Finding the Parents of (James) Steven Evans: Part 2

If you’ve read my two last posts, you know that I’ve been trying to nail down the parents of my paternal 2x-great-grandfather, (James) Steven Evans. 

I’ve got two, maybe three, good leads: Daniel Evans and Jennette (surname unknown) or Anna Jane Tolliver(?). That question mark is because, as of where we are in the story, I had only found 1 reference to Anna Jane’s maiden name. Perhaps it was correct, perhaps it wasn’t! Take a minute to read the previous posts – Mystery Monday and Part 1 of my research report – if you’re not caught up. Ready? Away we go!

Now, at this point in the story, I’d found a fair amount on my great-great-grandfather: potential 1880 and 1940 Federal Census records, definite ones for 1910, 1920, and two, actually, for 1930. Plus, his World War I Draft Registration Card (unhelpful for solving this mystery), his application for a Social Security Number, and his Death Certificate. There are still documents I’d like to find for him – where is he in 1900 and 1950?? Is that actually him in 1940? Did he file a Delayed Birth Certificate?? Etc. – but I thought I’d turn my attention to his likely parents. What could I find on them?

Well, in addition to that 1880 Federal Census with a 2-year-old Steve Ivins and parents Danial and Genett, I also found Daniel/Dan in 1870, 1900, and 1910. In 1870, he is listed with Jennette, they are living in Township 16 R of Montgomery County, Alabama, and they are both from Alabama.

In 1900, he is in Dooley, Montgomery County, AL, his wife is Jannette, he is from Alabama, and she is from South Carolina.

The rest of the household continues at the top of the following page, but (James) Steven Evans isn’t among them. If it’s “my” Evans family, though, (James) Steven would’ve been about 22 years old, a perfectly reasonable age to be out of the house and pursuing a living on his own.

In 1910, Daniel is still in Dooley and still from Alabama, but his wife is listed as Annah, and she is from Alabama.

So we’re still switching between Anna/Anna Jane and Jennette. What’s going on? Well, there was a helpful clue in this census. Look again: you’ll see that it says “40” next to both Daniel and Annah's ages and marital statuses. That's in the column for Years Married. (If you scroll back up, you'll also see the number "30" next to their marital status in the 1900 Census, ten years earlier.) So, if they had been married for 40 years in 1910, that would put their marriage year at around 1870. Could I find a record of this?

Yes! Well, sort of. A Daniel Evans marries a Jennette Welch (or Welsh) in Montgomery County, Alabama in 1866. The only challenge is that the record is only available in extracted form online – info has been pulled from it and typed up, but the actual image of the document or documents is not available online. So, I’ll need to write away for it.

Source: FamilySearch.org

But, wait, what about the surname Welch – why didn’t I say that was a problem?

Because, in my hunt to find more information about Anna Jane and Jennette, I had found a death certificate for an Anna Jane Evans, born in South Carolina about 1865, and deceased on 22 January 1941 in Montgomery, Alabama. The informant: one Rev. Steve Evans, listed as her son. AKA my great-great-grandfather (James) Steven Evans, sometimes farmer, sometimes railroad worker (per his Death Certificate), and sometimes traveling minister. And who did he say his mother Anna Jane’s parents were? Nelson Welch and Sarah Tolliver!

Source: FamilySearch.org. Interestingly, the Alabama Department of Public Health returned a Certificate of Failure to Find Record. Lesson: Never give up!

Look at how these names are coming together – Anna Jane Tolliver is the name he provided as his mother on his 1940 Social Security Number Application. It looks like he corrected - or at least modified - his understanding of her maiden name between 1940 and 1941.

Source: Social Security Administration

So, there are two questions I’m trying to answer now, and getting closer to: Are Jennette and Anna Jane the same person? And is one (or both) of these women the mother of James Steven Evans, alongside Daniel Evans as his father. (Also, why couldn’t this be simpler?!)

What info do I have?

Source	Father	Mother	Informant
1866 Marriage Extract for Dan Evans and Jennette Welch or Welsh	Daniel Evans	Jennette Welch (or Welsh)	Presumably Dan and Jennette
1870 Federal Census	Daniel Evans	Jennette Evans	Presumably Daniel or Jennette
1880 Federal Census	Daniel Ivins	Genett Ivins	Presumably, Dan or Genett
1900 Federal Census	His likely future wife, Laura “Scriggs,” is just a few households away from a household headed by Danial Evans…	…and Danial’s wife is Jannette Evans	Danial and Jannette have been married 30 years.
1910 Federal Census	Daniel Evans	Annah Evans	Presumably Daniel or Annah. Married 40 years.
1940 SSN Application for (James) Steven Evans	Dan Evans	Anna Jane Tolliver	Himself
1941 Death Certificate for Anna Jane (Welch) Evans		Anna Jane (Welch) Evans, mother’s maiden name Tolliver	Himself (as “Son”)
1962 Death Certificate for (James) Steven Evans	Dan Evans	Anna Jane Evans	Son James H. Evans

 

So, to answer the first question, it seems likely that Jennette and Anna Jane are the same person, and perhaps that she goes by Jennette in her younger years and then by Anna or Anna Jane later in life. (I should note: with the exception of her death certificate, for which she was clearly not the informant, her birth year is consistently in the 1850s across names and documents. The location is sometimes Alabama and sometimes South Carolina; I need to chart this out to see if it varies by informant. Interestingly, her death certificate says that her father was from South Carolina and her mother from Alabama.)

And to answer the second, it seems quite likely that Daniel Evans and Jennette/Anna Jane Welch are my 3x-great-grandparents, the parents of my great-great-grandfather, (James) Steven Evans.

Whew, okay, that’s enough for today! But, you know that’s not the end of the research story…As I was researching (James) Steve Evans and his likely parents, I, of course, came across other children in their households. And the info their records had to share help strengthen my hypothesis. Stay tuned for the next post!

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Do you have the "smoking gun" to give me definitive answers on either question? Or just have a thought to share? Drop it in the comments below!