Adventures in Genealogy: Connecting the Dots

"Exhaustive research" sounds... exhausting! However, a recent case proved to me that such work is not useless busy work, but rather reveals the truth of people's lives. Reasonably exhaustive research is the first element of the Genealogical Proof Standard. My experience trying to answer the question "who was Flora Bell Cox's husband?" led me to find who I thought was the right man, but turned out to be two Ward Farrars! That there were two men only became clear after some exhaustive research on every member of the Ward/Wardie Farrar FAN club -- the FAN club being research of Family, Associates and Neighbors. 

The results of this research can be seen on the SKCGS Black-Heritage-Franklin Ancestry.com tree [1].  Flora Bell Cox is the niece of Benjamin Gaston, one of the Black miners I've been researching. Flora married Wardie shortly before the US entered World War I, and Wardie served in the "Pioneer Infantry" created with White officers and "colored" soldiers. A book has been written about the 812th, called History of 812th Pioneer Infantry; WorldCat shows only one copy, held by Chicago History Museum [2]. 

Roster of Company "G", 812th Pioneer Infantry; 30 Nov, 1918

I would not have been able to find out who Wardie really was without using both Ancestry.com and the FamilySearch Family Tree. I've mentioned this to various people who tell me that this strategy is too much work, too advanced, or simply not worth their time. But I have found it saves both time and work, and always pays off to give me success, which is finding the records necessary to let me know who the people are that I'm researching. 

That does not mean that I'm always right as I make this journey! In fact, I took a significant detour this time. When I ran out of hints and search results on Ancestry, I added what I knew about Flora into FSFT. Someone previously  done a bit of research and had a woman named Flora Bell Farrer as a daughter of Sandy Cox. Since "my" Flora was the daughter of Alexander Cox and Benjamin Gaston's sister Alice Gaston, this was a good clue, but more searching didn't yield much on either site until I looked on Newspapers.com, searching for Cox, Farrar. Here is what I found, sadly:

Sorry this image is so dark and blurry -- neither Google Photos nor MyHeritage could lighten or sharpen it. Here's my transcription:

Mrs. Wardie Farrar, colored, died at her home near Coles mill last Sunday and the remains were buried in Evergreen cemetery on Tuesday. She had been ill but a short time with pneumonia, and her husband is critically ill with the same affliction. She was a daughter of Sandy Cox, a well known colored citizen of this city.

 - 26 March 1920, Friday, page 2, column 3, Chester Herald-Tribune, Chester, Illinois via newspapers.com

Sad that she died so young. On the other hand, I now had her husband's name, and could search for him, which is how I found a news article about how Randolph County was ready for the draft, and had selected the best of the recruits: 

Headline: DRAFT PROGRESSING: A Hundred and Fifty-Six Men Finally Passed Upon as a Part of County's Quota -- Thirty Certified From Second Call [3]

This article gives a strong indication that Wardie served in WWI, and provided a middle initial. Now it was time to search for what I knew and guessed at FamilySearch. I usually do this in the Search Records section for an unconnected person, but in this case, I knew that Wardie and Flora were married at the time of her death, so I added him as a spouse in the Family Tree. I find it much more effective to search right from a person's profile, at least at first. Here is Flora: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GDP3-PYL. And Wardie: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G6M3-H82. 

This is where things got interesting! FamilySearch found his month-by-month military rosters, and then found parents in a 1900 census! Everything seemed to fit. I kept adding records for him, and then stopped finding any more. Hopping over to Ancestry, adding the newly-found parents did not seem to help. So I began researching each of his parents and siblings. Fortunately, I found quite a few records making me feel more and more confident about this family. Except, nobody seemed to show up in Chester IL! So I continued to flog FamilySearch for *every* record for each person. 

One of the records found for Wardie was his burial on Find A Grave. This fits very well with his military service. I didn't find anything conflicting while searching for Wardie himself, but .....

Here was the wrench in the works. One last search on Ward's mother Savannah Venable, I saw her named in the death record of her son Ward; in fact, she was the informant. The only problem: this Ward died in 1945. Our Wardie died in 1938! "My" Wardie, the WWI soldier, was not the son in that death record, and not the son of Boyd and Savannah.

My first task was to clean up my mess, remove the incorrect records from Ward the son of Boyd and Savannah Venable Farrar, detach the incorrect Ward from Flora Cox, and then hop over to Ancestry and remove the mistakes there too. Once Ward and his family's records were correct, I could leave them behind. They may yet connect to the Farrars who came from Missouri to Chester, Illinois, so the work is not wasted. For the curious, click to see the tree. 

Next, Wardie could be researched again on a firmer footing, and sure enough, Ancestry turned up a death certificate, which gave his parents' names, and that he was married. Hmmm. Flora had died almost 20 years before, which means he married again. Also, Ancestry found his WWI Draft registration, which yielded his birth date and place: 

Wardie's WWI Draft Registration, part

Google helped figure out that  Longtown is in Union Township, Perry County, Missouri. Ancestry found Ward in St. Louis with a woman named Mary/ Mary J. and with *that* information, FamilySearch found the marriage record:

Marriage records of St. Louis and St. Louis Co., 1806-1965; License no. 303533-311212 v. 112-113 1927-1928 [4]

It's a bit faint, but along with the date and place of the marriage is the bride's full name: Mary Jane Jones. And that led, believe it or not, to her parents' names through a "U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007" record on Ancestry. And her county and date of birth in Arkansas, and her date of death. And a match with a Jones researcher who has Mary Jane in their tree as well. I'm happy to say that this one public tree has lead to more records and an entire family for Mary Jane. I'm still hoping to find out more about Wardie to see if he is related to Flora Bell Cox's brother, who also married a Farrar!

Sorry if your head is spinning with all the hopping back and forth! Using separate tabs in the browser makes it not very complicated in practice. Have I convinced you that this work is worth trying? 

Valorie Cowan Zimmerman

1. Join us at https://skcgs.groups.io/g/Black-Heritage-Franklin

2. 812th Pioneer Infantry of the United States Army in WorldCat: https://www.worldcat.org/title/history-of-812th-pioneer-infantry/oclc/270799390

3. 30 August 1917, page 1, column 1, Chester Herald-Tribune, Chester, Illinois via newspapers.com

4. "Missouri, County Marriage, Naturalization, and Court Records, 1800-1991," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-898M-Y8PF?cc=2060668&wc=Z9SX-DP8%3A352318101%2C1583595102 : 29 November 2021), St. Louis > Marriage licenses 1927-1928 no 303533-311212 > image 162 of 672; Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City.