Negative Results Prompt Re-evaluation: 52 Ancestors 2022 Prompt “Negatives”

Negative Results on Eldred Smith Children Leads to Tree Corrections

James Willis Smith: 1928-1935

Estella Smith: 1918-2004

 

Sometimes negative research results mean that I have made an error—I am searching in the wrong place, I have the ancestor’s name wrong, or I missed a death or marriage along the way. Sometimes there just aren’t any records to be found—the area where the ancestor lived didn’t keep records yet, or had lost them in a fire or flood or other disaster. And sometimes, negative search results prompt me to rethink and go back to the beginning, which I had to do when my searches for two of Eldred and Nina Smith’s children turned up negative.

According to most family trees on Ancestry, Eldred and Nina had three children: Robert Cecil, born in 1917, James Willis, born in 1928, and Estella, born in 1918. However, I noticed that Eldred’s obituary only mentioned one child, Robert. Robert’s were also the only records I was finding on Ancestry and Family Search. So what happened to James and Estella?

I quickly found an answer—a tragic answer—for James Willis Smith. I located James’ death certificate from Laredo, Texas, a certificate that left me with as many questions as answers. James died in Laredo on October 19, 1935, just six days shy of his seventh birthday.

The cause of death was listed as “lacerations of brain” due to “fracture of skull”. The injury was caused by an accident on a “public road—auto accident” that occurred on October 17. The location of the accident is the curious part: it happened in Sabinas Hidalgo, Mexico.

Sabinas Hidalgo, Mexico lies in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, and is about 85 miles southwest of Laredo. What were the Smiths doing in Mexico? They weren’t living there. The death certificate also stated that James’ father, Eldred Smith, resided in Jefferson, Texas, a town east of Dallas in northern Texas, a staggering 550 miles from Laredo. Given road and automobile conditions in the 1930s, the Smiths were at least two days away from home at the time of the car crash.

The death certificate also stated that the body was transferred for burial to Jefferson. I found the burial record in the Presbyterian Church records for Jefferson. The notes stated that little James Willis “was not a member but the pastor’s son and was buried in Jefferson. The funeral was in the church.” I was surprised by the notation that James wasn’t a member of the church until I realized the rite of confirmation was probably required to become a member, and James was too young to be confirmed.

The information verified my hypothesis that Eldred Willis was the minister of the Jefferson church, so why was he in Mexico that October? Given his choice of mission work in the 1940s and 1950s (described in the previous post), I speculate that he was in Mexico on a brief mission trip.

What a horrible situation! The family suffered a car accident far from home. Their little son was gravely injured and they were in a foreign country. They must have somehow arranged transportation back to Laredo to seek expert care for James. The doctor who signed the death certificate said he had treated James from 17^th—the day of the accident—to the 19^th when the little boy died, so they must have raced back to Laredo, desperate for help. I wonder if other members of the family were also injured. I could find no newspaper stories about the accident or James’ death, so it is impossible to know.

The photo below is the only one I have of the family with both Robert and James, probably taken about four years or so before James’ death.

So the mystery of James’ absence from records was solved. But what about Estella? The family photo does not include a daughter. Why were there no records for her? I couldn’t even find a birth certificate.

I had noticed that Estella had the same name as Eldred’s niece, his younger brother Charles’ oldest daughter. At first, this didn’t seem that strange. Many families, including the extended Smith clan, re-used names. There were several Willises and Roberts, for example. However, I began to wonder when I realized that the only record cited by all the family trees that included Estella as Eldred’s child was the 1920 census, when Eldred and his family were living in Kentucky. I re-examined the record. Eldred is listed as the head of household. The other family members include his wife Nina, son Cecil (Robert Cecil), brother Charles Smith and Charles’ wife Lillie Smith, and Estella Smith, daughter.

Looking at the actual census form, it is obvious that Estella, listed following the names of Charles and Lillie, is their daughter, not Eldred and Nina’s. However, all household members are supposed to be identified by their relationship to the head of household. The census taker in Jenkins, Kentucky had not followed that rule. Charles was listed as a “boarder” instead of “brother”. Lillie was listed as “wife” instead of “sister-in-law” and Estella was listed as “daughter” instead of “niece”. Therefore, when the record was transcribed and indexed, Estella incorrectly showed up as “daughter” in relation to the head of household, not as daughter to the household’s boarders, Eldred’s brother and sister-in-law.

I had made the same careless error as other genealogists had, adding Estella to my tree from a census transcription instead of looking at the actual record and evaluating its accuracy. I have now corrected my tree, removing Estella as the child of Eldred and Nina. The actual Estella Smith lived until the age of 85, dying in Kansas in 2004.  I am glad that I chose to re-evaluate my original data once my search for Eldred’s supposed daughter produced only negative results.

Sources:

Ancestry records of death certificate, burial record and census. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/60000444:6061?ssrc=pt&tid=81812584&pid=38443076738

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2272/images/40394_b062098-00211?pId=21577163

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61048/images/43102_3421606200_0462-00300?pId=52404