Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Do You Have a Mary Smith?

It's Saturday Night -

time for more Genealogy Fun!

 

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to:

1)  How many persons named Mary Smith do you have in your genealogy management program or online family tree?  How many persons named Mary Smith are ancestors?

2)  Pick out one of those persons named Mary Smith and do some online research for them in Ancestry, FamilySearch, or another set of record collections.  Your goal is to add something to your database.

3)  Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a post on Facebook.

I have 7230 people in my RootsMagic database and only two Mary Smiths, both of whom married a Smith.

Mary Jane Davey was born 23 May 1839 in Clifton, Bristol, England to Thomas Davey and Mary Nicholas.[1] She was their sixth child of fifteen and one of seven who lived to adulthood.

After the family immigrated to the United States in 1852, they settled for a time in Reading, Pennsylvania. There at St. Peter’s Church, Mary was baptized on 12 March 1854, along with her sister, Lydia.[2] She also joined the church on that day.[3]

Not much is known about Mary Jane’s life. From obituaries of her parents, I learned she married a man named Crosby before 1885 and a Smith before 1893.  In 1885 she was living in Indianapolis and in 1893 she was living in Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri.[4]

I do not know when she died or anything else about her. So that is what I’ll search on Ancestry and FamilySearch today to finish up this post. With the common name of Mary Jane Smith, I might not have much luck.

So my search results brought nothing new. I searched in Ancestry for Mary Jane with no last name, born 1839 in England, and came up with nothing. Searched using Indianapolis as place living and then Carthage. Still no luck.

I searched on Mary Jane Crosby and Mary Jane Davey and Mary Jane Smith, and nothing came close. It’s amazing that nothing can be found for her.

In checking the obituaries of her siblings, the oldest sister, Elizabeth Flynn’s obituary mentioned no siblings, only children.[5] I haven’t found the death of her sister, Susan Wellman. Her brother, Thomas N. Davey’s obituary in 1924 named only his wife and children.[6] Her sister, Lydia Colby died in 1914 but no obit was found. Her sister, Catherine Rose died in 1932, and only her daughter was mentioned.[7] And no obituary was found for Fred H Davey in 1915.

I checked some films in the FamilySearch catalog. I did not find any reference to a marriage for Mary Jane Crosby in the years 1892-1895. Nor for a person named Davey. Nor for a Mary J Smith being married in 1895-1897.

I checked the Missouri Death Certificates 1910-1969 and found only two Mary Jane Smiths in Jasper County. None were her. She could have died before 1910 or moved away.

Checked the 1900 Jasper County, Missouri census, but did not find her. Also searched for someone born Feb 1839 in England, and found no trace of her. She probably did not live to 1900. There are no death records on FamilySearch for Jasper County.

Ugh, Smith is so hard to research. I’m glad I do not have any direct line Smiths.

---

[1] Family data, Thomas Davey Family Bible, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Moore, Wilstch, Keyes & Company, 1859); original owned by [address for private use], transcription done by Mary Davey Korn, granddaughter of Thomas Davey.

[2] Central United Methodist (Reading, Pennsylvania), Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania., St. Peter's Church, Baptisms p 1, Mary Jane Davey baptism; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 7 June 2012).

[3] Ibid, Memberships, p. 153.

[4] For Crosby, see "Thomas Davey," Jeffersonville (Indiana) Daily News, 9 Feb 1886, p. 2, digital image, NewspaperArchive (http://newspaperarchive.com/). For Smith, see "Funeral of Mrs. Davey,” 21 Sep 1893, Jeffersonville (Indiana) Daily News, , digital image,  NewspaperArchive (http://newspaperarchive.com/).

[5] "Death of Mrs. (Elizabeth) Flynn," Evening-News, Jeffersonville, Clark Co, Indiana, 18 August 1890, p 2, col 2.

[6] "Thomas Davey Rites Will be Held Today" Joplin (Missouri) Globe, 1 Apr 1924, p 2.

[7] "”M'Fall Funeral This Afternoon," San Diego Union, 8 February 1932, p 9, Dr. Rose C. McFall funeral; GenealogyBank (http://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 13 March 2013).

Copyright © 2020 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.