June 12, 2015

What happened to Jennie May Peckham Wright?

Born to Robert Watson Peckham and his 1st wife Valeria Peck in Richland, Oswego, NY in 1855, Jennie was raised by her maternal aunt Jenny Peck who married her father Robert after he was widowed in 1858. The family lived in Stillwater, MN and then settled in Chicago. It was there that Jennie married George Edward Wright, a native of Ohio, in 1879. They were married until George’s death in 1901; they had no children. I cannot find Jennie after the 1900 census when her stepmother Jenny was also living with them. Her stepmother died in Chicago in 1912 (though I cannot find her in the 1910 census) … were Jennie and Jenny living togehter? Why can't I find them?

At first I thought perhaps Jennie married Robert P, Smith in 1906, but it was not her. I found Jennie M Wright listed as a beneficiary in the 1919 probate notice for her relative George P. Elliott in New York. Was she alive? Where? I had found a possible death reported in San Francisco (where her cousin Helen lived) for Jennie M Wright born 1855 -- could it be her? If so, why would she be listed in a probate public notice 12 years later? So confusing!

Next I will check with the cemetery where her husband is buried. Puzzling.

June 2, 2015

Look carefully at Findagrave Photos

While researching my Peckham line from Oswego, New York I briefly glanced at a gravestone photo Erasmus Peckham (1832-1879) on findagrave.  He and his wife Nancy Wooster are listed together. However (thank you findagrave contributor H. Harmych) there is a also a photo of a second stone that provided new new information.


At first I had not paged down to see this second photo and when I did, initially the impact of the information contained there did not hit me. When I decided to transcribe information about these 2 previously unknown children, the death year 1865 seemed odd since Erasmus and Nancy married after 1870. Then examining it more closely I saw that Kittie's parents were noted as E.W. and K.B. Peckham while John's were E.W. and N.A. Peckham. Who was K B Peckham and what happened to her?