Finding My 2nd Great-Grandparents - Part 1
How I Found My 2nd Great-Grandfather
One of the things that makes genealogy research both fun and frustrating is that some ancestors just don’t want to be found. We can spend hundreds of hours chasing theories that turn into rabbit holes over many years. I’ve certainly had a few of those. But, oh, the feeling when you scale your brick walls can’t be explained. It’s one of the things that makes our work worthwhile.
This is the story of one of my brick walls and how I finally was able to break through and connect my tree to a huge family.
Who Was My Brick Wall?
I never met my paternal grandfather’s parents. They had both passed years before I was born. But I heard a lot of stories about them. My grandfather was a great storyteller. I always suspected that he may have embellished the stories a bit. After years of research, I can say that he embellished things. In fact, most of his stories were pure fantasy.
He told us that:
His parents had lived in Ohio,
His father was originally from Ireland, and
His mother’s family had owned a furniture store in Cincinnati.
To date, I have been able to disprove #2. The other two assertions are possible, but I haven’t been able to prove or disprove them.
So, this is the story of how I researched my great-grandparents, William Meredith Moore and Catherine Brownleigh Moore, attempting to find their parents. Spoiler alert: I was successful in finding one set of my 2nd great-grandparents. I’m still hunting for the other set.
Developing Theories
The first rule of genealogy research is to start with what you know. So, on March 31, 2003, I set up an account at Ancestry.com and started entering what I knew about members of my family. Of course, I knew my parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, three of my grandparents, and one great-grandmother. And then, I waited. I didn’t have the slightest idea of what to do next.
Over time, I noticed that the little green leaves alongside some of my family members linked me to records, photos, and other family trees. I was excited. I knew that all my questions would be answered right away. I was wrong...really wrong. And like most new amateur researchers, I believed that other people’s trees had to be correct if they were posted online. I’m still paying for that mistake today.
Once I realized that I wasn’t going to solve my puzzle overnight, I started studying, taking classes, and talking to people who knew a lot more than me. I was told that I needed to plan my research and stop chasing rabbits.
I decided that I would concentrate my efforts on finding the parents of my great-grandfather. As you may have noticed, I was named after my father, who was named after my great-grandfather. So I had a strong interest in learning about the first person to carry my name. Every resource I’ve found about genealogy research tells us to write a research goal. So mine was “Find the parents of my great-grandfather, William Meredith Moore, born in 1861 in Ohio, died in 1939 in Rankin, Upton County, Texas.”
For the next twenty years, I devoted time to researching my great-grandfather. I built a profile of him based on what I was able to find online:
1910 US Census -
He lived in Palestine, Anderson County, Texas, with his wife (identified there as “Katie”), and his two children, Jessie Mae, and Kennard (my grandfather). He was a clerk with a “Steam Railroad.”
According to the census, he was 38 years old which calculates to an approximate birth year of 1872. This information conflicted with other information that listed his birth date as 18 July 1861.
The census also said he was born in Ohio, as were both of his parents.
City Directories -
In the 1911 City Directory for Palestine, Texas, William is listed as a clerk for the IG&N railroad.
In 1912, William had moved to Houston, Harris County, Texas. He had been promoted by the IG&N and was working as the chief revising clerk in the auditor’s office. There is no mention of his wife.
In 1913, William was still in Houston, Harris County, Texas. He was listed as the chief revising clerk in the auditor’s office. There is no mention of his wife.
In the 1950 City Directory for San Angelo, —- County, Texas, Catherine has reappeared. It’s noted that she’s the widow of William.
Find a Grave shows a cemetery marker at Rankin Cemetery, in Rankin, Upton County, Texas. It shows a birth date of 18 July 1861 and death date of 28 August 1939. Catherine’s marker is next to William’s.
For a long time, this was all I could find. I was not able to find a death certificate for William online or at the Upton County clerk’s office. I had no luck at all in finding a verifiable birth record or early census records for him. William Moore is a very common name. With no other information about family or even a city where he had been born, it appeared that I was not going to find William’s parents.
As you have shown, disproving things can be just as important as proving them. Cutting away the dead ends helps focus on the possible. I need to organize better to work on my brick wall, my paternal grandmother's father.
Love this post! I have my own brick walls and my own family info that turns out to be somewhat true. I really really like the graphic with the brick wall instead of the name! And the way your arrows bend to show the child while leaving out the ancestor not searched. And when I got to the end, I was mad and wanted to know more!