Who was this woman, and with that name, what was her relationship to "my" Masonia Scott?
My Masonia Scott had been born in Georgia about 1863 to Solomon and Cherry Scott; had married, had children with and then somehow separated from Henry Worthen; and then moved across the country, first to Washington State and then to Portland, Oregon.
I first came across this new Masonia Scott in the 1920 Census, when she was living with her sister Ruth, her parents James and Sarah Scott, and James Hunter, probably her mother's brother.
She's 7 years old, born about 1913 in Georgia. So was her father, about 1875, putting him in the same state and roughly in the same generation as both "my" Masonia Scott (born about 1863) and her sister, my 2x Great-Grandmother Scoatney Scott (born about 1861). This was enough to send me back to the 1880 Federal Census for my Georgia Scotts, but there was no James, only a Solomon, born about 1872.
Okay, so what else could I find out about this younger Masonia that might help me figure out a connection. Census records? No luck. By 1930, this Masonia's father is out of the picture and her mother has remarried, this time to Joseph Dickerson. But Masonia and her sister Ruth both keep the Scott surname.
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| 1930 Census, Portland. OR |
Other possibilities? Marriage records, death records, Social Security applications - all might include her father's name. In 1943, this Masonia marries Earnest Rudolph. Interestingly, it gives her middle name as Cherry!
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| Snippet of Clark County, WA Marriage License Application, Masonia Clark to Earnest Rudolph, 1943. |
So not only does she carry the name of my 2x Great-Grandaunt (Masonia), she also carries the name of my 2x-Great-Grandaunt's mother (Cherry). Not only that, my 2x Great-Grandaunt Masonia had named her own daughter Cherrye, after her mother! So this new Masonia Cherry Scott, she has to be family!
And, tantalizingly, her father's name as listed on this marriage certificate as none other than Solomon Scott. This, of course, is the name of "my" Masonia's father. So, are James Scott - her father in the 1920 Census - and the Solomon Scott on this marriage record the same person? And if so, is this the same person as the Solomon Scott from the 1880 Census? Is her father named after his father, part of a tradition of passing along names?
I kept searching to see what else I could find. In 1964, Masonia married again, this time to Arthur Lee Pierce. Her father's name: J.S. Scott. James Solomon Scott, perhaps?
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| Record of Marriage, Masonia Scott Rudolph to Arthur Lee Pierce, Oregon State Board of Health, 1964. |
I searched for any marriage records for her sister Ruth for corroborating or conflicting information, but though I found one, I struck out - it didn't ask for the names of her parents.
I turned to death records next. Masonia and her sister passed away too recently for me to be able to order their death certificates online, but I was able to find obituaries. However, Masonia's only said that she had been born a Scott, and Ruth's didn't list parents. What it did list, though, were the names of her two sons: James and Scott. Interesting... And the Oregon Death Index confirmed that Masonia's middle name was Cherry, the given name of my 3x Great-Grandmother.
What about Social Security records? When they applied for Social Security Numbers, both Masonia and Ruth would have needed to list the names of their parents. I lucked out, though of course there's always a twist; Ruth's application lists her father as James Scott, which matches up with the original 1920 Census Record.
Masonia's lists her father as Joseph James Scott, combining the name of her stepfather with her birth father.
Nevertheless, I now had a series of records that said Masonia was the daughter of either a James, a Solomon or a J.S. Scott, and that she and he were both from Georgia.
So, how could I get closer to a solution? How could I figure out exactly what the relationship was between this Masonia Scott and my 2x Great-Grandmother of the same name? How could I prove or disprove my working hypothesis, that these two women were aunt and niece?
Stay tuned for Part 2, when I pick up the story!
*In my everyday life, I would just call her my 3x Great Aunt b/c I don't call the siblings of my grandparents grandaunts or granduncles, but rather great aunts and great uncles. However, in writing I'll follow genealogical conventions here in case you're consulting a relationship chart.
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