My Grandma Ridnour (Delphia) was very good about writing the names of people on the backs of her photographs. If she hadn't I wouldn't be able to identify most her family pictures I now possess. But I'm not sure she was always accurate. Case in point is this picture, which gave me a laugh when I read on the back: "Aunt Sarah & 'Old Crab' Conally".
First I needed to figure out whether Aunt Sarah was a Means or a Lippincott. There was a great-aunt Sarah Means, but she died at age two. There was also a Sarah Catherine Means who would have been Grandma Delphia's aunt (sister to her father, George) but she died at age 14. So this had to be Aunt Sarah Anne (sister to her mother, Matilda) Lippincott, daughter of David Lippincott and Catherine Deardorff born May 14, 1856 (died March 6, 1935 in Niangua, Missouri).
Aunt Sarah was married first to Caleb C. Connally. I don't know when nor where nor what happened to him, but they must have married when she was only fifteen or sixteen because next I find her married to Nathan C. Bozarth, September 19, 1873 (Nathan Bozarth and Mrs. Sarah A. Connally) in Afton (Union Co.), Iowa. She would have been 17 years old.
Aunt Sarah and Nathan C. Bozarth who was born in Taney County, MO December 2, 1850 (died March 5, 1897 in Niangua, MO), had 10 children, the first, Bert, born a year after their marriage. The first five were born in Union County, Iowa. The last five were born in Webster County Missouri with the exception of a daughter, Dora, born in St. Joseph, Buchanan Co., Missouri in 1884.
Taney County, MO is in the southern part of the state - east of Branson. Webster Co, MO is in southwest MO, east of Springfield. How did the two meet? Why was Bozarth in Union Co. Iowa? Or was Aunt Sarah in southern Missouri? She did have a brother, Thomas, who I believe lived in Missouri, but I don't know what part. Perhaps they met while she was visiting her brother? Or did Sarah and Nathan have a mutual friend who introduced them? Did Bozarth come to Iowa in search of work?
I'm also going to keep searching for what happened to Caleb Connally, Aunt Sarah's first husband. Did they divorce? Or did he die?
In the meantime, I can't believe this picture of "Aunt Sarah and 'Old Crab' Conally" is correct. Aunt Sarah would have to have been only 16 in the photo and she looks much older than that. The name 'Conally' is written in a different color ink than the 'Aunt Sarah and Old Crab'. I think 'Conally' was added later. Perhaps Grandma mistakenly wrote down Aunt Sarah's first married name and this is really 'Old Crab Bozarth'? How else to explain the older appearance of these two?
I love family history and the hours of detective work it provides.
When we lived in Eagleville, Mo., in the early 50's, there was a Lippincott girl in my classroom. That is an unusual name, and Eagleville is close to the Iowa line, so I wonder if there is a family connection there.
ReplyDeleteDonna - I think my Grandmother's Uncle Thomas Lippincott lived somewhere in northern Missouri, I just don't know where. On the 1870 census he was living in Clarke County, Iowa which is about straight north of Eagleville,so it is possible there's a family connection.
ReplyDeleteI know he was born in 1852 and there is information for him on the "My Trees" genealogy websites which says it was updated in August 2012. But you have to have a membership in order to view it. So far I have resisted buying a membership, but one of these days I'll probably do so. I know I would get a lot of enjoyment out of something like Ancestry.com.