Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Who is Your MRUA?

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge this week come with 3 parts:

1) Who is your MRUA - your Most Recent Unknown Ancestor? This is the person with the lowest number in your Pedigree Chart or Ahnentafel List that you have not identified a last name for, or a first name if you know a surname but not a first name.

2) Have you looked at your research files for this unknown person recently? Why don't you scan it again just to see if there's something you have missed?

3) What online or offline resources might you search that might help identify your MRUA?

The answers:

1.) My MRUA, is Mary, wife of Edward Dews. I don’t have to go far to find my MRUA, only to my great great grandmother. This is the extent of my text file on Mary, sad as it is:

“Mary is enumerated on the 1880 US census of Kempville District, Princess Anne County, Virginia as follows: Mary, age 55, widow, keeping house, born Virginia, both parents born Virginia; Ro. Lee, age 16, son, works on farm, born Virginia.

Several searches of death records for Princess Anne County Virginia have been done and no death record has been found.”

I do not find Mary after the 1880 census, she is not living with any of her children on the 1900 census, that said, I have not found all of her children on that census.

2.) I have not scanned my research files, and sorry, Randy, I am not going 1000 miles home to do so. I know you will forgive me. Even though I did bring a number of genealogy files and cemetery files with me, the Dews file was not one of them. (Bringing files with you while you travel is very hard, and is one of reasons I have a long term project of scanning and committing all documents and photos to digital format, then I can take my files with me.)

3.) Online or offline resources?? Try locating Mary’s children again on the 1900 census. My long term to do list on this family is to make a personal visit to the Princess Anne County Virginia courthouse to view deeds, estates and other records that have not been filmed and therefore are not available at the Library of Virginia or via the Mormon FHC. A review of any city directories might not be a bad idea either, sometimes a revisit to a source will provide results missed the first or second or third time around.

Think I will start with the census searching. Thanks Randy, we can always count on you to get us jumpstarted in our research and get us thinking about it in a fresh light.

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