Finding Gertie

She died young--just 33, I found out later--and left 7 children for Bill to raise without her.  One of those children was my grandfather.  But now even my grandfather and his generation were also gone.  All my mother could tell me was that her grandmother’s maiden name was Endicott and she died of double pneumonia.  For some reason, finding her became an emotional quest for me.  I was determined that she would not be forgotten.

But I live thousands of miles from where she lived, so I had to start my search online.  Could I really find her that way?  I was just starting out in family history research, but I had to try.

I easily found the family in Champaign, IL in the 1920 & 1930 US Federal Censuses but she was not listed.  So that told me she died prior to 1920.  But at that time I could not find the family on any earlier Censuses.  

I also could not find the related marriage or death records at first. Part of the problem is that her husband’s name is very common—William Bailey.  On top of that, Illinois official records are a pain to research online.  They are in bits and pieces in different data bases—if they are online at all.

But then I located the historical archives website for the county where my grandfather was born.  There I found the following index entry for a newspaper obituary.

Title: OBITUARY FOR SARAH GERTRUDE (NEE ENDICOTT) BAILEY

Comments: PRINTED IN THE APRIL 3, 1917, CHAMPAIGN DAILY NEWS (PAGE 6)

Name(s): BAILEY, SARAH GERTRUDE       ENDICOTT, SARAH GERTRUDE

I emailed my mother and she confirmed--this is the obituary for her grandmother!  I was so excited!  The same site also had this entry. 

Title: MARRIAGE LICENSE 2552 (1903)

Comments: LICENSE ISSUED JULY 2, 1903

Name(s): BAILEY, GERTRUDE    BAILEY, WILLIAM C.    ENDICOTT, GERTRUDE

This was a great start!  At least I had her full name now!  But could I find her birth date or her parents?  I ordered copies of the marriage license and obituary from the website.

Oddly enough, Bill is listed simply as “the widower” and nowhere named, but the children’s names were enough to identify this as Gertie’s obituary.  Now I had her father’s initials and her brothers’ names.    

From the marriage license (which is too poor quality to post here), I got full names of both sets of parents (including maiden names), and the 2 witnesses—which were also family.  The license listed Gertie as 20 years old when she was married.

[I should mention here that this site has been a gold mine for me!  If you have research to do on ancestors that lived in Champaign County, IL, this is where to go: http://ccha.tufl.org/ccha/cchadb.htm  There is a form for requesting documents, and there are fees involved, but I can often find out important information just from the online index (like I posted above).  The index lists business names as well as individual names.]

I soon located a surname site for Endicotts as well as their Yahoo! group.  http://www.endecott-endicott.com/   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Endicott_Gen/   
As I worked my way through the family information, I kept running across the name of a book.  The author, Mabel McFatridge McCloskey had compiled years of research on Endecotts and Endicotts, and I was becoming more and more curious as to whether any relatives of mine were in her book.  It was out of print, but I found one online and purchased it.

Meanwhile, my research was leading me in circles.  It seemed that Gertie had an interesting little twist in her lineage.  Both sides of her tree were tracing Endicott lineage.  It appeared that her parents were first cousins! 

To confirm this, I made a post on the Endicott Yahoo! group site asking if anyone else had come across this.  Yes, I was told, it is true.  And that response also confirmed that my great-grandmother was an 8^th generation descendant of Governor John Endecott of the Massachusetts Bay Colony! 

By the time the book arrived, I already had the facts, but it was a treat to see my great-grandparents, as well as my grandfather and his siblings listed in print!

So what I thought was going to be my hardest branch to research, turned out to be the easiest since Mabel and others had already done it for me.  Unfortunately, Gertie’s husband’s side is my REAL brick wall.  I’ll tell you about Bill’s family soon!

It is true that one never knows what family research can lead to.  With finding a marriage of first cousins just 4 generations before me, anyone that knows me now has an explanation for any of my little quirks!