Mystery Monday – Moore-Mays Genealogy

Mystery Monday: LaMoss Timeline

Posted on 15-Aug-2016 by Kathleen

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.

Previous Posts about La Moss: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Pre-Diary of Llewellyn

Lamoss Baptism — 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

Lamoss - 1910 Census — 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

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.

Mystery Monday: Let’s Find La Moss

Posted on 01-Aug-2016 by Kathleen

Previous Posts about La Moss: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

The Biggest Clue

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 - Menner Family — 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 - Menner Family — 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!

Mystery Monday: La Moss

Posted on 25-Jul-2016 by Kathleen

What we already know about La Moss

So far, I can count on one hand what I already know about “La Moss”. In the documents I have, the name is always written as La Moss. Her birthday is listed in Llewellyn’s diary as February 27th. It looks like her surname in that same birthday entry is Menner.

Where do we start?

I have to start with figuring out where in Llewellyn’s timeline I am working. Llewellyn’s diary covers the years 1923-1925. At that time, she was living at home with her parents. She was working in an insurance office and teaching at her church. She got married in June of 1926. La Moss appears often in the diary. After looking at the diary again, I noticed La Moss only appears in the first year. That leads me to believe it’s possible she wasn’t even at the wedding. I have a guest book and gift list. I can’t skip them because this is the biggest list of Llewellyn’s friends and associates I have to work from.

I made an extra workbook in my Research Log to start. In that workbook, I went ahead and re-transcribed the guest list and the gift list. I marked the family members, whoever signed the gift list, and whoever signed the guest list. If you’d like to follow along and see the file, I uploaded it to my Google Drive.

Mystery Monday: La Moss — The Excel file I created to show the family, guests, and gifts.

I turned off the family members for the screenshot above. That made the list visible in one screen, without scrolling. This makes it easier for me to see who the possibile candidates are. I can also rule out a couple of people just based on Llewellyn’s diary entries.

Who am I ruling out and why?

Mrs. Margaret Glazier & Ruth: Ruth appears often in Llewellyn’s diary. She’s been written about the same days as La Moss at times.
Willa Steinhoff – Willa is in the diary more often than La Moss is. Willa and La Moss have been in the same entry together.
Anna Pusch – Anna was one of Llewellyn’s co-workers. She gets her own nickname in the diary, Puschie.

What’s Next?

I already have a ton of leads that I’m looking into. I find it curious that there is mention of La Moss only until August of 1923. Before that she appeared often. After La Moss drops off the diary, a Harold Menner shows up often and gives Llewellyn and her friends rides home. I will be looking into that next time!

Links Just for Fun

Entries in this blog featuring La Moss
Google Sheet of the Family, Guest and Gift lists

Mystery Monday: La Moss

Posted on 18-Jul-2016 by Kathleen

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve done a Mystery Monday. I wasn’t expecting to dive into one this soon into my Genealogy Do-Over but oh well! This mystery isn’t even new to the blog. I’ve written about La Moss before on Mystery Monday. I never did find out what her real name was. I’m so curious though because it seems like she was one of Llewellyn’s best friends.

I started thinking about La Moss again when I was over-analyzing Llewellyn’s wedding guest and gift lists. 5 years after my last La Moss thought, she popped into my head again. Surely since she is all over Llewellyn’s journal, she must have been at the wedding. There might be a few road blocks though:

She might not have signed the guest book.
She might not have given Llewellyn a gift.

If all of those things are true, man that’s not going to help. It’s not going to block me though. I am a better researcher now and surely I should be able to find her, even if it takes me awhile. I have a tentative game plan to find La Moss’ identity.

I will check all the unknown to me female guests from the wedding guest list.
I will check all the unknown to me people in the wedding gift list.
I will check the census surrounding Llewellyn in 1920 and 1930 to see if any of these people are possibilities.
I will send away to the New Jersey State Archives for a birth record search. La Moss should have been born before 1915, which means the record will cost only $10 instead of $25.
I will have so much fun finding new ways of looking, because this is my test on how creative I can get if I need to.

This is the original picture I used to make the Mystery Monday graphic. Is La Moss in this picture? I know Llewellyn is the second from the right. Everyone else is up in the air. It could be cousins, it could be coworkers, it could be church trip friends. The possibilities are endless. Will Llewellyn have a picture of La Moss in all these pictures and will I even be able to find her? I guess we will find out!

Mystery Monday: Bell Brodie Returns!

Posted on 12-May-2014 by Kathleen

Before my unintentional hiatus from the blog and genealogy, I was working on a little mystery. It was actually quite fun and I’m eager to pick up where I left off.

This weekend, I received a discount in my e-mail to come back to Ancestry.com and I decided to go ahead and use the discount to upgrade to the World Membership for at least the 6 month term of that discount. With my World Membership I can see the Canadian census images now which really excites me.

If your memory is as fuzzy as mine, I posted previously that Ancestry hinted at some exciting news before my membership expired and my computer went nuts. Now is my first chance since August (WOW!) to look through those records except for trying to use indexes.

I’m going to show you a timeline of my Belle Brodie info so we can all finally know who she was!

Abt. 1835 – Isabella Farris is born to John and Janet Farris in New Brunswick, Canada

1851 – Isabella Farris is enumerated with her parents and six siblings in Westminster, Ontario, Canada

Note: I should mention that Westminster is basically a neighborhood in the outlying part of London, Ontario.

1861 – Isabella Brodie is still living in Westminster but now with her husband, a daughter and a son.

1866 – Bell Brodie writes a letter from London, Ontario to her dear cousin detailing a visit that her cousin’s mother is currently on.

1871 – Isabella’s family which includes her husband and daughter Jessie are enumerated as living in London, Ontario, Canada.

1881 – Hugh, Isabella and Jessie are still living in London, Ontario.

April 1882 – Jessie Brodie is married to Detroit resident Francis William John Peel.

Around 1886 – Hugh, Isabella and family including Jessie move across the border into Detroit.

1900 – Hugh, Isabella and their grand daughter Isobel Peel are now living in Detroit, Michigan. Per this census, Isabella had 3 children with only one still living. I assume that is Jessie who is living in Springswells, Michigan with her husband and 3 other living children (Laura, Hugh, Margareth/Marjorie). They live minutes away from each other.

1906 – Isabella’s husband Hugh dies in Detroit, Michigan.

1910 – A now widowed Isabella Brodie is living in Detroit with her two grand daughters, Isobel and Marjorie Peel. Also widowed, Jessie is living with her daughter Laura’s family.

1920 – Isabella is still living with grand daughter Isobel Peel. No sign so far of Jessie or Marjorie.

There are still tons of holes to fill in this timeline. I basically followed Isabella (Belle) down through her lifetime as I could find the records. Even knowing that she was born to John and Janet Farris, I haven’t quite linked her to my Ferris/Farris/Farish family. I just know that John Farris is about 4 years older than my Jane Ferris-Menzies and that they were both from Dumfries, Scotland. I’m going to try and track down some more records but I can’t even believe how far I’ve come so far when I started knowing so little!

My new goals with Belle Brodie are probably going to be low priority ones now that the information is getting harder to find. There is still plenty to find but it will take more effort. So I’m probably going to go ahead and make my research notes on this and pick it up less often until I can at least link John and Jane.