As I go through my Genealogy Do-Over, I’m also going through all those photos on my hard drives. Everything is getting organized this time! That means you’ll see one family group pretty regularly before I move onto another family group. I’m still working on Grandma and Grandpa’s information. It’s a blessing and a curse that Great-Grandma recorded so much about Grandpa’s early years. There is a lot to go through!
Wedding Wednesday is a Geneabloggers Daily Blogging Prompt. Check out other prompts and entries at GeneaBloggers.com.
Welcome back to Mystery Monday featuring LaMoss Menner! I’ve been enjoying the Olympics for the past week, and didn’t make time for my usual writing. Before I go anywhere else in this mystery, I have to take stock of what I already have. I thought it would be easiest to put together a timeline/list of what I’ve discovered so far.
St. John’s Lutheran Church (Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, United States), Record of Pastors, Church Officers, Church Members, Births, Baptisms, Marriages, Deaths and Burials, and an Annual Summary, “Baptism of Infants,” Lamoss June Menner baptism; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Aug 2016)
August 1, 1905
At St. John’s Lutheran Church in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania three children were baptized. The ages, names and parents names all fit for the Menner family. What I like is that it not only matches my Lamoss’ older brother Harold M. but also her younger sister Pauline/Paulina.
April 20, 1910
1910 U.S. census, Essex County, New Jersey, population schedule, Caldwell township, enumeration district (ED) 156, sheet 05-B, dwelling 97, family 99, George W. Menner; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Aug 2016); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T624, roll 882.
When I found the Menner family living in Caldwell in 1910, I wasn’t crazy excited until I noticed who their neighbors were. It might be hard to tell in the image, but living next door is an 8 year old Wilhilmia (sp?) Steinhoff. Llewellyn called her Willa and we know her well from the Diary!
1915
“1915 New Jersey State Census,” database, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 15 Aug 2016), entry for George W. Menner household; citing Caldwell borough, Essex County; sheet 11-A, household 254, line 45.
Here is the 1915 State Census entry for the Menner family. I’ve highlighted the person I believe to be LaMoss. Moore Luck being what it is, her name isn’t given. I hope to either make it to the State Archives myself or hire someone to do a block of research for me there. It looks like I’ll be adding this to the list for that!
1920
I talked about the 1920 census in the last entry. This was the first entry with the family living at 25 Myrtle Avenue.
During the Diary of Llewellyn
1925-1926
I had been wondering what exactly would have caused Lamoss to drop from being mentioned in Llewellyn’s diary. It would be safe to assume from the 1925 Newark, NJ city directory and the 1926 Caldwell, NJ city directory that Lamoss moved to Newark to train as a maternity nurse! That would sure explain why she wasn’t on anymore friend outings for the last bit of the diary.
After the Diary of Llewellyn
This is where I was stalled. I’m sure you all know how hard it is if you don’t have a clue about who a woman married. Lucky for me, hours after I posted my last Mystery Monday post, I got a break in the case!
My awesome newly found cousin, who is my cohort in solving the Z-ladies mystery, emailed me with a great find.
In the August 20, 1954 edition of The Evening Standard found on Newspapers.com one “Mrs. LaMoss Baker” attended a wedding in Pennsylvania. That might just be a coincidence, but right next to her in the guest list is “George Menner.”
I don’t know if I’m going to have enough information for another entry next Monday. You can be sure that I’ll be back as soon as I can find more information.
This series of posts are based on the Genealogy Do-Over Workbook by Thomas MacEntee. I highly recommend it. 🙂 I just want to say there are parts of this workbook that I am not posting about, so if you would like the full set of tasks, then visit Thomas’ page or purchase the workbook.
It’s been awhile
I know its been a little bit since my last Do-Over post. As I mentioned before, I had family visiting and we also had some other things going on around the house. Things are calming down now and hopefully I’ll be getting back into the swing of things. My Do-Over is still going strong.
This Do-Over has been great for me in one big way. I am moving much slower than I previously was. When I open up Legacy now, I see all this information entered in and it makes me feel confident. The best part is that the only records I’ve used so far are my paper records. I haven’t touched a big search site for census records or city directories yet. I haven’t searched Newspapers or obituaries. Everything is either a vital record or a family heirloom. This means there is a lot of information out there yet for me to find!
Why It’s Taking So Long
You might be wondering what is taking me so long. That probably has to do with my check and balance procedures. To be honest, I haven’t looked at the ones I wrote up in a previous post. Once I got to work, my procedures just happened naturally. I do have a little help though, to keep me on track. In my first post, Getting Started, I showed a screen shot of the Microsoft Excel file I named “Binder Indexes”. This is what that file looks like now:
It sure has come a long way from where it started. Every once and awhile I will have a slip up and have to go back and add something I said I wouldn’t add to the tree before. When I was making the switch from my paternal grandparents over to my maternal grandparents, I had to stop and double check by using my filters.
Microsoft Excel Filters to the Rescue
In my opinion, the filters function in Excel is the most useful feature. I use them all the time. Even now when I look at the red boxes, I’m telling myself I can probably go ahead and add those things into my file also. They were scanned and added to my digital organization, just not into the family tree. The only reason I didn’t add them already was because I didn’t think any new information was given in them. Thinking back now, I think I was probably just tired.
This section of my Dad’s family is the most documented section. Not counting photos, which number in the hundreds, I have tons of documents saved by Llewellyn that need to be analyzed. If you don’t hear from me for awhile, you know where I’m at!
To start with, I will be searching for Harold Menner. I have been looking back over Llewellyn’s diary and I notice mentions of him in the last year. I am thinking that he might be a brother to La Moss. Having a reasonably unique name, I think it might be easier to find him first. The diary covers the years of 1923-1925. It will be easiest to search the 1920 and 1930 censuses to see if there is any mention of a Menner family in Caldwell, New Jersey.
1930 U.S. census, population schedule, Essex County, New Jersey. Caldwell borough, enumeration district (ED) 354, sheet 10-A, dwelling 213, family 225, George Menner; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 Jul 2016); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T626, roll 1328.
It took a few different search techniques but I did find Harold Menner in Caldwell, New Jersey. It is very important to note that the Menner family is living at 25 Myrtle Avenue. The Moore family, which Llewellyn married into is living just a few houses down at 7 Myrtle Avenue. You can even see 2 of the lodgers that are living with the Moores at the top of this census page.
Now, not only do I know that Llewellyn and William went to the same church but that one of Llewellyn’s good friend’s lived on the same street. If you are also following along with the diary and the guest/gift list from their wedding, the Miller family are also living on Myrtle Avenue and frequently in the Diary.
Filling in some blanks
Now that I have an address and some Ancestry hints for Harold, it’s time to fill in some blanks and see what turns up. It just so happens that when I took the address from the 1930 census and located it in the 1920 census, I had a jackpot!
1920 U.S. census, Essex County, New Jersey, population schedule, Caldwell borough, enumeration district (ED) 22, sheet 17-B, dwelling 371, family 387, George Mennor; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 Jul 2016); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T625, roll 1028.
It might be hard to see in that image, so let me zoom in for you. Trust me, it’s worth it!
Your eyes are not deceiving you, the daughter listed underneath Harold is Lamoss J. Mennor!
Going Forward
I might have found La Moss’ family but that doesn’t mean I am done researching her! I would still like to find out what I can about one of Llewellyn’s friends. So stay tuned for more!
