Backtracking - The Springfield Connection

I made the big mistake of letting my assumptions get in the way of evidence when I blogged about my Springfield Connection a couple of years ago. I have been so focused in trying to establish a connection between my Arkansas Coker family to the Coker families in Springfield that I refuted the possibility that my main relationship could be through the Stinnett side of my family. I stand corrected.

I initially questioned why a probate record for Shulia Coker's estate named several of my Stinnett relatives and none of my Cokers (except my great-grandmother who married a Coker). I assumed that my relationship to Shulia was through her marriage to Bryant Coker. A relook at the 1880 census for Union Township, Marion County, Arkansas sheds a new light on that assumption.

My 2nd-great-grandmother Nancy Jefferson is in the 1880 census with her children (who are all later recorded as Stinnetts). The next family listed is Martha Upton with her son James and daughters Arshuly (Shulia) and Frank (Frankie). I have looked at this record dozens of times and totally ignored an obvious clue. Though Martha is recorded in a separate household she is not identified as "head"; instead the record says "daughter". I now believe that she is another daughter of Nancy and that explains why Shulia's probate record lists my great-grandmother and her brothers and their families as aunt, uncle and cousins. Duh! Head-smack!

Union Township, Marion County, Arkansas, 10 Jun 1880

This record alone isn't enough to confirm that Martha is Nancy's daughter but it is a lead that makes sense. I will continue to research these families with more focus on evidence. I will have to remember to put my assumptions aside and to be more diligent in data analysis.

The Mystery of Myrtle Coker

Myrtle L. Coker

According to my Aunt Ginny, her Aunt Myrtle hadn't been heard from since she sent a telegram to my great-grandmother in 1933 acknowledging the death of my grandfather, her brother, Lonnie Coker. She was living in Washington State at the time.

Following Aunt Myrtle's trail has not been easy. She appears with the rest of the G.W. Coker family in the 1900 census in Yellville, Arkansas where she was born, then later with them in Joplin, Missouri in 1910.

Myrtle married Bert Patterson January 25, 1913 in Carthage, Missouri. From here the trail gets murky. When Bert registered for the WWI draft (12 Sep 1918) he was working as a horseshoer in Augusta, Kansas but gave 1024 North St., Joplin, Missouri as his home address. His wife Myrtle L. Patterson at that address was listed as next of kin. Bert is recorded as a white male of medium build with brown hair. The address on North Street is just  block from Myrtle's family home (922 North St.) in Joplin.

The 1920 census shows a white family group living in Augusta, Kansas - Albert Patterson, wife Myrtle L Patterson, and niece Clema Watkins, Myrtle's late sister Maud Coker Watkins had a daughter named Clemma. Another coincidence, Myrtle's cousin David Stinnett was also living in Augusta in the same time frame.

I don't know what happened between Myrtle and Bert. She shows up in Seattle, Washington in a 1923 marriage record. Even though the bride's name on this record is Lillian Patterson (the "L" in Myrtle L Patterson?) I was fairly sure this was our Myrtle because one of the witnesses is Alfred Stinnette, who I believe is another cousin, the son of William and Fannie Stinnett of Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Marriage certificate of Lillian Patterson and Arthur S. Ramsden

The 1930 census lists Lillian Ramsden as a divorced beauty shop operator boarding in a house on Warren Ave. in Seattle. Aunt Ginny said that Myrtle used to do hair in Joplin.

Lillian Ramsden marries again in Vancouver, Washington in 1936. This time to Claude Siner. And this time I have a record that ties her to my family. George Coker and Anna Stinnette of Missouri are listed as her parents on the marriage record.

Marriage record for Claude Sine and Lillian Ramsden.

According to articles in the Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada, Feb 28, 1945) Lillian Siner filed for divorce from Claude Siner AND applied for a marriage license to Leonard A. Schelling of Tule Lake, California. Both articles appeared in the same issue of the Journal under the headings Marriage Licenses and Actions Filed.

Santa Rosa, California city directories list a Leonard A. and Lillian Schilling from the late 1940s until the early 1970s. After that I found a 1975 death record for a Leonard Schelling in Florida but nothing else on Lillian. I don't know if they were still married at the time of his death or whether this is even the same Leonard Schelling (though the fact that his Social Security card being issued in Oregon leads me toward that conclusion). There is also a 1985 death record for a Lillian Schelling in Napa, California. I'll have to get a death certificate and hopefully confirm Myrtle's identity. 

So here I have Aunt Myrtle (AKA Lillian), white, independent beauty operator, married four times. I would love to have more details of her life. I wonder if she preceded Leonard in death, if they stayed married for 30 years, if she'll turn up with yet another surname; so many questions Aunt Myrtle. I'll keep looking for you.

Backtracking - William Stinnett's Missing Children

William Stinnett was my great-grandmother's oldest brother.  I had been able to track most of his family up to their deaths with the exception of his daughter Carrie and his son Sherman who disappeared from available records between 1900 when the family lived in Harrison, Arkansas and 1910 after William and Fannie moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma. The last I'd heard of either of them was through marriage records - Carrie Stinnett of Muskogee married Edward M. Carpenter in Wyandotte County, Kansas in 1909 and Sherman married Jenette Barker in Muskogee in 1910.

Carrie Stinnett Randall

After my recent luck picking up the trail of Marion Stinnett I decided to search for Carrie and Sherman again. My luck held out.

I found an earlier marriage record for Carrie in Black Families of the Ozarks Volume 4-A, page 355. These volumes are available in PDF format at the Springfield-Greene County Library. A listing of Wright County, Missouri marriage records shows Toby Duncan of Hartville marrying Carrie Stinnett of Harrison, Boone County, Arkansas on October 18, 1903. Ancestry.com also has this record though the groom's name has been transcribed as Poly Duncan. I can find no other record of Toby and Carrie together, or any information about a divorce,  though I may have found Toby later with another wife.

I also found both marriage and death records for Carrie in Washington state. She died at age 32 just a year after her marriage to Arza Randall. Both records name William and Fannie as her parents. The marriage record has the mother's maiden name as Fannie Kircum but the death record has Bower as Fannie's maiden name. My best guess on this is that the clerk mistakenly recorded Carrie's husband's (Arza Bowen Randall) middle name instead of her mother's maiden name. The marriage record shows a divorced Carrie Carpenter whose maiden name was Stinnette. I know this is my girl. What I may never know is how she ended up in Walla Walla, Washington.

The man that I believe to be Sherman is also in Washington state. Trolling through dozens of Stinnett records led me to an employment application for an Alfred Stinnette whose parents were William and Fannie Stinnette of Muskogee, Oklahoma. Further digging turned up WWI and WWII draft registrations, marriage and death records, naturalization applications for his Canadian wife, listings in city directories and even a hit on a family tree at ancestry.com. The family tree had this man as Alfred Sylvester Stinnette but none of the associated records documented his middle name. I thought he was still a possibility so I started searching for Alfred Stinnette and I found another clue in newspaper archives that strengthen my case for Sherman and Alfred being the same person.

Starting November 15, 1924 the Bothell [Washington] Sentinel printed a Summons by Publication, for plaintiff Alfred Stinnette against defendant Janett Stinnette. Alfred is suing for divorce based on desertion and abandonment and Janett has 90 days to answer the summons. Further searches in Bothell and Seattle newspapers turn up articles where he is called Alfred S. Stinnette. I think the S stands for Sherman, not Sylvester. I need to get my hands on the divorce case to verify that Janett Stinnette is the former Jenette Barker that Sherman married in Muskogee but I do think I'm hot on the trail.

Again, I don't know how these Stinnetts ended up in Washington. Was their move a part of The Great Migration? Sherman's WWI draft registration shows him living in Seattle as early as 1917. Carrie was married in Walla Walla in 1916. Did Sherman and Carrie move west together? I'll let these latest discoveries muddle around in my head for a while and come back to them later.