William, or Bernard Sisco, Oh, Dear, Research Report, the As It Is Series

Copyright 2022, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

This continues a series of posts, done in a very efficient (make that speedy fast) manner to share some research on the ancestors.  This is NOT intended to be the end all to end all report.  It's a work in progress, to show you what I have found, right or wrong. Kind feedback is welcomed via comments.

Let's begin.

Meet - - William, or Bernard Sisco.  Oh, Dear.  You will see I have him entered into my data base as William.

Here is his birth record, recorded as William, courtesy of the Archives of Nova Scotia:

Here is the death record, again, courtesy of the Archives of Nova Scotia.  It clearly does not state the name of William, however, the age at time of death does match the birth record of William above.

The problem we have is that Alvin and Edna Sisco have another son named Bernard who was born in May of 1911 and dies in August of 1934.  

How the baby that dies in 1913 has the name recorded as Bernard is anyone's guess.  Genealogy researchers sadly see this type of mixup/error more than we would like to.  It just happens in the time of grief.  

We note that Edna's daughter Alice had died in January of 1912 of TB meningitis, this male child, William, dies in June of 1913 of "consumption" and her husband Alvin is suffering as well, and will pass in August of 1913 of TB.  

For the record, Alvin reported the death of Alice, but, one Edward Jarvis reported the deaths of this baby William and Alvin a few months later.

By doing the math, taking the age at death and compare to child's date of birth, we see that this death record matches the birth of William, not the birth of the child Bernard who survives to 1934.  The death record of the child Bernard has its own errors, but, the birth date is an exact match to the birth of Bernard in 1911.

And, yes, it took me a bit to figure out just what was going on here.

There is no memorial at Find A Grave for William.

* Disclaimers, I use Find A Grave, Ancestry dot com, FamilySearch, several newspaper subscriptions, free sites, such as Virginia Chronicles, Virginia Chancery Cases online at the Library of Virginia and more to research my ancestors.  I pay for subscriptions, full price.

** My judgements may or may not be correct.  Transcriptions may or may not have errors.

*** Links, URL's, for the most part will not be included henceforth on my posts, as so many of them change and then I have to come back and try to re-discover and relink.  Frankly folks, I have no desire to spend my limited time here on this side of the sod with those kinds of do overs.  As researchers, or just members of the internet community, sites such as Find A Grave are easy to find, some are free to use and with the information I am sharing with you, hopefully, you can duplicate the research/findings. That said, I have seen memorials at Find A Grave be removed.  If you have questions, I suggest you leave a nice comment for me. OR find the method I have outlined on my blog for contacting me.

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Alice May Sisco, Research Report, the As It Is Series

Copyright 2022, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

This continues a series of posts, done in a very efficient (make that speedy fast) manner to share some research on the ancestors.  This is NOT intended to be the end all to end all report.  It's a work in progress, to show you what I have found, right or wrong. Kind feedback is welcomed via comments.

Let's begin.

Meet - - Alice May Sisco. 

Other than her birth and death, nothing is known about Alice.

Her birth record, courtesy of Nova Scotia Archives.

And, her death record, again, courtesy of the Nova Scotia Archives:

She has no Find A Grave memorial.  

* Disclaimers, I use Find A Grave, Ancestry dot com, FamilySearch, several newspaper subscriptions, free sites, such as Virginia Chronicles, Virginia Chancery Cases online at the Library of Virginia and more to research my ancestors.  I pay for subscriptions, full price.

** My judgements may or may not be correct.  Transcriptions may or may not have errors.

*** Links, URL's, for the most part will not be included henceforth on my posts, as so many of them change and then I have to come back and try to re-discover and relink.  Frankly folks, I have no desire to spend my limited time here on this side of the sod with those kinds of do overs.  As researchers, or just members of the internet community, sites such as Find A Grave are easy to find, some are free to use and with the information I am sharing with you, hopefully, you can duplicate the research/findings. That said, I have seen memorials at Find A Grave be removed.  If you have questions, I suggest you leave a nice comment for me. OR find the method I have outlined on my blog for contacting me.

.

Edna May (nee) Fenton Sisco, Research Report, the As It Is Series

Copyright 2022, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

This continues a series of posts, done in a very efficient (make that speedy fast) manner to share some research on the ancestors.  This is NOT intended to be the end all to end all report.  It's a work in progress, to show you what I have found, right or wrong. Kind feedback is welcomed via comments.

Let's begin.

Meet - - Edna May (nee) Fenton.

Wait!!  What??

OK, you all may recognize the name Edna May (nee) Fenton, but, as the wife of Archibald Norman Lashbrook, AKA, Arthur Norman Stevens.  I have written about her life as Mrs. Stevens before.  You can use the search tab at the top left, use her name Edna. 

If you search you will also find a post I did back in 2017, when I first discovered this Sisco connection.

Yesterday, I revisited a number of Nova Scotia vital records images.  They are better nowadays than they were eons ago when I first started using their web site.  Difficulty has popped up now tho, as my cell phone (my connection TO the world of the internet) refuses to let me access the Archives of Nova Scotia where they have updated the software and images, and ohhh, I am so sad, as the site is lovely.  But, I regress.  So, yesterday, while hanging around in a medical office that had free wifi, I downloaded 20 plus images from the archives.  Some of these may turn out to be duplicates, that's fine.  Some I know I never had, now I do.  Again I regress - - 

As I looked at the Sisco family story again, I decided it was time to take one more research dive into Edna May.

One stop was the Library and Archives Canada, specifically, the census enumerations.  I looked at every "Fenton" I could find listed on the 1901 census index.

I found only 2 possible gals, as you can see from these screen shots, one named May, one named Edna:

I read the image of the actual census for the Cape Bretton May, and she is listed as the sister-in-law of one Alex Wright.  Alex's wife is shown as a "Louisa".  She would seemingly, be the sister of May Fenton.  This May Fenton has a birth date enumerated as July 1881.  

I have no idea who Alex and Louisa Wright are. I have no Louisa Fentons in my data base.  I have no Alex Wright in my data base either.

Then, I started wondering, why would she be in Cape Bretton, and how far is that from Yarmouth?  So, I checked maps.  Distance about 600 miles.  Did she really travel that far?  Did she have the financial means to do so? I seriously have my doubts.

The Edna in Yarmouth is our gal, living with her father and her step-mother and a brother.  This is no surprise, and is exactly how I have accepted it to be for years.

As part of today's post, I will share the "marriage" I found for Edna, err, May, to Alvin Sisco.  With all it's MIA warts.  SIGHHH.

That very light part says "Affadavit only returned".  There is no full date, only the information that it is filed in 1908.

And, here we note, no birth places, parents, rank or profession or witnesses are stated.  

WHY?  I doubt I will ever know.  Was the marriage documentation just lost?  Have seen that before.  WHY?  Nothing.  Probably because I want it so badly??  Ya, that's why.  OK, sarcasm set aside - - 

The 1911 Census extraction index reads thusly:

1911 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, District 53 Yarmouth, Sub district 20, Enumeration district 4 Town of Yarmouth. 

Name: Edna Siscoe

Gender: Female

Marital status: Married

Race or Tribe: French

Age: 21

Birth Date: Mar 1890. ** Always questions surround her birth date, year and month.

Birth Place: Nova Scotia

Census Year: 1911

Relation to Head of House: Wife. *** Says she is the wife of Alvin.

Province: Nova Scotia

District: Yarmouth

District Number: 53

Sub-District: 22 - Yarmouth

Sub-District Number: 22

Place of Habitation: Clements Ave

Neighbors: View others on page

Household Members:

Name Age

Alvin Siscoe 23

Edna Siscoe 21

Muriel Siscoe 2

Alice Siscoe 1

Bernard Siscoe 1/12

David Siscoe 18 ** Presuming this is another brother of Alvin, have not researched him yet.

Arthur Siscoe 17. ** This is Avin's brother, who married another Fenton gal.

If you read the actual image of this enumeration, it shows Alvin, Muriel, Alice, Bernard, David and Arthur as "Negro".  It shows Edna as "French." 

Alvin's death record states he is "Mulatto".  I have NOT researched his parents any further at this time.  

For the record, I do have Alvin's brother Arthur Sisco's death record, it shows that he is "Colored". 

I will continue to keep an open mind about Edna and Alvin, but, I still feel this is her first marriage, which was short and filled with tragedy.  Her husband, daughter, Alice and son Bernard, all died by 1918, deaths caused by consumption or some form of tuberculosis.

And, not one bit of this tells us when Edna came to America, ended up in the Detroit Michigan area, married to Archibald Norman Lashbrook, who was passing as Arthur Norman Stevens, Sr. 

* Disclaimers, I use Find A Grave, Ancestry dot com, FamilySearch, several newspaper subscriptions, free sites, such as Virginia Chronicles, Virginia Chancery Cases online at the Library of Virginia and more to research my ancestors.  I pay for subscriptions, full price.

** My judgements may or may not be correct.  Transcriptions may or may not have errors.

*** Links, URL's, for the most part will not be included henceforth on my posts, as so many of them change and then I have to come back and try to re-discover and relink.  Frankly folks, I have no desire to spend my limited time here on this side of the sod with those kinds of do overs.  As researchers, or just members of the internet community, sites such as Find A Grave are easy to find, some are free to use and with the information I am sharing with you, hopefully, you can duplicate the research/findings. That said, I have seen memorials at Find A Grave be removed.  If you have questions, I suggest you leave a nice comment for me. OR find the method I have outlined on my blog for contacting me.

**** I hope the usual happens, within hours, sometimes minutes, I do another search and something shows up.  Well, I can hope.

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Annie Belle Bowen, Research Report, the As It Is Series

Copyright 2022, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

This continues a series of posts, done in a very efficient (make that speedy fast) manner to share some research on the ancestors.  This is NOT intended to be the end all to end all report.  It's a work in progress, to show you what I have found, right or wrong. Kind feedback is welcomed via comments.

Let's begin 

Meet - -  Annie Belle Bowen

I certainly do not know much about little Annie.  She is the only sister of my grandfather, Hayden Eugene Bowen.  Her birth date comes from Minnie Maude (nee) Remley Bowen's bible, which is in my possession.  She recorded the births of all three of her children.  It is presumed she entered the names and dates, but, I have no known handwriting to compare to, so it continues to be a presumption, dangerous on any good research day.

The place of her birth is unverified, again, presumed to be Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia by virtue of city directories and census enumerations placing her parents in Savannah from about 1891 to at least 1901.

No birth record has been located.  

Her death information is also taken from her mother's Bible.

For years I have read this date as August 11, 1903.  As I usually do when preparing a post, I review, review, review.  I go to Ancestry dot com, FamilySearch and Find A Grave. I usually also check Newspapers dot com and GenealogyBank.

I did so tonight searching for any new hints on Annie.

FamilySearch has recorded her death as August 11, 1905.  There is no source for the date, and it appears that FamilySearch is the "contributor".  My first reaction was, wowie, wonder where they came up with that?  Finding no source was deflating.  

I then pulled up my digital copy of the Bible record and I can see where someone would read that as 1905. 

So, I rechecked all my resources using both dates, of 1903 and 1905.  Still nothing new. 

So far, no memorial at Find A Grave.  

Next step was to dig that Bible out of the cupboard.  After some digging I was able to take a color photo of it with my phone and edit and enhance it a bit.  I stand by my date of 1903.

Rest in peace my little Annie Belle.  I am still hunting for you, you have not been forgotten.

* Disclaimers, I use Find A Grave, Ancestry dot com, FamilySearch, several newspaper subscriptions, free sites, such as Virginia Chronicles, Virginia Chancery Cases online at the Library of Virginia and more to research my ancestors.  I pay for subscriptions, full price.

** My judgements may or may not be correct.  Transcriptions may or may not have errors.

*** Links, URL's, for the most part will not be included henceforth on my posts, as so many of them change and then I have to come back and try to re-discover and relink.  Frankly folks, I have no desire to spend my limited time here on this side of the sod with those kinds of do overs.  As researchers, or just members of the internet community, sites such as Find A Grave are easy to find, some are free to use and with the information I am sharing with you, hopefully, you can duplicate the research/findings. That said, I have seen memorials at Find A Grave be removed.  If you have questions, I suggest you leave a nice comment for me. OR find the method I have outlined on my blog for contacting me.

**** I hope the usual happens, within hours, sometimes minutes, I do another search and something shows up.  Well, I can hope.

.

Mary Marie (nee) Chronic Woodson, Research Report, the As It Is Series

Copyright 2022, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

This continues a series of posts, done in a very efficient (make that speedy fast) manner to share some research on the ancestors.  This is NOT intended to be the end all to end all report.  It's a work in progress, to show you what I have found, right or wrong. Kind feedback is welcomed via comments.

Let's begin 

Meet - - Mary Marie (nee) Chronic Woodson.

It is painfully obvious that I know very little about Mary.  I have been unable to discover a marriage record for her online.  I have discovered nothing more than the name of her husband, either.

Here is the only record of her birth I have found, and frankly, it is "presumed" this is her birth record, we all know how shaky that makes us feel as researchers.

Mary Chronic

in the 1910 United States Federal Census

Name: Mary Chronic

Age in 1910: 3

Birth Date: 1907

[1907]

Birthplace: Missouri

Home in 1910: Kansas Ward 3, Jackson, Missouri, USA

Street: Washington St

Race: White

Gender: Female

Relation to Head of House: Daughter

Marital Status: Single

Father's Name: William Chronic

Father's Birthplace: Missouri

Mother's Name: Minnie Chronic

Mother's Birthplace: California

Native Tongue: English

Household Members Age Relationship

William Chronic  26 Head

Minnie Chronic  22 Wife

Hazel Chronic  7 Daughter

Arthur Chronic  5 Son

Mary Chronic 3 Daughter

Georgie Chronic  1 Son

William Corngroap  22 Boarder. * I have no clue.  LOL. 

Mary Chronic

in the 1920 United States Federal Census

Name: Mary Chronic

Age: 13

Birth Year: abt 1907

Birthplace: Missouri

Home in 1920: Kansas City Ward 3, Jackson, Missouri

Street: Bellx Street

Residence Date: 1920

Race: White

Gender: Female

Relation to Head of House: Daughter

Marital Status: Single

Father's Name: William R Chronic

Father's Birthplace: Missouri

Mother's Name: Sarah Chronic

Mother's Birthplace: Missouri

Able to Speak English: Yes

Attended School: yes

Household Members Age Relationship

William R Chronic  36 Head

Sarah Chronic  34 Wife

Hazel Chronic  17 Daughter

Warern Chronic  14 Son

Mary Chronic 13 Daughter

Beulah Chronic  12 Daughter

George Chronic  10 Son

There is a death certificate, which reveals a sad cause of death.  I always am sad to see this, yes, I often wonder about the cause of the infection.  My conclusions are horrible.

I have not found to date any obituary for Mary, either at GenealogyBank or Newspapers dot com.

She does have a memorial at Find A Grave, no photo of any headstone, see memorial number 213855132.

* Disclaimers, I use Find A Grave, Ancestry dot com, FamilySearch, several newspaper subscriptions, free sites, such as Virginia Chronicles, Virginia Chancery Cases online at the Library of Virginia and more to research my ancestors.  I pay for subscriptions, full price.

** My judgements may or may not be correct.  Transcriptions may or may not have errors.

*** Links, URL's, for the most part will not be included henceforth on my posts, as so many of them change and then I have to come back and try to re-discover and relink.  Frankly folks, I have no desire to spend my limited time here on this side of the sod with those kinds of do overs.  As researchers, or just members of the internet community, sites such as Find A Grave are easy to find, some are free to use and with the information I am sharing with you, hopefully, you can duplicate the research/findings. That said, I have seen memorials at Find A Grave be removed.  If you have questions, I suggest you leave a nice comment for me. OR find the method I have outlined on my blog for contacting me.

**** I hope the usual happens, within hours, sometimes minutes, I do another search and something shows up.  Well, I can hope.