Having been on Ancestry.com for a couple of months now, I’ve learned some interesting things about my grandmother. Chiefly, that she was 1/2 Cherokee.
She’s listed near the top of the page as Ada Fields and as a niece. I’m trying to find out who she was the niece of. Both of her parents died when she was young.
I’m not familiar with the census of the Indian population. But if the actual pages are online and work like the Federal census, they should be “live”, i.e. you can click on previous or next pages. Looks like you need sheet 5 from that township and enumerator.
They probably do work that way. My problem is that the image comes from Ancestry and is a static image, not an actual link in a census database. I don’t know how to find any specific census pages.
Some free sites have census data, though you may have to register. Familysearch.Org has those census images, but conks out before it gets to Page 6A (Image 11). But I found your page here at Findmypast.com; register for a free account. It has friendly “Next/Prev Image” buttons. They also show a transcript for that household (William Stewart was a Mill Manager?):
… which should give you what you need to find the image at Ancestry.com
Not sure if this will work or not, but there is someone on Ancestry that seems to have a tree with the family. ALWAYS take these trees with a grain of salt as some people just link to anyone that looks close.
And there is a Find a Grave link to Sarah, which has a link to her husband’s tombstone.
I don’t know anything about Oklahoma really so don’t know if you can find death certificates online, if you have to order one from the state, or if they even had them at the time.
Thanks septimus and Edward the Head! That’s just what I needed. Unfortunately, this deepens the mystery (which I assume is common in genealogy). At some later point, I know that my grandmother’s maiden name became DeHart and I was hoping that that’s what would be on the census page. I suppose it’s possible that I’ve found the wrong “Ada Nancy” but I really don’t think so. I’ll keep digging.
Yes, these kinds of things happen quite a bit in researching family histories.
Is it possible that your grandmother married prior to marrying your grandfather? Could be that she married someone and he died not long after. That’s really one of the only reasons to change a name, especially since the person you found was a teen. Have you asked your parents if they know about the name change?
IMO I’d look for the 1920/1930/1940 census. I’d also find a death certificate for her, it seems Oklahoma, if she died there, didn’t start making them mandatory until 1908 and even then they might not have been filed. Other states make them easy to get, you can find some online, others you have to pay for. Hopefully it will list her parents for sure and you can go from there.
I know nothing about research in Indian Territories, I did a quick look to see if I could find any death notice or obituary but couldn’t. I don’t know what kinds of church records there might be or if Indian Tribes kept any kind of written records.
I suppose that it’s possible that she was married previously but I really don’t think that’s the case. It was certainly never mentioned. A long time ago, my mom mentioned playing with her DeHart cousins. I think that would be unlikely if they were from a previous marriage. My mom and her sister are still alive but they both have dementia so getting information out of them is problematic to say the least.
I’ll take your advice on searching the other census records. She definitely died in Oklahoma about 25 years ago. What type information would a death certificate show?
It’s possible that your mom’s ‘cousins’ were second cousins or it was a female’s family who’s last name was DeHart. My kids call my cousins’ kids cousin though they are second cousins. I call a couple of cousins once removed cousins too even though they are younger then I am.
Death certificate can contain a lot of information, but it’s only as good as the person who provided it. Date of death and cause of death should be good since they created the certificate at the time. But age, date of birth, parents names, those kinds of items which are usually on them can be wrong. I have a great grandfather who’s year of birth is 10 years off on their death certificate, obituary, and tombstone, it wasn’t until I saw some church records and census records with the proper year, still don’t know who changed the years that much.
My advice is to not only do your direct family, but all the aunts and uncles as well. I also do their spouses as those can sometimes give you the clues you need to find parents. Sometimes it’s easier to find a census using the more uncommon name of one of the kids. That’s how I found the 1900 census, I used Ada over the Rachel that I first saw. You should also use all of the lines on the census, the 1900 one shows that the mother had 10 children, all of them were still living. It also shows how long they were married.
Here’s a link to the Oklahoma death certificates. They are $15, and you might have to prove that you are related. I’ve never done that before so I don’t know how hard that is.
r/genealogy on reddit is a good place to ask questions, and I’ve found Facebook pages are pretty good too. Some of the Ancestry ones people don’t look at or just don’t answer.
Anecdotal: In my family there is a confirmed 1919 death in Oklahoma (Greer County), and there was no death certificate filed. The only evidence I can find is an obituary in one of the tiny local newspapers.
I’ve had that too in Maryland. She died at her house according to the newspapers which is right in the middle of the county. I’ve checked for a death certificate, you can view them from the 1920s at the archives, and nothing. Not even for the surrounding counties. She at least has a well documented family so it’s not a huge deal.
I checked the local newspapers for Nars’ ancestors county and could not find but one death notice, either no one died there, or they just didn’t put them in the papers. I went a good week or two looking and nothing. Though there’s always a good possibility that a smaller newspaper that’s not online is out there.
