Thursday, December 17, 2009

Can't find Lucina

Last night I searched the Illinois State Census (on Ancestry.com) for some of my Adamson ancestors, mostly in Richland County. I was hoping to find something that might help me solve a long-unsolved mystery of what became of my great-grandfather's sister, Lucina Adamson.

 In October of 1861 in Richland County Illinois, Lucina married John Dewhirst, who was from Clay County, Illinois. John then, at age 22, came down with typhoid and died in March of the following year, leaving Lucina as a 19 or 20-year-old widow. 

 What follows is a huge puzzle, that I have had no luck in solving. I checked the Illinois State Archives Marriage Database online and found a record showing that Lucina Dewhirst married Washington Lewis in October of 1863 in Clay County. I was thrilled to have found that, but quickly became aware that Washington Lewis had married Nancy Wattles on 4/6/1862 and Nancy is listed with him in the 1870 and 1880 census'. So it obviously was not this Washington Lewis whom Lucina married. I sent for a copy of the marriage record and, sure enough, it is clearly written on there "Washington Lewis", so it wasn't a transcription error. I have gone over and over census readings for Lucina Lewis in 1870, but no luck finding mine. So when I realized that I could check the 1865 census for Illinois, I was hopeful that perhaps this would give me some answer. Alas, no...still no luck. 

 So, Lucina still remains missing. The only other piece of information that I have is that she was not living in 1900 according to her mother's census information. I am guessing that she did marry, but that the groom's name was incorrect on the marriage record. Could that be? It wasn't a lost night, however. I did find census readings for other family members that helped add to their family information. 
 NOTE: January 2015-an update to this post. Lucina was found! See the post dated October 4, 2014!

1 comment:

  1. There is always something new to find.
    Good for you. Keep at it!

    Keep those ancestor stories coming!

    Bill ;-)

    http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete