by Juliana Smith
It was taunting me, mocking me even. It was that darned spreadsheet I posted in conjunction with last week's article. Every time I looked at all those blanks, I was frustrated. Finally one night after the dishes were done and my daughter was tucked in bed, I decided to answer the challenge.
James Kelly in particular was haunting me. We have a significant number of records for him, but prior to 1880 I've been unable to identify him in the census. I know of a daughter, Anna Maria Josepha, born about 1837 (through her burial and death record), and through her obituary I know that her mother's name was Margaret. There are family stories about a son who died in the Civil War but so far I have nothing to substantiate that. There is another James Kelly in the family plot who was either buried or moved to the plot in 1865, so it's possible that this is the Civil War veteran. (There were four family members who were interred in the plot on the same date, including one who died in 1852, so I am working on the assumption that at least some, if not all of them, were moved from another plot and didn't die at the same time from an epidemic or some kind of accident.)
The thing is, for as much time as I've spent going through censuses, I still don't have them. I decided to follow up on some of the close matches to either make a connection or rule them out. Here are some of the methods I employed in trying to find a match.
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