[This post is based on the 52 Ancestors project by Amy Johnson Crow]

Before the days of the Internet, and indexed records like US Census sheets, Genealogy was always a “boots on the ground” situation.  In reality, it’s still very much boots on the ground, since only a small percentage of the documents that can help us piece together our family knowledge are available online and even fewer of those are actually indexed! I recall visiting a cousin in Tennessee who had multiple filing cabinets and storage boxes just overflowing with paper. Transcriptions of census records, family group sheets, notes about land records from the county courthouses. Many of these were collected and collated before copy machines were even available, so meticulous notes were the glue that held the family history together.

One of the most obvious limitations, as seen through today’s technological lens, was the lack of easy cross-referencing of information.  If someone found a census record that “looked” right, it could be difficult, if not impossible, to know that another similar family lived just around the corner from where you assumed your ancestor resided, and you had latched onto the wrong records.  I think it was Krista Cowen from Ancestry who once lamented the sadness when you find you’ve been climbing the wrong family tree.  And thus, we arrive at Julia Ann Alford, aka Mrs. Julia Ann Brimer, my 3rd Great Grandmother!

One Line, One Clue

I have only ever seen one document that indicates Julia Ann was an Alford.  That document was her death certificate, where her husband F.C. Lott (Franklin aka Frank) reported her death, and noted that her father’s name was “Alford”, first name unknown, and her mother’s name was also unknown. I’m trying to imagine a situation these days where a person would not know the name of his mother-in-law, even if he had never seen her in his life. I realize that it’s not always the case that people talk all of the time about their families, but that piece of information just feels so important. Perhaps that’s just because often important paperwork asks for “Your mother’s maiden name”. My husband not only knows my mother’s maiden name, but he knows her middle name!  What if I got hit by a bus, and he had to try to log into some account where my “secret question” is “what’s your mother’s middle name”? But Frank Lott didn’t know his mother-in-law’s name at all, and only knew that his wife’s maiden name was Alford. Frank listed her place of birth as Alabama. Not knowing his mother-in-law’s name makes me wonder if he really knew where Julia Ann was born 😉 .

No Maiden Name? No Problem? Not Exactly.

Their marriage license doesn’t even have Julia Ann’s maiden name. Apparently she had been married before, and she was Mrs. Julia Ann Brimer on their marriage license.  They married on 17 Nov 1877 in Lawrence County Alabama.  Back in 2019 I corresponded with a very nice Director of the Lawrence County Archives, but alas, not only did she have no information about Julia Ann’s origins, she also could not find any marriage records for a Brimer or Bremer marrying in that county that would match.  Interestingly enough, their marriage bond was signed by F.C. Lott and John R Brimer. I have found information on him, and can see possible brothers who could have been of age to marry our Julia Ann, but no luck in finding any real evidence of her prior marriage!

The Case of Mistaken Identity (Thanks, Census)

So, what was all of that census talk earlier? Surely there must be some relevance here, no?  Well, yeah! Someone, somewhere in our family history searching past, decided that armed with the death certificate of Julia Ann Alford, born November 1846 or 1847 in Alabama, the Alabama censuses would give us her family.  Alas, whoever that someone was, got it wrong ☹️.

In 1850, Fennor Alford and his wife Sarah lived in Cherokee, Alabama. They had three children

• Samuel S. C. Alford (age 6)
• Allie (female, 3)
• Alonzo A. (male, 2, indexed as “Alonza”)

In 1860, this same family has only initials for the inhabitants, and amongst their growing family we find:

• S (male, 16)
• A (female, 14)
• A (also female, 12)

I think this is where the mixup happened. There should have been an A (male 12), but since Alonzo was misidentified as female, a hopeful descendant attributed one of those As to “Julia Ann”.  Alonzo is still with the family in 1870, age 21 (so pretty much in line), and Allie (Alice) has married and living in Choctaw county, a couple of pages away from Fenner; thus there is no room for our Julia Ann.

The Vanishing Woman

Okay, you say, so Julia Ann doesn’t belong in the Fennor Alford family.  Surely that makes it easier to find her somewhere else!  Well, you would be WRONG. I have looked at census records, searched for marriage records, etc.  There is simply NO Julia Ann anywhere. How can she just be missing?

DNA Confirms… Something

DNA has helped a little. It has confirmed that Julia Ann was surely an Alford. I few years ago I persuaded my great-aunt to be DNA tested, in the hopes that we could get closer to the answer.  Julia Ann is only her Great-Grandmother, after all, but we’re still struggling away! It does seem likely though that Julia Ann is not from the line where D Fennor Alford exists. Using DNAPainter’s “What are the odds” tool, she seems to fit better with another branch of the Alford family, but with absolutely no men in the family who have a Julia Ann in any records.  I’m stumped (for now).

But if I’ve learned anything as a genealogist, it’s this: dead ends are often just detours. And the clues are always out there… waiting for us to look again, or look differently.