Ancestry Magazine

Perseverance and luck pay off.

In my quest for information on my Lewis ancestors, I managed to gather many interesting and important facts. I knew that my great-grandmother, Adelma Rossetta Lewis, married Wallace Fox in Wood County, Ohio, on 10 October 1874,¹ and I knew that her parents had married in the same county nineteen years before that date.² From the International Genealogical Index (IGI)™, I learned that the names of her parents were John Chellis Lewis and Fidelia Cornelia Hubbard and that the names of her brothers and sisters were Minerva Jane, Frances Celesta, Effie Jenetta, Chellis John, Lincoln Norman, Linda Mariah, Laura Zemira, Anna Amanda, and Fidelia Cornelia. ³ I found this same family living in Milton Township, Wood County, Ohio in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses.⁴

Since I had an abundance of data on the Lewis family, and since they hadn’t moved from the same spot in almost thirty years, I felt safe leaving them there while I worked on other lines that were giving me trouble. I felt sure that the family would still be there when I went to look for them in more detail. I was wrong-terribly, horribly wrong. After such a promising beginning, I ran into the proverbial brick wall.

The Missing Census
There was no record of John Lewis or of any of his children living in Wood County in the 1900 census. My great-grandmother was peacefully living with her husband and children in Defiance County, Ohio, ⁵ but the rest of her family was nowhere to be seen. And if I had a nickel for every time I’ve said, “I wish I could check the 1890 census,” I would be exceedingly rich indeed. The fire that nearly destroyed that census has caused me untold grief over the years. The Lewis family had had twenty years in which to disappear between censuses, instead of the usual ten.

When I wrote to the Wood County District Public Library inquiring about cemetery indexes, they replied that no John Lewis or Fidelia Lewis was listed. There was no record of any of their other children marrying in Wood County; my great-grandmother was the only one to follow in their footsteps. The whole family had seemingly dropped off the face of the earth.

An Oil Boom
Seeking the reason for such a disappearing act, I dug into the late nineteenth-century history of Wood County. I found, to my total surprise, that this northwestern corner of Ohio had briefly enjoyed an oil boom in the 1880s and 1890s. When oil was discovered in the Trenton limestone, land values soared. At the same time, the local environment deteriorated. Oil drilling is a very messy business, and oil field hands are a notoriously rowdy bunch to have as neighbors.

So John C. Lewis had plenty of excellent reasons for picking up and moving his family out of Wood County, Ohio, but where had he gone? Iowa? Oklahoma? Kansas? According to my great-grandmother’s obituary, several of her brothers and sisters were living in Topeka (Shawnee County), Kansas at the time of her death.⁶ However, John C. Lewis and his wife didn’t show up in the 1900 census for Kansas, and the public library in Shawnee County, Kansas didn’t have a listing for them in the cemetery index. I was stymied again. Somehow, I had to find when and where these people had died.

But was I going to have to search through the entire Soundex system for 1900, looking for a name as common as John Lewis? And, according to the census taker, John Lewis was fifty years old in 1880; he could have died in the intervening years between the 1880 and 1900 censuses. Where would that leave me?

Land Records
Fortunately, I had recently completed the correspondence course from the National Genealogical Society, American Genealogy: A Basic Course.⁷ It is well-written, well-designed, and chock-full of useful bits of information. One documentary source I learned to appreciate from the NGS course was land records. I had previously avoided anything to do with deeds; those ridiculous hieroglyphics scared me to death. What in the world could “S2 SW SW SE 20 1S 1E” possibly mean? If I knew where the family was living from the census records, why would I need a copy of the deed for the family farm? I quickly learned why; I learned that land records contain a wealth of additional data and that, if I was very lucky, I might discover where John C. Lewis and his family had gone.

If John Lewis had left Wood County before the sale of the family farm could be finalized, his new place of residence would show up on the deed transferring title to the new owner. (Assuming, of course, that there was a family farm to sell.) It was a long shot, but I was desperate. However, when I wrote to the Wood County recorder, I was told there were over forty deeds for various John C. Lewises for the years 1850-1900. I would have to narrow my search parameters. I wrote back asking for all the deeds for John C. Lewis from 1880-1890, hoping that period of time would cover their departure from the county.

When the package arrived, I ripped it open and started flipping through all the deeds. I confess I didn’t notice one significant clue the first time through. When I calmed down and tried again, I finally spotted it—John C. Lewis and his wife Fidelia C. Lewis, living in Anderson County, Kansas.⁸ I believe I screamed; fortunately there was no one within earshot. Perhaps my luck had finally taken a turn for the better.

Brick Wall Again
I immediately wrote to the Garnet Public Library in Anderson County, Kansas, asking if their cemetery indexes listed John and Fidelia Lewis. That’s when I ran up against my brick wall again. They were unable to locate anything in their records. The registrar of deeds for Anderson County sent me a selection of John Lewis deeds, but none of them seemed pertinent. I couldn’t be sure if any of them were the right man; none listed Fidelia as the wife.

I had read in various articles on genealogical research that, if you’re having trouble with a particular line, you should expand your search to include information on the children. Sometimes an important clue will turn up that you can swing around and apply to your direct line. I decided to put this theory into practice; I was definitely having trouble with the Lewis line, and I needed all the help I could get.

A Happy Coincidence
I wrote to the clerk of the district court in Anderson County and asked about marriage records for the children of John and Fidelia Lewis—that would be a first step in tracing them through the census records and obituaries. It would be a long and laborious process, but I couldn’t think of any other option. But with that one letter, I finally hit pay dirt.

The letter ended up on the desk of a lovely lady who just happened to be descended from John Chellis Lewis. If someone tried to incorporate so improbable an occurrence into the plot of a story, no one would believe it. She not only told me that John C. Lewis died in 1892, but she also informed me that Fidelia had remarried several years later. That’s why I couldn’t find either of them in the 1900 census!

And there was more. She told me that John and Fidelia Lewis were listed in a book by Michael L. Cook called Pioneer Lewis Families.⁹ I hadn’t tried looking through published genealogies yet; Lewis was such a common name, and I felt that John C. Lewis was too recent an ancestor to appear in a book. I thought the odds were against me, but I was wrong—beautifully, wonderfully wrong.

Perseverance Pays
That one letter pushed my knowledge of the Lewis family back six generations. I learned that the emigrant John Lewis was one of the original settlers of Westerly, Rhode Island, in 1660. Previously the earliest date I had for the Lewis family was the 1855 marriage between John Lewis and Fidelia Hubbard. Two hundred years of knowledge as the result of one letter—not a bad exchange.

I know I had fantastic luck, and I know how rare such an occurrence is. However, I also know that stubbornness and perseverance played a part in my little melodrama as well. The lesson I learned from the experience is this: If you run into a brick wall, don’t give up. Try to find some way over it or around it, or dig a tunnel under it! Always try a variety of research paths and look for as much information as you can. You never know what you might turn up. I also know that I could never have found the answers to my research problem without the help of the friendly and patient folk who work in courthouses and libraries across the country—especially those in Ohio and Kansas. They have my undying gratitude and my heartfelt thanks.

Notes
1. Marriage Certificate of Wallace Fox and Adelma Lewis, 10 October 1874, Record of Marriages vol. 6 p. 77, no. 229, Probate Judge, Wood County, Bowling Green, Ohio.

2. Marriage Certificate of John C. Lewis and Cornelia F. Hubbard, 4 April 1855, Record of Marriages vol. 4-A, p. 80, Probate Judge, Wood County, Bowling Green, Ohio.

3. International Genealogical Index, IGI Microfiche Ohio O-1225, (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1992).

4. 1860 U.S. Census, Wood Co., Ohio (Milton Township), p. 222, dwelling 24, family 88; National Archives Microfilm M653, Roll 1053. 1870 U.S. Census, Wood Co., Ohio (Milton Township), p. 401B, line 21, dwelling 93, family 94; National Archives Microfilm M593, Roll 1283. 1880 U.S. Census, Wood Co., Ohio (Milton Township), E.D. 95, sheet 9, line 1, p. 136; National Archives Microfilm T9, Roll 1078.

5. 1900 U.S. Census, Defiance Co., Ohio (Defiance Township), E.D. 6, sheet 1, line 77, no. 1124; National Archives Microfilm T623, Roll 1263.

6. Crescent News (Defiance, Defiance Co., Ohio) 26 Nov. 1945; Defiance Public Library, Defiance, Ohio.

7. National Genealogical Society, American Genealogy: A Basic Course (3rd ed.; Arlington: The Society, 1991).

8. Warranty Deed from John C. Lewis and wife to Clark W. McDonald, 18 Feb. 1884 (recorded 15 Mar. 1884), Wood County, Ohio, Deed Book 69, p. 616, County Recorder, Wood County Courthouse, Bowling Green, Ohio.

9. Michael L. Cook, Pioneer Lewis Families (Evanston, Ill.: Cook Publications, 1978).

Paula Higgins has been a research librarian for over fifteen years.