Finding Records of Female Ancestors

My grandmother, Elaine Coffman Mayne and my mother, Jill Mayne 1937 Reno, Nevada
When copying old photographs be sure to include the studio name in your digital copy.
Paffrath Studio was located in Reno, Nevada.  Gram Elaine was residing in Reno in 1937 when she filed for divorce from her first husband, True Mayne.  Jill was born in November 1935 and the divorce was granted in October 1937.

March is Women's History Month  which makes it an appropriate time to focus our genealogy research efforts on our female ancestors.  Finding records for women can often be a challenge.  The names of American women change throughout their lives.  American women are found in genealogical records under their maiden names and their married names.  Genealogical search engines need to be tweaked when we are searching for women.

This is an earlier photo of "Gram Elaine" with her first daughter, Joan Vivian Mayne.
Judging by Joan's age in this photo it was probably taken about 1932 in San Francisco.

When using the search engine at Ancestry.com, we find that women that have been married more than once are a particular challenge.  My maternal grandmother, Elaine Blanche Coffman Mayne Kelly DeGuire Thomas is a case in point.  "Gram Elaine" was married four times over the course of her 99 years on the planet.  For 54 years [1937 to 1991] she was known as Elaine Kelly. For eighteen years, she was known as Elaine Coffman, her maiden name [1910-1928].  For eleven years she was known as Elaine Thomas [1999-2010].  For nine years she was known as Elaine Mayne [1928-1937]. For three years she was known as Elaine DeGuire 1994-1997].

Trying to search all of these names at once overwhelms the search engine at Ancestry.com. As can be seen from the following search, many extraneous records are included in the results when searching for all her surnames at once:

Click on the "Edit Search" link to limit the search.

I recommend that Ancestry.com users edit the search to include only one surname at a time.  For example, let's try changing the surname to Elaine Kelly and delete the rest of the names.  Since she was known as Elaine Kelly for the majority of her life, this will yield better search results.  It is also helpful to choose only the databases which are most likely to include women under their married names such as the U.S. City Directories database.  The following example shows several records for Elaine Kelly in the Sacramento City Directory:

Search results for "Elaine Kelly" in the City Directory database

The U.S. Public Records Database is an excellent source for searching your late 20th century females.  Here is a record for Gram Elaine when she was known as Elaine Thomas in the Public Records Database as shown below:

20th century females can be found in the U.S. Public Records Index

Jumping back two generations to Gram Elaine's paternal grandmother, Harriett Anne Ketcham Coffman 1853-1938, we can see another example of choosing the right database to search.  After performing a search for Harriett we see that one of the suggested databases is California Voter Registrations.  Given that Harriett resided in California from 1880 to 1938, we can find her in the California Voter records under her married name as shown below:

Harriett Ketcham Coffman was found in the California Voter Registration database
in the 1920s and 1930s in Oakland, California. The list at the top of this image shows
some of the records that I have already attached to her profile. Adding voter registrations
and city directories will help to fill in the blanks in her timeline between census years.

I have many more tips on how to find female ancestors in my presentation entitled: How to Become an Ancestry.com Power User.  Please contact me if you need assistance using Ancestry.com or if you would like me to review and edit your family tree on Ancestry.com.

Is My Brickwall About to Tumble Down?

The latest discovery in my own family history is an obituary which ties my great grandmother, Mae Blanche Moss to a man named John Lauenstein in 1906.  The obituary states that "May" Moss is the step-daughter of Mr. Lauenstein.  My maternal great grandmother, Mae Moss, was the first wife of my maternal great grandfather, Ernest Coffman, and the mother of Elaine and Vivian Coffman.  Later she married Ernest "Doc" Forbes, a pharmacist for Owl Drug.

Mae Moss is my genealogical mystery woman.  She was placed in the Sacramento Protestant Orphan Asylum by her mother in 1892.  This institution was known to us in Sacramento as the Sacramento Children's Home.

!BIRTH: 1882 Sacramento Children's Home Register; copied by Jill Mayne, Oct 1989 May Moss born Feb 19 1882, American; came to California June 1890, Sacramento; Admitted: 6 Dec 1892 by Mrs. J. Moss; Discharged: 4 Aug 1897 to Mrs. Moss, Father: Nashville, Tenn.; Mother: Richmond, VA; Married: Galveston, Tex.; Parents Death: Waco, Texas; Parents Habits: Intemperate.  Mrs. Moss took May without permission from the Board.

I have never been able to find any records which substantiate any of the vital information provided by Mae's mother to the orphanage.  Between the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the 1900 Galveston storm, there has been considerable record loss which has affected my search.

Mae stated on her 1936 application for a Social Security account number:  Mae B. Moss Coffman; 885 Aileen Street, Oakland Calif.; Employer: Owl Drug Co. at 14 & Washington Sts., Oakland, Cal.;  age at last birthday: 51; DOB: 19 Feb 1885; POB: Brooklyn, New York; Father: John Moss; Mother: Annie Lanstein; signed Nov. 30, 1936 by Mae B. Coffman.

Lanstein vs. Lauenstein.  This raises the possibility that Lanstein was not the maiden name of Mae's mother, rather it was a married name.  Curiously, however, no wife is mentioned in Mr. Lauenstein's obituary:

The San Francisco Call, Saturday, January 13, 1906, page 13.

LAUENSTEIN---In this city, January 12, 1906, at his residence, 8 Miles court, John Lauenstein, stepfather of May Moss, a native of Hamburg, Germany, aged 46 years, 9 months and 4 days.

  Friends and acquaintances are respectfully invited to attend the funeral services Sunday, January 14, at 12 o'clock m., at his late residence, 8 Miles court, off California street near Powell. Interment Mount Olivet Cemetery.

  Funeral will take place under the auspices of San Francisco Aerie No. 5, F.O.E., Sunday, January 14, at 1 o'clock p.m., from Eagles Hall, 731 Market street. By order of 

  D. J. CREAMER, Acting President. 

 GUS POHLMAN, Secretary.

Publication Title: San Francisco Call; 13 January 1906, page 13; California Digital Newspaper Collection [cdnc.ucr.edu]

 

California Digital Newspaper Collection
www.cdnc.ucr.edu

The address "off California Street" does match with the stories that both Elaine and Vivian told me:

!BIOGRAPHY: 1906 Elaine Coffman Kelly, Interview by Nick Cimino 4 Nov 1989

     Mae and her mother lived in San Francisco on the street below the Fairmont Hotel.  Going up California Street it was the first street before you hit the top.  The rooming house was down there in the middle of the block.  Mae worked on California and Montgomery at a fancy fruit and vegetable market for Mr. Gedding and she apparently knew the family.  She was a cashier.  When the fire broke out after the earthquake in 1906 some of the people went to the Golden Gate Park.  Elaine remembers her mom telling about her father pulling this trunk down California Street one block below the Fairmont all the way down to the ferry boat which went over to Oakland.  They assume that Ernest took Mae and her mother to Aunt Viola Coffman Hughes house at 742 46th Street.

!BIOGRAPHY: 1906 Vivian McGrath, Interview by N. Cimino 10 Nov 1989;  Vivian told me many times that her mother and grandmother were in San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake.  Mae Moss was working as a cashier or a bookkeeper for Mr. Gedding who had a wholesale produce company at the foot of California Street.  Mae and her mother were living in a flat on a little narrow street right behind the Fairmont Hotel. They put their possessions in a big trunk, got the trunk down the stairs of the place and pushed it out to California Street but they could not get the trunk up the hill because it was too steep.  Mae smiled at two strong men coming up the hill and they pulled the trunk up the hill for her.  She and her mother then pushed it down the hill.  They got out to Golden Gate Park somehow. Everyone was camping in the park.  Ernest Coffman found them in the park and brought Mae and her mother back to Oakland to the house of Viola Coffman Hughes at 742 46th St.

          

To corroborate the above stories, I checked the 1920 Census for names that sound like "Gedding".  I found a Mr. Charles L. Goetting, age 52, born in Germany, immigrated 1868 and naturalized 1878.   He was a lodger at 568 California Street and his occupation was produce salesman.   He is also listed with his family at 675 Second Avenue. The story about Mr. Goetting checks out pretty well.  I have found advertisements for his produce business. 

Now I have John Lauenstein as the stepfather of Great Grandma Mae and residing near California Street. His gravestone in Mt. Olivet in Colma says that his wife was Virginia.  That threw me a curve ball.  I cannot find him or a wife named Virginia in the 1900 census of San Francisco.  What happened to Mae's mother, Annie?  Is Virginia the same as Annie?  Why doesn't the obituary mention Virginia?

FindaGrave Memorial #135257484
www.findagrave.com

Grandma Mae has been one step forward and two steps back at every turn in the research journey.  But at least I have a few more names to trace down and hopefully, it will lead to actual records of Mae and her parents.

YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS ARE ENCOURAGED!

Here is the complete chronology for John Lauenstein, 1859-1906:

1859- BIRTH • Hamburg, Germany

Per obituary; died January 12, 1906, aged 46 years, 9 months and 4 days. This yields a birthdate of 8 Apr 1859.

1890- NATURALIZATION • San Francisco, California, USA

Naturalized: SF Sup.[Superior Court?], July 31, 1890 per 1890 & 1896 Voter 

Registers  see below.

1890- VOTER REGISTER • San Francisco, California, USA

Name: Lauenstein John; age 30; Nativity: Germany; Occupation: Carpenter; Local Residence: 621 California, Floor 2, Room B; Naturalized: SF Sup. [Superior Court?], July 31, 1890; Date of Registration: Oct., 7, 1890; Publication Title: Voter Register, 10th Precinct, 31st Assembly District, San Francisco County, 1890 [Ancestry.com]

1896- VOTER REGISTER • San Francisco, California, USA

Name: Lauenstein John; age 36; Height: 5', 5"; Complexion: Light; Color of Eyes: Hazel; Color of Hair: Brown; Occupation: Carpenter; Nativity: Germany; Local Residence: 428 Broadway, Floor 3, Room 9; Naturalized: SF Sup. [Superior Court?], July 31, 1890; Date of Registration: June 3, 1896; Publication Title: Voter Register, 7th Precinct, 45th Assembly District, San Francisco County, 1896 [Ancestry.com]

1899 RESIDENCE • San Francisco, California, USA

Lauenstein John, porter [resides with?] James W. Boyce; Publication Title: San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1899 [Ancestry.com]

1900 CENSUS • Presumably San Francisco but have not yet found the census record for John Lauenstein despite a variety of clever search techniques.  If I could find this record it might reveal the mysterious Mrs. Virginia Lauenstein.

1903 RESIDENCE • San Francisco, California, USA

Lauenstein John, bartender, r. 423 Sutter; Publication Title: San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1903 [Ancestry.com]

Before 1906 he was married to a woman named Virginia [maiden name unknown] per the gravestone. Unfortunately, there do not appear to be marriage records for San Francisco County available prior to the 1906 earthquake.  The Western States Marriage Index  at Ancestry.com shows a divorce occurring in Boise, Idaho between a John Lowenstein and wife, Annie.  The index refers to a marriage occurring in San Francisco on 10 Jun 1890.  The date of the divorce is not given.  It seems odd that Annie or John would have gone all the way to Boise to get a divorce.  The original divorce record in Ada County, Idaho may reveal more but the transcript in the Western States Marriage Index has several blanks in the form.

1906- OBITUARY • San Francisco, California, USA

The San Francisco Call, Saturday, January 13, 1906, page 13.

See transcript above in italics.

!BURIAL: January 14, 1906 per obituary.

Name: John Lauenstein

Cemetery: Olivet Memorial Park

Burial or Cremation Place: Colma, San Mateo County, California, USA

Website: http://www.findagrave.com/  

Find A Grave Memorial# 135257484

Marker Transcription: JOHN, BELOVED HUSBAND OF VIRGINIA LAUENSTEIN, AGE 46 YEARS, S.F. AERIE, No. 5 F.O.E.

!PROBATE: A reasonably exhaustive search has not revealed a probate record for John Lauenstein.

Lake Tahoe and Grandpa George 1911-1981

Grandpa George Kelly, Nick Cimino & Uncle Jack Kelly on the beach at Lake Tahoe.

I have had the great good fortune to spend lots of time at Lake Tahoe over the years.  My grandparents, George and Elaine Kelly moved to South Lake Tahoe in the mid 1960s.  The first house I remember was on Nez Perce Drive.  Grandpa George was a Deputy Registrar and Inspector for the State Contractors Licensing Board before he retired. As I recall he found several of the houses that he owned through his travels as a state inspector.  He was especially fond of uncompleted projects that he could finish as he came from a family of carpenters and was a highly skilled carpenter and contractor himself.

The Cimino Family in the driveway at Gram Elaine and Grandpa George's house at South Lake Tahoe, February 1968. Left to right: Vicky, Nick, Jill, Vince, Faran and Dick Cimino.

Gram Elaine and Grandpa George were members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the South Lake Tahoe Yacht Club. They were also former owners of Valhalla before it was sold to the state. In 1989 during a visit to Gram Elaine and Grandpa George at Lake Tahoe, I had an opportunity to sit with Grandpa George and make a tape recorded oral history of his life. He told me many fascinating stories and he had a keen memory for details. This history of his life is based on that tape recording. 

George Kelly was born in Tacoma, WA on the 21st of July 1911. That was the year that Irving Berlin composed Alexander's Ragtime Band. William Howard Taft was President of the United States. Ty Cobb was the biggest name in baseball. It was the first year of the Indianapolis 500 and the first cross country airplane flight was made in a Burgess-Wright biplane from N.Y. to Pasadena, CA in the incredible time of 82 hours and 4 minutes.  A lot happened in George Kelly's 80 years of living. 

George Kelly in the sailor suit about 1918 with his brothers.

George was the youngest child of 10. His father was John Caesar Kelly, born in the Isle of Man and his mother was Annie Marie White born in Bedford, England. George's family moved to Selah, WA, the home of Tree Top apple juice. His dad was a building contractor who constructed big fruit warehouses and other large construction projects. His mother was a housewife who had a full time job caring for their large family. George attended grammar school in Selah for 8 years. He told me that he used to catch a ride on the apple trucks on the way home from school. 

George Kelly about 1929.

In 1925 the Kelly family moved to San Francisco. George used to take the streetcar from his home in the Parkside District to Lick High School in the Potrero district. He graduated from high school in 1929 on the eve of the great depression. He was able to find work during prohibition for Consumers Yeast Company, delivering yeast in a small panel truck. He would deliver about 300 pounds of yeast to a garage in the Marina District. He would meet a guy there who would then take George's panel truck and make George wait for him to come back. He had a pretty good idea that they were bootleggers. 

George held a variety of jobs during the depression years. He was an apprentice carpenter for about 6 months. Then he went to San Jose state college but he never graduated. He had to go to work. He worked at Sears Roebuck as a shipping clerk. After he was married to Elaine Kelly in 1937 he worked for Union Oil Company as a maintenance man and a tanker truck driver. During the war he was a fireman in Sacramento. 

My mother recounted a story to me in September 2001 about her memories of the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The family was concerned that George would have to enter military service. Jill and Jack were sitting in the back of the car when the announcement came on the radio. The lived on Cavanaugh Way at the time. George and Elaine were talking about whether George would have to go. Jill's parents told her that George would not have to go to war because he was already in uniform as a fireman. Jill decided that she wanted a uniform too so she asked Santa Claus to bring her one. When she opened the package that she thought was her uniform she found a sweater. She was so disappointed that she stopped believing in Santa Claus!

George later went to work for the Contractor's State License Board as an inspector and retired from the Board in South Lake Tahoe as a deputy registrar. George was a home builder. He came by it honestly enough since his dad and his brothers were carpenters and contractors. He built several of his own homes in Sacramento and Lake Tahoe and he was always willing to help others build their homes. On October 24, 1937 he married Elaine Coffman Mayne in Reno. He had an instant family of two daughters, Joan age 6 and Jill, who was 2 years old at the time. Three years later Elaine and George had a son, Jack who was born on February 18, 1940. 

George and Elaine Kelly at their 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration in South Lake Tahoe.

In 1987 George and Elaine celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at South Lake Tahoe. His first love was Elaine and his second love was Lake Tahoe. He had a boat that was a symbol of these two loves. He named it the Elaine B. George and Elaine's first venture at the lake was Kelly's Rainbow Cabin's at King's Beach. They were living in Sacramento at the time when a big snow storm left a heavy load on the roof of the cabins. George was advised to shovel the snow off the roof, by one of his neighbors at King's Beach. He apparently went golfing instead and the roof caved in. 

Kelly's Rainbow Cabins at Kings Beach, Lake Tahoe, California.
The pen and ink drawing was done by Jim Goudge, a California artist who often stayed at the cabins.

His grandchildren have special memories of the times at Valhalla. Trips on the boat to Emerald Bay and swimming in the freezing waters of Lake Tahoe. He was president of the Lake Tahoe Country Club. His home was adorned with his many golf trophies that attested to his skill on the golf course. We held his memorial service in the club house at a golf course in Lake Tahoe which was particularly appropriate considering his love of golf. He was a husband, a father, a golfer, a boater and a dog lover but not necessarily in that order. One friend described him as having a dry sense of humor. He loved to tell jokes and would do most anything to get a laugh. He knew how to have a good time and his wife and daughters said he was an excellent dancer. 

He was loved by his friends and family and he is missed to this day. His niece gave him a plaque to hang on his wall in recognition of his love of golf. The Plaque reads: "When the Great Scorer puts His mark by your name, he will not ask whether you won or lost, but how you played the game". George Kelly, you played the game well!

Voting Registers Help to Fill Gaps Between Censuses

One of the new genealogy record collections on Ancestry.com is California Voter Registrations, 1900-1968.  Since my family history includes California, this is an exciting new database for me to explore.   I did a quick search to see if my mom, Jill Cimino would show up in the database.  I was disappointed that I could not find her.

I read the background information about the Voter Registers and learned why I could not find Mom.  The records for Sacramento County range from 1900 to 1944.  My mother did not reach voting age until 1956.  It appears that my grandparents would be better subjects for investigation given these dates.  I then searched Elaine Kelly in Sacramento County.  I immediately found previews of three results that matched in 1940, 1942 and 1944.  The actual register page for 1940 is below:

You can see here that Elaine Kelly is listed at the same address as her husband, George W. Kelly.  They apparently had differing political views since Grandma was a Democrat and Grandpa was a Republican.  This listing of both husband and wife show how the Voting Registers are similar to a census record because all the registered voters in the household will be listed.  

One of the great new features on Ancestry.com is the ability to open up a filmstrip view of the record set.  Most of the digital images that have been collected at Ancestry.com have originated from microfilm.  The ability to scroll back and forth with the film strip view speeds up the process when you need to move around in the microfilm.  In this case I wanted to page back to the beginning of the electoral precinct.  The header shows the information that you can get from these voting registers including: Name, Occupation, Address and Political Affiliation.  Here is the first page of the precinct which shows the precinct number and the Assembly District at the top of the page and the filmstrip view is shown at the bottom of the page.

To show an example of a father and son listed together in a household, I searched for the surname Fairbanks in Sonoma County.  I found Hiram Talbert Fairbanks, my 3rd great grand uncle listed in Petaluma Township.   The image below shows that his son, Dolphes Brice Fairbanks was listed.  These earlier registers give the full names, ages and post office address but not the street address.  A scan of the other names in the precinct reveals that there were several relatives on the list.  The Hill and the Higbee families were related to H.T. Fairbanks.  

One thing you might notice is that there are no women on this page.  Women got the right to vote in California in 1911 so they start appearing in these registers in 1912.  

When you look at the image you will see that the registers from 1900 to 1912 are grouped together.

The only way to figure out the exact year is to page back in the register  and look for the date.  The filmstrip view makes it easier to see the title page as you are scrolling through the images.  Each of the precincts was listed alphabetically in this case.  Here is the title page which shows that this register was dated 1902:

I hope you have enjoyed this little primer in the use of the California Voter Register collection.  Please contact me if you have any questions about your family history.

City Directories Contain Pieces of Your Ancestor Puzzle

Twenty five years of experience has taught me many lessons when looking at family history records.  City directories are an example of a genealogical record that requires meticulous analysis.  On the surface, a city directory provides somewhat limited information about a family. City directory listings usually give the name, address and occupation of an individual.  Upon closer examination, you will see much more information in City Directories than you might expect.

For example, let’s use city directories to help piece together the puzzle of two of my ancestors.  The oral history passed down to me by my grandmother and grand aunt was that their mother, Mae Blanche Moss 1882-1963 and her mother Anne B. Lanstein Moss 1860-1922 lived in Sacramento in the 1890s.  There is a women named Annie that is listed in the Sacramento City Directory in the 1890s.  This could be my ancestor but I have not yet found any other records that would definitively corroborate that it is her.  If I could have found Annie and Mae residing at the same address that would have been more definitive but alas it is not to be at least for now.  I keep looking for more evidence.

Annie Moss in 1895 Sacramento City Directory

Mrs. Annie B. Moss in 1896 Sacramento City Directory

Mrs. Annie Moss in 1898 Sacramento City Directory

My grandmother and her sister also told me that Annie and Mae were living in San Francisco together during the 1906 Earthquake.  Mae had been working for Mr. C.L. Goetting in a fancy fruit and vegetable market as a cashier.  When the earthquake struck they had to evacuate their lodging near the current site of the Fairmount hotel  on Mason and California Street.  Mae was able to get a gentleman to help her carry her trunk up California Street.  Mother and daughter made their way to Golden Gate Park.  Eventually they were rescued by Mae’s fiancé, Ernest Coffman and taken to live with his aunt, Viola Coffman Hughes in Oakland.

 One way to verify that claim is to look her up in the City Directories of San Francisco.  In the 1900 San Francisco City Directory we find:

                Moss, Anne widow, r. 7 Liberty

Moss, Mary A. Miss, dressmaker, r. 7 Liberty

This seems very promising!  It is always wise however to continue to scan the listings for the surname to see if there are any others listed at the same address.  If we look a little closer we see:

Moss, William P., bookkeeper, r. 7 Liberty

Anne Moss & Mary Moss at 7 Liberty Street in 1900 San Francisco City Directory

Since Mary A. Moss is listed as a “Miss” it is clear that she is an unmarried woman.   It is very common to see widows enumerated in City Directories with their children in the same household.  We do not know for sure but we can theorize that Mary A. and William P. Moss are the children of the widow, Ann Moss. 

At first I thought these might be my people.  My great grandmother, Mae Blanche Moss was always a good seamstress but she worked as a cashier for most of her working life.  Is it possible that she tried her hand at dressmaking before settling in as a cashier?  Her name was Mae not Mary.  Her middle initial was “B” not “A”.  But it was awfully close to our family story.  Did Grandma Mae have a brother?  Why didn’t my grandmother and her sister mention him?  [SOURCE: 1900 Crocker-Langley Directory of San Francisco, page 1254 accessed on Ancestry.com. ]

I conducted an exhaustive search of the 1900 census to try to find this family.  I found the enumeration district of the census that includes the address 7 Liberty.  I searched all of the names on Liberty Street.  I found a listing for 9 Liberty Street but nothing for 7 Liberty.

The 1901 and 1902 directories of San Francisco are not available at Ancestry.com. 

In the 1903 Crocker-Langley Directory of San Francisco we find Miss Moss, the dressmaker is May not Mary.  That seems even more promising!

Moss, May A. Miss, dressmkg. 139 Post, r. 459 Guerrero

But her family is listed differently:

                Moss, Bridget, widow. r . 459 Guerrero

                Moss, Patrick W. r. 459 Guerrero

In the 1904 City Directory we can’t find Mary/May but we do find the following listings:

                Moss, Bridget widow, r 459 Guerrero

William P, tilesetter, r 459 Guerrero

Comparing 1900 with 1903 and 1904 directory listings we see variations in the names.  The dressmaker is seen in 1900 as Mary A. and in 1903 she is May A.  The widow Moss is first listed as Ann but later listed as Bridget.  The first listing for the presumed son is William P., the second listing is Patrick W. and the third listing is William P.

We found Bridget and William P. in the 1910 census with a new addition to the family.  William was again working as a tile setter which helps to confirm that this is indeed the same family.  The census listing follows:

1910 United States Federal Census about William P Moss

Name:  William P Moss

Age in 1910:        31

Birth Year:           abt 1879

Birthplace:          California

Home in 1910:   192 Douglas Street, San Francisco Assembly District 34, San Francisco, California

Race:     White

Gender:               Male

Relation to Head of House:          Son

Marital Status:   Single

Father's Birthplace:         Ireland

Mother's name:               Bridget A Moss

Mother's Birthplace:       Ireland

Household Members:   

Name    Age   Relation

Bridget A Moss 60  Head

William P Moss  31  Son

Margaret Moss 4  Granddaughter

Bridget is shown with a middle initial “A” which helps to tie the family together.  Most likely her full name was Bridget Anne Moss.  It is very common to see first names and middle names used interchangeably in genealogy records.

The census does show that William P. was indeed her son.  His full name is most likely, William Patrick Moss as we have seen with the names William and Patrick used interchangeably in the records.

However now that we know that Bridget Ann Moss was born in Ireland and that she had a son, William Patrick Moss born 1879 in California, it appears fairly certain that this is not my family.  Annie Lanstein Moss and her daughter, Mae Blanche Moss came to California in 1890.  There is nothing in our oral tradition about a brother nor is there anything about Irish heritage on the Moss line.  There is enough variation in the names to make it difficult to make these puzzles pieces fit together properly.

This analysis shows that genealogical research can be very painstaking work.  Sometimes you spend a lot of time analyzing records that don’t belong to your ancestors.  This can be very frustrating to those who prefer instant results.  However, this meticulous analysis is required to insure that we thoroughly prove that a record belongs to a particular ancestor.

So why are Mae Moss and her mother, Annie not showing up in the San Francisco City directory prior to the 1906 earthquake?   The story about Mr. Goetting seems to fit as there are plenty of records that show that he and his fruit and vegetable market did actually reside in the California Market.   Is it possible that Mae had another name?  She married Ernest Coffman in Oakland on the 5^th of February 1907 and the marriage record lists her as Mae Moss, resident of San Francisco.  Perhaps she had only recently arrived in San Francisco.   The mystery remains unsolved after 25 years of diligent effort.  Stay tuned for more episodes of this story.

California Market was a grand shopping market with meats, produce and groceries for the citizens of San Franciso. California Market covered an entire city block from Pine to California, between Montgomery and Kearny. Omey and Goetting offered domestic and tropical fruits and produce from Stalls 28, 29, 30, 67, 68, and 69 according to an advertisement appearing in the Council Cook Book dated January 1, 1909 and published by the San Francisco Section of the National Council of Jewish Women. This book was found on Google Books Extracted 3 Nov 2014