Detective Work

I sat down at the computer at the Mesa FamilySearch Library to ferret out more information on Fred Groth (subject of my last post). I'm afraid I wasn't very successful. In fact, the only new information I found only served to further cloud the waters.

Find a Grave is a great website that my sister and I use frequently. I had searched it earlier because Fred's obituary mentioned where he was interred. Somehow there was a disconnect and I didn't find the grave. However, I used World Vital Records at the library to search on his name and it came up with a link to Find a Grave. He and Faith are buried in the same cemetery. There are no pictures of the headstones, but fortunately it's close to where my sister lives and I've asked her to go photograph them.

Meanwhile I ponder the information on Find a Grave because it gives Fred's birth year as 1878. His obituary says his birthdate was October 17, 1873, which agrees with the passenger list and naturalization papers we believed to be his. However, his age as listed on the censuses of 1900, 1910, 1915, 1920, 1925, 1930, and 1940 compute to his birth year being from 1874 to 1877. His draft registration card, dated September 12, 1918, lists his age as 43 and his birthdate as October 17, 1875.

In addition, the difference between Fred and Faith's ages on the censuses ranges from three to seven years. There are further inconsistencies with her age. She appears on the 1880 census as a one month old infant, yet her obituary and headstone give her birth year as 1881. The two newspaper articles about their elopement say she was 16. Given a birthdate of May 13, 1880, that would be accurate as their marriage date of April 24, 1897 would have been a few weeks before her 17th birthday. (The marriage date is the one date that stays consistent through all the documentation we have gathered on them.) The age that Faith gives on each census computes to birth years from 1879 to 1882.

Those naturalization papers and passenger list make him out to be 16 years old when he arrived in New York in 1889, but in a newspaper article about Fred and Faith's 50th anniversary, it says that he came to America when he was seven years old. The 1930 census asks for an immigration year and Fred answered 1889, which matches the passenger list. The 1925 New York census asks for the year of naturalization, which he said was 1898. That does not match the naturalization papers we have, which were issued in 1894.

All of this leads me to believe that those naturalization papers and the passenger list may refer to another Fred Groth. There were several Fred Groths in New York during those years, even some who immigrated. I have searched for other records but so far I haven't found anything that seems like it might be him.

In my search on Family Search, I did find a new document from an index of marriages ("New York, Marriages, 1686-1980" which you can find in the records on that site by browsing collections) for Fred and Faith's marriage. It did not give me any new information on their birthdates, but it did list their parents' names. This is my second source naming Fred's parents as Conrad Groth and Martha Bainhauer (Beinhauer). It lists Faith's parents as George Botsford and Rhoda Wilkins. Faith's mother's name has varied a lot through the documentation and this is the second time she shows up as Rhoda.

I've speculated that Fred may have started to lie about his age so he seemed to be closer in age to his sixteen-year-old bride. Perhaps he wasn't sure when he was born. I'm hoping that the marriage papers I've ordered from the City of New York and Grace Church will shed some light on the problem. We can also follow up with the church and cemetery where they were members and were buried. We will just keep following the clues, however tiny they may be.

Let's jump in the deep end

I'm working on identifying and documenting my 2x great-grandparents.

Here are the generations, working back:

1. Me
2. My father, John Arthur St. John
3. His mother, Adelaide Martha Groth St. John (m. Archie Ivan St. John)
4. Her mother, Leontine Faith Botsford Groth (m. Fredrich William Groth)
5. Her parents, George Arthur Botsford and Rhodeline A. Wilkins Botsford

George and Rhodeline are hard to pin down. There are many George Botsfords living in the 19th century in New York. There are at least two living in Otsego County. Rhodeline has an unusual name - perhaps too unusual. Every census I have found lists her name differently: Rhoda, Rodelice, etc. According to the census, her parents were born in England.

I have followed every clue I've found so far. I've paged through censuses looking for variations on her name. I've followed through on every George Botsford I've found. I have George's obituary and I have followed every clue in it. I have yet to find solid information on their births or their parents.

Sidebar on obituaries: obituaries can provide lots of clues, but beware of inaccuracies. 

For instance, in this obituary, George's birthplace and parents are listed. After diligent searching, I can find no record of those people in that place at that time. I may yet find that it is true, but failing further documentation, I cannot assume it is true.

So what do I do next? I go back to the generation where I have documentation and I look for additional documents that will give me more clues. That means I return to Fred and Faith Groth, my great-grandparents. 

They present their own research challenges. Fred and Faith eloped when Faith was just 16. Faith's mother had Fred arrested for abduction. (It didn't deter them - they had been married for more than 55 years when Fred passed away.) After that, Fred always claimed his age was three years older than Faith - perhaps to avoid looking like a cradle-robber - but the naturalization papers and passenger list we found that we believe pertain to him make him seven years her senior. In addition, most documents list Faith's birthdate in 1881, yet she appears with her parents and older brothers on the 1880 census at one month old.

Faith & Fred in 1951

Thank goodness for that elopement because it made the papers, even in busy Manhattan. We have articles in two newspapers that agree on the names and the date and the church. This morning I ordered a marriage certificate from the City Clerk of New York and I contacted the church where they were married. Even though that church has had a name change and is now in a different building, they have the records and a team of volunteer researchers who are willing to dig into those old records from 1897.

So here is the rule of thumb I learned from James Tanner, blogger at Genealogy's Star and a volunteer teacher at the Mesa FamilySearch Library:  if you keep hitting dead ends, go back a level and look for more documentation. The additional documentation will provide many clues to follow that will eventually lead you to the information you need.