Ancestry Magazine

As I tackle orphan heirloom rescues, I often wonder how items stray from family hands in the first place. This request, received from Verma Goodwin of California, had the answer built in:

My grandmother, Lutitia Ann Dean (McKelvey, Ledbetter, Vaughan, Thompson), was married four times. Her third husband, James W. Vaughan, was the one she was married to longest (from 1909 to 1925); however, she had no children by him. James was born in 1850, died in 1925, and was 17 years older than my grandmother. Among my grandmother’s things handed down to me were pictures of James’s children and their families by his first wife. I do not know James’s first wife’s name.

Ah, multiple marriages. That’ll do it. The question now was whether I could help Verma reunite these photos with her distant step-kin. I was certainly willing to give it a try.

One Step Forward, One Step Back

Fortunately, Verma had included a few additional clues, such as the fact that some of the photos mentioned the names Frank, Jessie, and Jimmie Vaughan, as well as the names of photography studios in Oklahoma. With a somewhat unusual name like Lutitia as an anchor and a sense of location, this case sounded promising.

Since James Vaughan passed away in 1925, the 1920 census seemed to be a good starting point. I searched on Lut* Vaughan, born 1867 (+/- 5 years)—the * is a wildcard character, so all names that start with the letters LUT, regardless of how they end, will appear in my results; since names like Lutitia are rarely spelled consistently, this seemed like a safe bet. I guesstimated Lutitia’s birth year from the details Verma provided. Sure enough, up popped “Lutina Vaughan” in North Cobb, Caddo, Oklahoma.

I clicked to see the image of the census record and was rewarded with a bonus—James and Lutitia were at home with Lloyd Vaughan, a son. Terrific. Here was one of James’s sons still living at home. But not so fast . . .

I backed up to 1910 and found the family in Jefferson, Comanche, Oklahoma. There was Lloyd again, but this time, he was Lloyd McKelvey, stepson. With him was another stepson, Vernon Ledbetter. McKelvey and Ledbetter were two of Lutitia’s previous married names, so these were her sons, not James’s.

Good Neighbors

But wait—next door was Frank W. Vaughan, age 24, with his 16-year-old wife, Nancy, and five-month-old son, Henry. Could this be the Frank in the photos, an actual son to James? I inspected the birth places of Frank’s parents—Louisiana and Texas—and scanned up to the line listing James. Yes, his birth place was Louisiana, a definite aberration among the families listed in the area. Frank almost had to be one of James’s sons. Now I had a few more family details to help me follow the trail.

It’s All in the Details

I always like to round out the profile of folks I’m seeking, so I dashed to the WWI Draft Registration on Ancestry.com, searching for anyone named Fran* (again, using a wildcard) Vaughan who was born within two years of 1886, as suggested by the 1910 census. Just to play it safe, I set the surname on Soundex, a system that helps identify names by how they sound rather than by their exact spelling. This turned out to be a smart tactic. There he was: Franklin Wade Vaughn, born on 15 July 1885. Maybe I would need these details, maybe I wouldn’t, but it didn’t hurt to have them.

Surround and Conquer

I could be reasonably sure that at least one of the youngsters in the photos was baby Henry from the 1910 census, but who were the other kids? I needed more names, so I jumped to the 1930 census. I found James’s son Frank with wife Nancy living in Scurry County, Texas, now with a houseful of kids—Henry (again), Raymon, Herman, Lula Mae, Lorene, Corene, Elmer, Howard, and Louise.

Great. I had plenty of names to pursue to help me find the family today. Males are usually easiest to follow since they don’t change their names at marriage, so I plucked out one of the sons, Elmer, and decided to see what became of him.

Brother Bridges to Sister

I searched for Elmer Vaughan and was saddened to spot an entry I suspected was him in the Social Security Death Index. This fellow had passed away in the late 1990s in Texas, so I wondered if perhaps there might be an obituary available for him online. Starting at Ancestry.com, I did a general search on his name, and found ten hits in the United States Obituary Collection. Upon closer inspection, though, his name didn’t appear among the names of the deceased. But the name featured in seven of the entries caught my eye: Lula Mae. One of the children in the 1930 census was Lula Mae—was this Elmer’s sister? If so, she had just passed away months ago.

I clicked through to the actual obituary and learned all about Lula Mae: daughter of Frank and Nancy Vaughan, granddaughter of James, Elmer’s sister, and one of the little girls in the photos.

Take the Long Way Home

Equipped with the names of Lula Mae’s survivors, I turned to a pair of my old-reliables, the U.S. Phone and Address Directories, 1993–2002 and U.S. Public Records collections at Ancestry.com. Within minutes, I located Lula Mae’s daughter (Frank’s granddaughter and James’s great-granddaughter) in New Mexico. I forwarded the woman’s information to my contact, Verma, at 10:00 p.m. By 2:00 p.m. the following afternoon, Verma responded with good news:

I called her. She’s the granddaughter of Frank Vaughan and was very happy to learn about the pictures. She says her cousin, who lives in Texas, is working on the family tree, and she’ll share the pictures with her. I’ll mail the packet of pictures to her tomorrow.

So, thanks to Verma Goodwin, some orphan photos have traveled from Oklahoma to Texas and New Mexico via a detour through California. How long was that detour? With a little more sleuthing, I learned Lutitia had died in 1943. How fortunate for the Vaughans that their step-kin were kind enough to safe-keep these family treasures for more than six decades. We should all be so lucky.

Do You Have an Orphan?

Do you have something you’re hoping to return? If so, please e-mail me at megan@honoringourancestors.com or go to www.honoringourancestors.com, click on Submissions, and select Orphan Heirlooms. There you’ll find a form where you can share whatever details you have and attach images of the items. I can’t respond to every submission, but keep your eye on this column. And your fingers crossed.

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak is co-author (with Ann Turner) of Trace Your Roots with DNA: Using Genetic Tests to Explore Your Family Tree and other books. She can be reached at www.honoringourancestors.com.