52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Week 18 – April 29 – May 5, 2024
Love and Marriage
In thinking about this writing prompt there are many ancestral avenues that I could have traveled when chronicling one of my ancestors. I chose one that concerns love and marriage, but it gets a bit more involved than simply describing an ancestor’s marriage. It’s a bit of a detour but it is also remarkably interesting. Thankfully, I do have many stories, pictures, and documentation of happy marriages and in my family tree. I will discuss some of them in future blog posts.
This particular post involves my paternal grandfather who was a bit of a rascal but also a husband, father, grandfather, brother, and uncle, and provider. His story deserves to be written and documented truthfully.
How many of us have researched an ancestor, found quite a bit of information but there still existed a missing part of their story somewhere? It's akin to a genealogical brick wall just searching for that lost or missing bit of information.
I have such an ancestor, my paternal grandfather, Joseph Smith Allen, b. 12 November 1892, d. 15 January 1955. His life was similar to others in my family tree in that he was born in central Pennsylvania, lived his early life there and then moved on to several other U.S. states because of his occupation. But he had some mystery about him.
He married my paternal grandmother, Ruth Naomi McGhee on 20 November 1916 in Boston, Massachusetts. After some searching, I was able to find their marriage license in the Registry Department, City of Boston. While I already knew that my grandmother was married once before and then divorced, as is recorded in their marriage license, the new discovery that I found on the same marriage certificate was that my grandfather was also married once and divorced before marrying Ruth, my grandmother. No one in my family had any information concerning his previous marriage, and unfortunately, my father, my paternal aunts, and his half-brother (son of my grandmother) were already gone when I uncovered this information. At this point in my life, I am our family’s historian, and I have been stumped.
Since the day that I found this information, I have been on a quest to uncover more information about this revelation. I especially would like to know if there were any children from his first marriage. If there were any children and in turn they had children, the relationship would be a half-first cousin and a centimorgan range of 137-856.
I have had my DNA tested by two agencies but so far, I have not been able to connect the dots on this new disclosure. Some of the matches just seem to come out of nowhere. I am aware that I need to build some family trees on the matches that turned up in my DNA. I have begun that tedious process, but it will take additional time. I've got to sit down and begin this exercise!
Besides digging into my DNA tree, I have also constructed a genealogical timeline of my grandfather’s life. Timelines are a great help in pinpointing the dates, locations, and important documents that are missing from our family trees.
I did find some new information when I applied The Genealogical Proof Standard to all my research and have been able to find, in the 1930s US Federal Census, that my grandfather was first married at the age of 18! Finally, a bit of information! Just that small kernel of information has rekindled my interest in paternal family tree.
In my experience, I have found that when I continue to reassess and scrutinize the research, information, and documents that I currently hold often I will find another nugget of
information. That exercise paid off again just yesterday!
I constructed a genealogical research question that included his name, date of birth, location of birth, and his parents’ names. I also constructed a timeline of his life and residences.
I actually rather like the sleuthing part of family history, even though it can take a long time. I probably should have been a detective instead of a public-school principal, but being the family tree detective will have to suffice.
So, did I solve the mystery of my grandfather’s previous marriage? The answer is unfortunately “no” or "not yet." I will continue this quest by delving further into my DNA information, creating family trees, and hopefully find the missing pieces. In fact, I have other questions about my grandfather’s life that I have yet to answer.
Constructing a solid family tree takes time as we all are well aware, and we cannot just copy what others have written. We need to corroborate the information and someday we may just find the answers we need.
Here’s to all the family genealogists who take the time and effort to build that tree and hopefully reconstruct that which has been lost for a number of generations.
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