sarah Condon
Margaret (Maggie) Garvin Short and Daniel T Short with children
William and Sarah Garvin with two of their children
William Wesley and Isadora Alderson with child and Mother-in-law Sarah Winders

If you have your own name you want to search, follow the links above. Type in as much information as you have, if nothing comes up take out some of the information and try again. I've also found many times that my ancestors have given their nicknames to the census taker and that the ages are often incorrect.

1930 Census of Arthur T. Daniels and family

I've mentioned before that I am trying to find all of my ancestors in as many census's as possible. I have a few that are still proving elusive but have found a majority of my ancestors in the census records throughout their lives. It has been very interesting to see where they have moved (which proves very helpful when looking for other records) and what occupations they have held as well as what children were living in the house and when. Census records are an easy door for opening up other research possibilities. I'm excited about the many leads I have found. There's always something more to do.