Yikes!

Well, it certainly has been a good long while since I blogged.  I fell off the horse so to speak.  It isn't that I don't have any ideas, I just can't seem to get my fingers to the keyboard.

Way back in May I made a trip to Salt Lake City on the hunt for my great grand father on the Smith side. I took my Mom and Dad.  Mom has an amazing memory and Dad is a good researcher.

The Temple in Salt Lake City, UT

We have been caught up in the search about who are the parents for my grandfather, George E. Smith.  We were confident that his father's name is James A. Smith.  For over a year we believed, perhaps because we wanted to, that his mother's name was Margaret Allen Smith.  Oh, that would have been sweet indeed!

Not a mention of George E. Smith

We had a cemetery in Wisconsin that had both of the above buried there along with many of the Smith family.  It made sense if you were willing to not look at the glaring missteps and failure of the facts to add up.  I could trace that group of Smiths for generations.  All the way back to Scotland.  And then it happened...I read his death certificate again.

Death Certificate

I believe that there is a difference between looking at a document and reading that document.  There it was, Mother's name, drum roll please, Louise unknown.  Louise, not Margaret with all those lovely connections.  Maybe the person giving the information didn't know and made it up or got confused oh well, you get the picture.  I am sure that George's daughter, Regina knew what she was talking about.  For all I know she had met the woman.  I will never know as Regina is gone as is most of my mother's family on the Smith side.

I must admit that at first we were disappointed. Then it dawned on us that we had indeed made a great find.  Stop looking up that dead horses ass.  Move on, put those strangers away and start looking in new and different places.  I admit that I will miss them and all their delightful stories.  But they are NOT my Smiths.  If they are yours then you truly have a wonderful group of ancestors.

~Cindy

The Surname is Smith

George E. Smith

I must admit that I am fascinated and frustrated with the Smith branch of the family.  I just can not figure out who my great grandfather is!  There are times that I think that my grandfather was in the Witness Protection Program.  He is like smoke.

George Elbert Smith was born 14 June 1875 in Viroqua, Wisconsin.  Died 5 Dec 1955 in Winner, South Dakota.

I am able to find nuggets of information, but they only beg more questions.  I believe that I have found him in several Federal Census, but when your name is George Smith and I believe that his fathers name is James A. Smith it is hard to be sure.

To complicate the issue there are several Public Trees on Ancestry.com which list a James A. Smith as the father of George E. Smith.  Great!  As you dig deeper you find that some trees list the James as James Andrew Smith and some as James Arthur Smith.  Most have James Married to Margaret Allen.  But the Death Certificate for George lists his mother as Louise, not Margaret.

Some have George's mother and spouse as Margaret Mae Fox.  That would be difficult.  Siblings abound.

• Armilda Smith born about 1867 WI
• Caroline E Smith born about 1869 WI
• Charles S Smith born about 1870 WI

If (and that is a big IF)  Armilda Smith is George's sister then I can trace her easily.  I know who she married and have several sources.  I also have in my possession a complete list of all the Smith's buried in the Viola Cemetery which is close to where George was born.

I should be happy right?  No, I can not prove that this is George's father and mother.  NO birth certificate, not baptismal certificate, not newspaper article, nada.  I do have his marriage license for his second marriage.

George and Sarah

George is a complicated man. I know that he was married twice at least.  I know that he was the same age as my mother's grandfather!  Talk about an age difference.  He had in essence two families.  I believe that his first wife's name was Amelia.  I have a census that lists George, Amelia and their two children.  I have a census that lists George with his new wife and children.  I even have a census that shows the first wife, Amelia living and their son living in the same house in 1920.  (The son disappears after that.  Go figure)

My plan now is to go to Salt Lake City to the Family Search Library to look at a book that they have on Wisconsin and hope that there is something that will help me separate the strands.

Wish me Luck!

George E Smith

George E Smith is my maternal Grandfather.  I really do not remember him and now I can't find him.

George E Smith

He is, what in the genealogy world is referred to as a "Brick Wall".  I have pieces of information, but I just can't put everything together.  I think that I have a first name for a first wife.  I know the names of his children from his first wife. (Perhaps, the 1940 Census will help)

Margaret Wilson & George Smith

I know some of the places that he lived and where he was born and where he died.  I even know where he was supposedly buried, though the cemetery no longer exists.

I have a couple of photos of him and I have the stories that my Mom tells me about him, though he was gone much of her life.  He was a carpenter and it appears that he traveled and worked were he could find it.  It was during the depression.

George Smith

I hope to find out more about you.  I am persistent.