Sunday, April 21, 2019

In Search of Jerome: A Tale of Pennsylvania Research Frustration

With 12 hours in the famed Family History Library, could I turn up enough clues to find out what happened to my fourth great-grandfather Jerome Andrus?

Jerome had disappeared from the paper trail after the death of his maybe wife (I don't even know whether they married).

Surely the Family Sleuther could sleuth out an old man from the latter 19th century.

Spring has sprung at the Family History Library


The Pennsylvania Conundrum


Jerome Andrus was the father to my third great-grandmother Mary Jane Andrus. The identity of Mary Jane's mother - and Jerome's presumed wife - remains a mystery.

Mary Jane (Andrus) Bair

Mary Jane was born in December 1862 in Bradford County, Pennsylvania. Her death certificate identified her father as Jerome Andrus, but the mother was "unknown." Mary Jane's 1945 obituary explained that her mother died when she was only three weeks old. For whatever reason, Jerome did not raise his daughter and Mary Jane was left to "kindly relatives, Mr. and Mrs. Jared Beardsley, who adopted her as their own on January 3, 1863." See An Unknown Matriarch Cloaked in Mystery.

According to a July 1863 Civil War draft registration record for Bradford County, Pennsylvania, Jerome Andrus was married.

Bradford County, Pennsylvania Civil War Draft Registration - July 1863


If the record was correct, Jerome Andrus had already remarried just eight months after the mother of his daughter Mary Jane had passed away.

As I searched for more information, I quickly learned about the misery joys of Pennsylvania research.

For example, I tried to find marriage records for Jerome, but repeatedly came up empty-handed. The FamilySearch Wiki explained that, "Pennsylvania counties recorded few civil marriage records before 1885."

Pennsylvania did a poor job of keeping civil records.

I was also surprised to discover that court records - that could detail Mary Jane's adoption by the Beardsley family - were not microfilmed nor digitized by FamilySearch and were only available in the Pennsylvania State Archives. Furthermore, there were no tax records that could help me locate and follow Jerome.

FamilySearch index for Bradford County, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania does a poor job of broadly sharing existing records with researchers.

As the desperation mounted, I pulled nearly every book from the shelf on Bradford County. I soon realized that Jerome had once again won the day: his whereabouts would remain a mystery, for now.

The investigation would have to wait until I could make it to the state archives in Pennsylvania.

Books on Bradford County, Pennsylvania

The day wasn't an entirely unsuccessful, though.

While conducting research in the Family History Library, I ran into True Lewis, a genealogy buddy who I've followed with admiration online, and author of family history blog, My True Roots.

16 comments:

  1. It's never a loss when we can meet our favorite genealogy bloggers! However, I feel your pain in looking up ancestors that seemed to hide, and it looks like he picked the right state in which to hide. Pennsylvania appears to be his accomplice! Lol

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    1. You’re right! The bright side was getting to meet a fellow genealogy blogger. It definitely made the difficult Pennsylvania research pill easier to swallow. :)

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  2. I need some things from Pennsylvania, too. It's on my bucket list to get to some day. Good luck to you!

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    1. Let me know if you make it there and how it goes! I’m sure I can use all the tips and best practices I can get.

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  3. I love that Mr. Andrus is in Pennsylvania! That is so exciting. Most of my research is in Central Pennsylvania. I can't wait to start looking and keeping an eye out in Bradford. This was a great piece. I just can't stop wondering who all in that county died that were woman the year your Nana died? So many Questions. That area is full of Andrus as well. So glad and honored to meet you and I just somehow know it won't be the last and it was just what I needed. I have been so intrigued with your work and how you give us so many examples to try what you do in our own research. I have admired from afar and now I got to meet you up close! So glad we are in each other's inner circle. It makes a whole world of difference when you meet. Cheers to us and many more good times ahead.

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    1. Oh, it definitely won’t be the last time we see each other! :) I guarantee it. It’s a tight community and we’re bound to run into each other again, and again, and again. :)

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  4. Have you tried this site?
    https://www.joycetice.com/jmtindex.htm

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    1. I’m diving into the site now! Thank you, Claudia. I appreciate the pointer.

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  5. I feel your frustration with Pennsylvania. I always dread when I have to go look for someone who passed through that state. Thankfully, neither my husband nor I have ancestors who lived there for very long.

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    1. And here I was thinking this would be a relatively easy find if I just put a little effort into it. Turns out there was a reason I still hadn’t puzzled out the mystery of Jerome and his *maybe* wife.

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  6. It's funny---I love Pennsylvania research, and I have loads of it to do because many, many of my paternal side ancestors lived in Philadelphia or other parts of Pennsylvania. They have far more records online---birth, marriage, and death---than New York or New Jersey, for example, especially in Philadelphia and in the years after 1865. And there are so many PA newspapers available online.

    But you are looking in a much earlier period, so I guess I was lucky that most of my PA ancestors arrived after 1850. Good luck!

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    1. Do you have go-to online resources that you use, Amy? I’m wondering if I’m overlooking anything (admittedly possible!).

      You also raise a good point about newspapers: I need to see if any repositories - like the Library of Congress - have hard copies of newspapers for the area/era that haven’t been digitized yet.

      I was just hoping for an easier lift - a respite from some of my more grueling research on lines like the Kirks. No such luck!

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  7. I don't really have any secret sources for PA---both FamilySearch and Ancestry really, and I know you've checked those. Newspapers.com and Genealogybank.com are my prime resources for newspapers. Somehow I've just been very lucky, but as I said, my earliest PA ancestors arrived around 1850, mostly in Philadelphia and then in western PA. FamilySearch has Philadelphia birth records going back pretty far, and Ancestry has death records from the late 1800s until about 1966. Ancestry also has cemetery records and some marriage records, and FamilySearch also has marriage records. So no hidden resources I can clue you into, I'm afraid.

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    1. Thank you, Amy. I was hoping you’d have the secret key I needed to fell my brick wall. ;) The search continues...

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  8. I'm only now getting around to reading your post about your research on Jerome's wife. Of course, I heard about you meeting up with our friend True on Twitter! She's very special to me, too. I wish I could give you some pointers on early Pennsylvania research but I'm always putting off doing THAT research.

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    1. True is good people, for sure! So glad that I ran into her.

      I'm going to build up the courage to dive into my Pennsylvania research with gusto, one of these days...

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