Ancestry Magazine

I genuinely enjoy rescuing orphan heirlooms, solving mini-history mysteries so items that have wandered from their families of origin can be returned. In fact, I enjoy it so much that I do it for fun. So when I found myself wishing for a break from work recently, I decided to tackle a fresh orphan heirloom case. It took approximately two seconds before Valerie Auld’s message snagged my attention.

 

Boys on a Pony

Valerie wrote to me about a photo that she found among the belongings of her now-deceased mother-in-law:

 

The photo is of two boys, ages about 6 and 10, on a pony with their father standing in the background. It’s marked on the back “Old Friend,” “Haight’s Pony,” and “John Hahn and sons Robert and Fenton.”

 

My mother-in-law’s maternal grandmother was Pearle Anna (Haight) Jarboe (1881–1959). She grew up in Burlington, Kansas, and is probably the one who wrote on the back of this photo. This is probably also her family’s pony. The photo would have been taken in or near Burlington around 1880–1900.

 

I attempted to search for the Hahns and found a website showing that Fenton Hahn died in World War I. The same site also showed Fenton’s wife was notified of his death in 1918.

 

I’m sure the other son, Robert, is not alive anymore either, but if Fenton had children, I’m sure they would love this picture of their dad. Or if his brother, Robert, had children and knew about their uncle who died in World War I, they would love it also. I would be happy to send it to them if you find them.

 

Census Time

I almost always start my heirloom hunts with a census search on Ancestry.com. It’s a great way to locate folks and put them in context with assorted relatives. Fortunately, Fenton Hahn isn’t the most common name, so I quickly found him in the 1900 U.S. census right where Valerie had suggested I would: in Burlington, Kansas.

 

And what do you know? Just a few families away was a teenager named Pearl A. Haight, the future grandmother of Valerie’s mother-in-law. So Valerie had guessed correctly about the first owner of this photo. With this extra bit of evidence, I was certain that I had located the correct Fenton Hahn.

 

Forward March

Now that I had found Fenton in the 1900 U.S. census, my next step was to move forward to the 1910 census. There was Fenton, now 15 years old, with his parents, John and Irene, and his little brother, Robert. Details provided in columns next to the name of Fenton’s mother indicated that she had had two children, both of whom were still living, so it seemed that the two boys on the pony were the only children in this family.

 

One Step Forward

I was unclear where to go next because I knew that Fenton had been killed in World War I, so he obviously wouldn’t appear in the 1920 census. But I was curious about the wife that Valerie had alluded to. I tried a search on anyone named Hahn residing in Burlington, Kansas. Up popped a single family—Fenton’s parents and brother. And, lucky me, living with them was Ruby F., Fenton’s young widow, and Frances, his 20-month-old daughter. Little Frances was exactly what I had hoped for—a child who could well be alive today.

 

And Two Steps Back

This search had been racing forward so rapidly that I was almost insulted when I finally encountered a road block with the 1930 census. My Hahn family had disappeared from Burlington, Kansas. So now what? How was I going to find Ruby and Frances? I knew that I could try to trace the family of Fenton’s brother, Robert, but I really thought that Frances would be the most appropriate recipient of the photo, if I could find her.

 

I started playing with all the assorted fields on Ancestry.com for the 1930 census, trying to hone in on Frances. Finally, I hit on the following combination:

 

First Name: Franc*

Birth Year: 1918, +/- 2 years

State of Residence: Kansas

Mother’s Given Name: Ruby

 

As you can see from the wildcard and the +/-, I believe in hedging my bets. You never know exactly how the person you’re seeking could be hidden, so I always allow a little margin for error.

 

The Right Ruby?

This combination produced seven hits, but one of them immediately caught my eye because the mother, Ruby, had the middle initial “F,” the same that Ruby had in the 1920 census. I took a closer look. This Ruby F. Rohr, now married to Earl J. Rohr, was born in Missouri with a father and mother who had been born in Sweden and Kentucky, respectively, and not the most common collection of birth places. I doubled-back and checked the 1920 census. Yes—that Ruby had the same peculiar birthplace troika—Missouri, Sweden, and Kentucky. So here was the family I sought, now living in Osage City, Kansas.

 

Leap Forward

Now it was time to try to make a giant leap forward via the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). There aren’t too many people with the name of Ruby Rohr, so I spotted Fenton’s remarried widow easily. She had passed away in 1989 at the age of 89. This still left me with a 17-year gap to the present. Where could Frances be?

 

It’s Not All Online

At this point, I stumbled around for a bit. I tried every trick I knew for finding information on the Internet, and I found quite a bit. Here was the marriage of Fenton’s parents back in 1891. Here were their deaths in 1932 and 1946. And here was Ruby Fern’s (so that’s what the “F” stood for) second marriage to John Earl (so Earl J. was John Earl, eh?) Rohr. And here were John’s World War I Draft Registration and SSDI entries. All well and good, but none of it would help me find Frances.

 

If it wasn’t online, I would try the next best thing—the local library. Ruby had died in Osage City, so I contacted the library there. It took about three weeks and a whopping ten cents a page (I overpaid, as is my habit with libraries), but here was her obituary—a genealogist’s fantasy—complete with parents’ names, her birthplace, and all sorts of other juicy details. But here’s the part that really got me: She outlived Fenton by 71 years, but her obituary still mentioned him. And he was MIA? I had no idea. Now I was more determined than ever to find Fenton’s family.

 

Still Looking for Frances

Fortunately, Ruby’s obituary gave me the married name of Frances, as well as the city she was living in back in 1989. It was a common surname, but it was progress. Sadly, though, I quickly crashed into an entry in the SSDI I had been hoping not to find: Frances had passed away in 2005.

 

I reluctantly went to the United States Obituary Collection on Ancestry.com and did a search on her name, almost hoping not to find anything, but there she was. In fact, I could even see her photo.

 

How sad that we had missed her by about a year.

 

Fenton’s Grandchildren

I took heart in the fact that Frances’s obituary revealed three children. One of them had an unusual spelling of a not-so-unusual name, so I did a quick search of the U.S. Public Records Index and U.S. Phone and Address Directories (1993–2002) on Ancestry.com, focusing on her. She was easy to spot. I shot an e-mail off to Valerie, asking her to make contact with Fenton’s granddaughter. Then I sat back and waited for the following response from Valerie:

 

I finally got a hold of her. She was very excited about the photo and said that her sister and her daughter are both into genealogy and would be excited, too.

 

She said her sister has been going through their mother’s things and has found all of the World War I letters that Fenton wrote to Ruby and the letters that Ruby wrote back to him. She said that Ruby was pregnant when Fenton left for the service and that Fenton died before Frances was ever born. She said Fenton was killed in 1918 in the Battle of Argonne Forest. She’d like to find a museum to take these letters to.

 

Thanks for all your help on this. I will feel so much better knowing that someone is enjoying this picture. I hope people who find pics of my relatives do the same.

 

Who’s Next?

So Fenton’s photo is finally back where it belongs, with a family who will truly appreciate it. And for anyone who shares Valerie’s question about where to donate war letters, check out The Legacy Project at www.warletters.com.

 

If you have another family’s treasure that you’d like to return, please e-mail me at megan@honoringourancestors.com or go to www.honoringourancestors.com, click on the Submissions menu, and select Orphan Heirlooms. I can’t respond to every submission, but you never know—maybe yours will be next.

 

 

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak is a writer, a researcher, and a regular contributor to Ancestry Magazine.