Around 1902, widow Nancy Rampley hired a young neighbor man to help with the farm work during the busy time of the year. According to her widow’s pension application, she also provided him with board in addition to a monthly. In 1903 the hired man was her son-in-law. Several of my immigrant families in the 1880 census have a “hired man” who, upon further research, was discovered to be a relative of the wife or husband in the family. The relationship was not stated in the census. Some immigrants, if their financial situation warranted, would have hired help, someone unrelated who was from their same area of origin who they wanted to help after they “crossed the pond.” Sometimes the hired help was simply an unrelated neighbor who […]
In the 1910 census a relative and his wife are a recently married couple with an infant child. By 1920 that same relative is living in another state with another wife. The short version of the story is that the couple divorced and each had married other individuals by 1920. The 1910 child (a boy) was raised by the mother and her second husband as their child used that second husband’s name throughout his life. DNA matches confirmed the relationship as descendants of that 1910 child have done DNA tests and they match me at a level consistent with the relationship. Is it possible that your relative had a short term relationship that resulted in a child or two and after the relationship ended it was never talked […]
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