One exercise I have found to be worthwhile in genealogy research is to track and follow a family through as many census records as you can. Doing this I found I filled in a lot of blanks, gave me some good leads to go on, and highlighted what was missing in my information.
One of the first ancestor and their siblings I did this exercise with was one side of the family that was pretty chaotic. My ancestor Arosine Lodusky Brown was at one point a teenage runaway. Her 2nd husband, Stephen Kimball, was taken to court for their relationship and served 60 days in jail. There is a mythology in my family because of her name that she was Native American. Her parental grandparents are unknown, so right now I’m inclined to believe she was white. Her distinct name also meant that she was hard to follow through records – her name has been listed on various records as Arosine, Arosina, Arzonia, Arizona, Anosine, Loduskie and Lodusky. Arosine’s mother died pretty young so It took a lot of work, and a little bit of money to rediscover part of her family line.
She had 7 children altogether but they are never together in the census, so the tracking helped. The family moved around often bouncing back and forth between different areas of Maine. The family seemed to be in poverty often, which meant sometimes kids were found as servants or in a foster care situation. One daughter disappeared completely (though I recently discovered where she ended up thanks to newspaper clippings).
Below is the notes I made in doing my research. This really helped fill in some blanks because at one point her first child from her first marriage was only listed as adopted. It wasn’t tell he was listed later in life as a sibling in his sister’s household that I knew to dig further.
One of the things with genealogy is sometimes cold facts can bring up some sort of emotion. I felt that seeing the pain my family went through being separated for so long, but also joy the of seeing in their old age my great great grandmother Lydia and her sister Rose each took in one of their brothers.
My mom has talked about her mother and aunt (who married brothers) being the ones who precipitated yearly family gatherings for her father’s family. She said her mother was surprised they didn’t have an interest in seeing each. My mother’s maternal family was big on these gatherings. I think though, it wasn’t some sort of lack of affection that prevented them from having an interest, I think there was some sort of intrinsic knowledge if they needed each other they would be there in the end.
1870 –
George Varney – Living in Foster care
Stephen Kimball – living with parents
Mary Kimball – living with parents
Lydia Kimball – living with parents
1880 –
George Varney – working in Lowell Maine
Stephen Kimball – with Aunt Olive
Mary Kimball – Can Not find
Lydia Kimball – with foster family
Rose Kimball – with family at poor house
John Kimball – living with Raynolds family in Ellsworth
Fred Kimball – with family at poor house
1890
Fuck 1890*
1900
George Varney – married in Sangerville
Stephen Kimball – Living in Lamoine and Trenton Maine
Mary Kimball – Can Not Find
Lydia Davis – living on Cranberry Island and MDI
Rose Kimball – servant in Ellsworth Maine
John Kimball – Boarder in Eden Maine
Fred Kimball – Boarder in Eden Maine
1910
George Varney – married in Sangerville
Stephen Kimball – Living in Massachusetts with wife Agnes and Horace Grindle
Mary Kimball – Can Not Find
Lydia Walls – Living on MDI
Rose Fuller – married with husband, boarders in Portland Maine
John Kimball – Dead
Fred Kimball – Hired man in Southwest Harbor
1920
George Varney – Can Not Find
Stephen Kimball – Living in Lamoine
Mary Kimball – Can Not Find
Lydia Walls – Living on MDI
Rose Fuller – married in Ellsworth Maine
Fred – Boarder in Bath, Maine
1930
George Varney – Can Not Find
Stephen Kimball – Living in Ellsworth with his wife and Horace Grindle
Mary Kimball – Can Not Find
Lydia Kimball – Can Not Find
Rose Fuller – widowed in Ellsworth Maine
Fred Kimball – Boarder in Maine
1940
George Varney – living with Sister Rose in Ellsworth
Stephen Kimball- living with Sister Lydia in Ellsworth
Mary Kimball – Can Not Find
Lydia Walls – living in Ellsworth
Rose Fuller – living in Ellsworth
Fred Kimball – married in Eden with child
*1890 – a fire in 1921 wiped out most of the 1890 census. It’s devastating to think of how much information was lost.
Addendum – the missing from the census daughter Mary I found thanks to the newspaper archives about a month ago. She married the son of Irish immigrants and was a pretty active Catholic in Ellsworth Maine. Ellsworth was the scene of the fairly gruesome tarring and feathering of a Catholic priest. I’m wondering if she converted for her husband or if part of my family that is hard to trace was Catholic – new clues to a continuing family history!
2nd Addendum – There are also stepchildren of Arosine’s from her husband’s first marriage I need to do this with. I believe they were all girls so a little harder (and they were older – so a lot of the first censuses they wouldn’t be listed in), but definitely worth a shot!
Maiden Name Unknown 