New blog & an adoption mystery

I am starting this blog to serve as a kind of personal research log for my genealogy research. I am also hoping that in posting the research I am working on, I will be able to update family members on my research progress, make new contacts researching the same families, and possibly get some tips from people more experienced than I. 

I will start with the family I am most interested in currently - D.W. & Bertha Reed, my great great grandparents. They were once my least researched family. No relatives that I knew seemed to have much of any concrete information about them. I knew David William Reed was a doctor and tent preacher, his wife's name was Bertha Melvina Snyder, and they had 6 children: Veva, Agnes, Willa Marie, D.W. Jr., Harvey, and Ava (my great grandmother). My grandfather and his sister remembered that David Reed died in the 20's, and Bertha and her children (other than Ava) moved to Phoenix, Arizona shortly after - supposedly because most of the family had tuberculosis and the hot, dry air would help the condition.

David & Bertha Reed

With that initial information, I have been able to uncover a wealth of information about this family. I may blog further about D.W. & Bertha and their family later, but I want to focus in on my current research on Bertha's parents.

Bertha's birth has been a mystery. In the 1900 Census of Mercer, Mercer County, Missouri¹, Bertha is listed as being 24 years of age, born October 1875 in Ohio, her father born in Ohio, and mother with unknown birthplace. In the 1910 Census of St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri², Bertha is listed as being 35 years of age, born in Iowa, parents both born in the U.S. In the 1920 Census of Clearfield (Grand Township), Taylor County, Iowa³, Bertha is listed as being 44 years of age, born in Iowa, parents both born in the U.S. In the 1930 Census of Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa⁴, she is 53 years of age, born in Kentucky, with both parents born in Kentucky. So was she born October 1875 or 1874 or 1876? Was she born in Ohio, Iowa or Kentucky? 

The 1880 Census would add more clues. In the 1880 census, she is found in Marion Township, Mercer County, Missouri⁵, 5 years old, with parents James and Sarah J. Snyder. She is listed as being born in Iowa with father born in Kentucky and mother born in Indiana. I thought the mystery may end there - here are her parents James and Sarah J. Snyder. But the 1925 Iowa State Census turned up even more mystery. This census lists parents names. In the 1925 Iowa State Census of Clearfield, Taylor County, Iowa⁶, Bertha is listed as 49 years old, born in Iowa, and her parents were George Persons born in Pennsylvania and Martha Ellsworth born in Ohio.

Were Bertha's parents James & Sarah J. Snyder or George Persons and Martha Ellsworth? A rootsweb member tree⁷ gives another clue, referencing James M. Snyder, it says "History of the Brown Family by Dora Brown says he and Sarah had no children. They adoped Birdie M. Snyder, daughter of George Persons. She was born 1 Oct 1874. Her mother was killed when thrown from a wagon when Birdie was an infant." James Maxcell Snyder's obituary⁸ confirms this, "Maxcell Snyder was born in Kentucky in 1840, and died at the home of his adopted daughter, Mrs. D.W. Reed".

My research is currently focused on George Persons and Martha Ellsworth, Bertha's birth parents. Who were they? What circumstances surrounded Martha's death? Why was Bertha given for adoption? Did the Persons family know the Snyder family? What happened to George Persons? Did Bertha know him? For now, this blog will focus on answering those questions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.	1900 U.S. Census, Mercer County, Missouri, population schedule, Marion Township, Enumeration District 116, p. 2A, dwelling 35, family 35, Birdie Reed, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Dec 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 874.
2.	1910 U.S. Census, Buchanan County, Missouri, population schedule, Washington Township, Enumeration District 83, p. 6B, dwelling 131, family 134, Bertha M. Reed, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Dec 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 772.
3.	1920 U.S. Census, Taylor County, Iowa, population schedule, Grant Township, Enumeration District 142, p. 5B, dwelling 149, family 149, Bertha Reed, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Dec 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 514.
4.	1930 U.S. Census, Polk County, Iowa, population schedule, Des Moines Township, Enumeration District 79-15, p. 4A, dwelling 66, family 101, Bertha Reed, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Dec 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 674.
5.	1880 U.S. Census, Mercer County, Missouri, population schedule, Marion Township, Enumeration District 221, p. 6, dwelling 52, family 52, Burdie M. Snyder, digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Dec 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 703.
6.	1925 Iowa Census, Taylor County, Iowa, population schedule, Clearfield Town, Grant Township, p. 66, line 147, Bertha M. Reed, digital image, Ancestry.com(http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Dec 2010); citing State Historical Society of Iowa microfilm collection IA1925, roll 1959 via HeritageQuest.
7.	Rootsweb member tree, (http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:556154&id=I27352144 : accessed 14 Dec 2010); citing A History of the Brown Family by Dora Brown (source not found by author).
8.	"Obituary - Maxcell Snyder", Clearfield Enterprise, 26 Apr 1928, digital image, NewspaperArchive.com (http://www.newspaperarchive.com : accessed 3 Apr 2010), p. 1 col. 4.