The Challenge of Being Challenged

Whenever you post a family tree online, whether it be in a one-world tree like on FamilySearch or WikiTree or in a self-manged tree like those found on MyHeritage, Findmypast, or Ancestry, you run the risk of someone saying that you are wrong. Hopefully, that person will provide a list of facts to back up their statement. Sometimes you are right with the information that you have, other times, the other person points out something that you had completely missed and caused you to follow the wrong family line.

Here is an interesting case in my own tree on Ancestry where a claim has been made and one piece of evidence provided that refutes what I had recorded. How you deal with such challenges is up to you but here is what I did in my case.

We need to set the stage first...

In the branch of the Fraser family on my tree on Ancestry I have Jane Fraser, born on 8 Sep 1839¹ in Upper Canada (what later became Ontario, Canada). 

L. A. Milne, Fraser : A Short History of The Fraser Clan and our own Branch of Frasers in Canada and The United States  (N.p.: L.A. Milne, 1943), p 59, photograph of Jane Fraser.

According to the Fraser book I have that was compiled by Louise Agnes (nee Fraser) Milne in the 1940s Jane was supposedly first married to "Manchester" (no known forename) and then to a "Wm Gould". I was able to locate Jane in the 1851/52, 1861, and 1871 censuses living with family in Drummond Township, Lanark County, Canada West/Ontario. In 1881 she is residing in the household of her older brother Thomas in Huron Township, Bruce County, Ontario. Where I next pick her up is in California, USA in the 1900 census. That find was based on a few premises:

• Comment in the Fraser book about after her mother, Sarah, passing away Jane went to California and married.
• Another comment in the Fraser book that stated "Old letters written to her people back home are full of expressions of affection for her husband and stepson."

So finding a Jane Gould in the 1900 Federal census of the United States of America in California living in Los Nietos, Los Angles County, California, USA with husband William Gould and an 18 year old James F Gould, recorded as a son to the head of the household, William, made sense. But then she disappeared.

That is what I had up until now when I started writing this post.

However, I'm in the midst of my review of my Fraser branches descended from Alexander Fraser and Sarah Howell and I decided to chase down Jane, their youngest daughter, before I continued with some of the other larger branches of Alexander's and Sarah's family since Jane didn't have any children listed in the Fraser book. That is when I came across this comment from five years ago attached to William Gould, Jane's husband, that I somehow missed:

"William Gould had only on wife Jane Fraser and James Fredercik [sic] Gould was there [sic] son  See the 1900 and 1910 census, married 24 years"

That comment came about since I had William Gould first marrying an Ellen Mourin before he married Jane.

With the number of records that have be placed online over the past decade I figured I'd have a good look at this family group and see if I could:

1. Confirm that Jane did marry a Manchester, and
2. Straighten out to my satisfaction that James Frederick Gould is a stepson of Jane.

The first thing I did was review the records that I had already found for Jane Fraser and make sure I had all the information entered into my master database in Legacy Family Tree. Just doing this sort of review can sometimes shed additional light on facts and events you missed the first time around.

As you can see in this clipping from the 1900 Federal census of the USA for the household of William Gould, it does state that Jane has 1 child born and 1 child still living.

1900 U.S. census, Los Angeles County, California, population schedule, Los Nietos Township, enumeration district (ED) 110, sheet 29A, dwelling 676, family 704, Household of William Gould; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 Aug 2020); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T623.

What isn't showing but is in other columns is that for the number of years in the USA and her immigration status it is recorded as "unknown". Even the year of her arrival in the USA is blank even though her stated place of birth is Canada Eng. The immigration details for James F Gould, the listed son, are blank and he was born in New Zealand. Something seems to be amiss here. With both Jane and James not born in the USA there should have been additional details recorded.

However, the 1910 Federal census of the USA tells a different story.

1910 U.S. census, Los Angeles County, California, population schedule, Los Nietos Township (part of Rivera Precinct), enumeration district (ED) 282, sheet 1A, dwelling 11, family 11, Household of Wm Gould; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 Aug 2020); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T624, roll 85.

Here it is stated that this is both their second marriage and they've only been married for 10 years. Also no children are recorded for Jane and, although not shown in this snippet from the page, it states that that Jane arrived in the United States in 1882.

Right away we have conflicting information from the census enumerations. Oh, joy! However, there is some hope now that the Fraser book was right and Jane did marry a Manchester before she married William Gould.

How about that supposed son of William and Jane, James F. Gould? What can we learn about him beside that he was born about 1881 in New Zealand.

For that I went to the New Zealand Government site for Births, Deaths & Marriages Online to search for historical records. I entered in the basic information I had concerning James:

• Family Name: Gould
  
• Given Name: James
  
• Search From Date: 01/01/1879
  
• Search To Date: 31/12/1883
  

I gave it a +/- 2 year range for the date of birth just in case and only three names that were registered in that time period were returned. One of them was for a James Frederick Gould, child of William and Ellen registered in 1881.

Wait a second, Ellen and not Jane? It is looking like the 1910 census might be right after all.

Since James isn't in the 1910 census with William and Jane he might have died, married, or moved away. A search for a Frederick James Gould that was born about 1881 in New Zealand find a Fred J Gould born about 1883 in New Zealand living with wife Jessie E in Los Nietos Township, Los Angeles County, California. Also, they've only been married for two years.

The California, County Marriages, 1850-1952 collection on FamilySearch is a wonderful resource for images of California marriage registrations. Keep in mind that not all marriages will be found here and the ones that are, not all may have images. But it is a good place to start to see if I can find a marriage for James F Gould and a Jessie.

We struck gold this time. A marriage license was found and the certificate of marriage include the Personal and Statistical Particulars.

It is a little faint to read but it states that James believed that his mother was Nellie Mourin.

Way back when, when I was doing my initial research, I had come across a mention of a marriage in the Perth Courier between Wm. Gould and Nellie Mourin. It was an interested notice since it stated that they married at Piccadilly, London.

"Gould-Mourin," The Perth Courier, 29 Sep 1876; digital images, PaperofRecord.com (https://paperofrecord.hypernet.ca/default.asp : accessed 9 Oct 2010).

On Ancestry in the newly available "Westminster, London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935" collection there is even a copy of the marriage record from Parish of St. James (Piccadilly) Westminster for a William Gould and Ellen Mourin that took place on 12 Aug 1876.

What about Jane's marriage to William Gould? Well a search of FamilySearch in the "California, County Marriages, 1850-1952" collection didn't uncover a marriage to a Jane Fraser between 1881 and 1900 but there is one to a Jane Manchester. Recall that in the Fraser book they said that Jane first married a Manchester. There a marriage is recorded taking place on 26 Jul 1898 between a William Gould, residing in Rivera, a native of Canada and Mrs Jane Manchester, residing in San Gabriel, a native of Canada.

"California, County Marriages, 1850-1952," index and images, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 11 Aug 2020), entry for William Gould and Jane Manchester, married 26 Jul 1898; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, county courthouses, California; FHL microfilm 2,073,995.

 

Curiously the witnesses are a W. G. McMullin, a resident of Los Angeles, and A. F. Mills, a resident of Pasadena. In my tree I do have a William George McMullin/McMullen, a sheriff in Los Angeles, and an Alexander Fraser Mills, residing in Pasadena around that time. Looks like she may have asked her nephews to act as witnesses.

What about a marriage to a Manchester? 

Again, FamilySearch comes through for us with their California, County Marriages, 1850-1952 collection. Here we find the marriage for James S Manchester, a native of Maine and a resident of Los Angeles, to Jane Fraser, a native of Canada and resident of Los Angeles, on 8 Sep 1885 with a George McMullen as one of the witnesses.

"California, County Marriages, 1850-1952," index and images, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 11 Aug 2020), entry for James S Manchester and Jane Fraser, married 8 Sep 1885; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, county courthouses, California; FHL microfilm 1,033,135.

The question that then arises for me is did James Manchester die before Jane married William Gould? That was answered through a paragraph in The Los Angeles Times found via a search on Newspapers.com.

"Pasadena - Brevities," The Los Angeles Times, 4 Sep 1891, p. 7, col. 1; digital images, Newspapers (www.newspapers.com : accessed 11 Aug 2020).

There is the A. F. Mills that was a witness for his marriage to Jane Fraser and I also have J. S. (John Stevenson) Mills in my tree and they are nephews by marriage to James Manchester.

What about Jane? Why did she disappear from the census records after 1910. A bit of search and I found her death registration in the "California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994" collection on FamilySearch. She had passed away on 31 May 1916 in Rivera, Los Angeles County, California. The only glitch in the record is that they list her father as John Fraser instead of Alexander Fraser. But surprisingly the unnamed informant got her mother correct, Sarah Howell.

Using that same collection on FamilySearch I found that William Gould had predeceased her on 11 Oct 1913, also in Rivera. Their grave markers can be found in the Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California.

Jane Fraser had, for many a years, been one of my little annoyances. Until I decided to revisit her and see what new information could be found she had been one of my lost sheep. She is now welcomed back into the flock.

I have sent a reply back to the person that commented on William Gould's profile and included a link to this blog post for their reading confusion/enjoyment.

So take another look at those people in your tree that you had issues with finding more details about their life story. With new collections and records be added monthly on many of your favourite genealogy sites you might just find the answers you could find the first time around.

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1. "Fraser : a short history of the Fraser clan and our own branch of Frasers in Canada and the United States"