I’m still working on cleaning up old research files, both physical and digital. As I work through the old research and move it all into better organized Dropbox folders, I am comparing the data found in saved documents to my FamilyTreeMaker family file. Updating where appropriate, adding citations where I can. In my excitement and haste for the first “on and off” two decades of my family search, I didn’t worry too much about citing my sources. My perspective on this has evolved and changed in a big way over time.
Today, I’ve been organizing information on an Evans branch of my family tree found in Atchison County, Kansas in the late 19th century and early 20th century. My great-grandmother was Anna J. Evans (1900-1985), whose parents were Peter Evans and Dena Seeger. I need to do some work on the Evans research as I have given up in the past when roadblocks related to ancestors with a common name emerged. My goal this weekend is to create a research plan to try to identify when, where, and how my Evans immigrant ancestor arrived in the United States.
In my folders, I found the 1900 Federal Census for Atchison, Atchison County, Kansas. As of June 2, 1900, Peter Evans is enumerated with his wife Dena on Forest Avenue, near Midland College in Atchison. With them lived two children, Mary (born May 1897) and Henry (born July 1899)1. Peter is listed as born in 1871 while Dena was born in November 1877. They have been married for four years. Peter’s place of birth is listed as Ohio with both of his parents born in Germany. He has been a “roustabout” at the railroad shops for the past six months. They own their own home.
As the 1890 Federal Census has been largely lost due to a fire, I looked to see what information might be contained in the Kansas state censuses – in 1895 and 1885. In 1885, I find an Evans family in Mount Pleasant township, Atchison County, Kansas. Father Peter Evans (age 50) with wife Mary Evans (age 40), son Peter (age 15), and daughter (age 12) whose name appears to be listed as “Shody.” The elder Peter is listed as born in Holland and his occupation is painter. Mary is listed as born in Ireland. The younger Peter was born in Kansas while “Shody” was born in Missouri.
There are some problems here – the younger Peter in the 1885 census is about the right age to be my great-great-grandfather whose birth year is listed as 1871 on the 1900 census BUT the 1900 census says he was born in Ohio, not Kansas. It also says his parents were born in Germany, not Holland and Ireland. I’ll put a pin in that 1885 census and keep researching.
I look at a series of other censuses for more clues:
| YEAR | CENSUS | NAME | AGE | DOB | BIRTHPLACE | PARENTS BIRTHPLACE | OTHER |
| 1870 | U.S. (Circleville, Jefferson Co., KS) | Peter Evans | 42 | France | painter; wife: Mary | ||
| 1870 | U.S. (Circleville, Jefferson Co., KS) | Peter Evans | 4 | Ohio | Siblings: Mary (13), Maggie (9), Andrew (6), Charlotte (1) | ||
| 1880 | U.S. (Walnut Township, Atchison Co., KS) | Peter Evans | 56 | Holland | farmer; wife: Mary | ||
| 1880 | U.S. (Walnut Township, Atchison Co., KS) | Peter Evans | 13 | Ohio | Siblings: Andrew (15), Charlotte (11), John (4) | ||
| 1885 | KS (Mt Pleasant, Atchison Co., KS) | Peter Evans | 50 | Holland | painter; wife: Mary | ||
| 1885 | KS (Mt Pleasant, Atchison Co., KS) | Peter Evans | 15 | Kansas | Sibling: “Shody” (12) | ||
| 1900 | U.S. (Mt Pleasant, Atchison Co., KS) | Peter Evans | 73 | Sept 1837 | Holland | Painter; living with daughter Charlotte & her family; also living with them was John Evans (age 23, b 1866) | |
| 1900 | U.S. (Midland College, Atchison Co., KS) | Peter Evans | 29 | 1871 | Ohio | Germany | Wife: Dena Kids: Mary, Henry |
| 1905 | KS (Mt Pleasant, Atchison Co.) | Peter Evans | 76 | Kansas | Living with son John, age 26 |
Still a lot of questions. The 1870 reference to the elder Peter’s birthplace as France seems to be an anomaly. Holland (the Netherlands) is looking more likely. What other sources do I have in my digital files?
FindAGrave.com reveals a headstone for Peter and Dena Evans in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Atchison, Kansas. This is the same cemetery where their daughter (my great-grandmother) Anna is buried as well as Anna’s daughter (my grandmother), Patricia. The headstone lists Peter’s birth year as 1865 and his death year as 1909. The Atchison Weekly Globe newspaper contains an obituary which states Peter’s death occurred on December 30, 1909 at age 44, which would put his birth year at 1865. The Atchison Daily Globe obituary the following day lists Peter’s survivors as a wife, four children aged 12 to 2, “an aged father,” four sisters (Mrs. Lawrence Wines, Mrs. Mary Medsker, Mrs. Lottie Dorgan, Mrs. Lizzie Tull), and three brothers (Andrew, Joe, John). (I use Newspapers.com quite a bit for obituaries and other contemporaneous information about family members.)
The Atchison Daily Globe again provides a few clues in the October 10, 1911 edition. There, we find an obituary of the elder Peter Evans. He passed on October 9 at the age of 71 at the home of his son Andrew. It says he was an early settler in Atchison, having arrived in the 1850s. The obit says his wife passed away 11 years earlier. His survivors are listed as Mrs. W.M. Metsker, Mrs. Lawrence Wines, Mrs. Lottie Dorgan, Mrs. Charley Tull, and Joseph, Andrew, and John Evans. He was buried at Saint Patrick’s Cemetery in Atchison County.
The papers show an obituary for Mrs. Mary Evans, age 53, in 1900. Burial at St. Patrick’s.
A few more clues are found in the obituaries of Mary Theresa Medsker, daughter of the elder Peter Evans. The Holton Record, on July 3, 1913, reported her death, that her maiden name was Evans and that she married in Circleville, Kansas in 1872. The Troy Republican, June 27, 1913, says that Mary (wife of William) was born on June 26, 1856 in Cleveland, Ohio and came to Atchison, Kansas in 1869. She was survived by her husband and kids as well as three brothers and three sisters. Born in Cleveland, Ohio and came to Atchison in 1869 – great clues!
Another sibling obituary lends a few more clues. In the May 12, 1945 edition of the Atchison Daily Globe is the obituary of a Mrs. Margaret Gassert, age 77. Margaret was born July 4, 1867 in Cleveland, Ohio and moved to Atchison as a young girl. She married Lawrence Wines in 1889. So, she is Maggie from 1870 census listed above and the “Mrs. Lawrence Wines” listed as a sister of the younger Peter Evans in his obituary and listed as a daughter of the elder Peter Evans in his obituary. One brand-new piece of info in this obituary is that Maggie’s survivors are listed as her husband and her three half-siblings, Mrs. Patrick Dorgan, Mrs. Charles Tull, and Joseph Evans. So, now we know that Charlotte, Elizabeth, and Joseph had a different mother than Maggie (and presumably Mary). Peter the elder must have had a wife before the wife Mary listed in the 1870 census.
I used Ancestry® to search some other Kansas resources including various birth, marriage, death, and employment records – without success. I have some searches I’d like to run on FamilySearch.org for Kansas records. And then I’ll move on to Ohio records. The census references to Ohio as birthplace of most of the elder Peter’s children as well as the obituary references to Cleveland, Ohio certainly point us in that direction. I’m hopeful that there may be some clues which will lead to more information about Peter’s immigration as well as the identity of his first wife and the maiden name of his second wife Mary.
Until next time…
1This census raises a question for me as I understood my grandmother Anna to have been born in April 1900. But she is not listed here. I turned to the 1910 Federal Census. Again in Atchison County, Kansas, I find the Evans family. Dena is now the head of household, listed as a widow. With her on Forest Avenue, are Mary (age 12), Henry (age 10), Anna (age 9), and Ida (age 2). The enumeration occurred in late April, 1910. Is Anna’s birth year 1901 rather than 1900? More on that later.
