Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Favorite Ancestors: Jacob Crousore & Ama Jimima Smith

John Crousore's son, Jacob, was another longtime mystery and a favorite ancestor. Basically, his spouse and death were missing details. Once again, Salt Lake came to the rescue.

Online searches weren't turning up Jacob's marriage or 1820 census entry. 1850 and later census records showed his wife as Annie or Anny. Other researchers gave "Annie Crousore's" maiden name as 'Ice.' Searches did not turn up a woman by that name. Why? Because Annie Ice didn't exist!

The 1820 census indexes online had the Crousore name creatively misspelled. I knew that the family was in Ohio b 1820 and that a printed version of the index might have a "closer" spelling. It did. Finding the Crousores in Clinton Co., Ohio led to finding Jacob's marriage and that of a sister named Elizabeth - both into a family of Smiths. Smith? Oh no!

Elizabeth married John Smith in 1819. Jacob married Jimima Smith in 1822. Jimima did not ring a bell until I found a land record in Indiana that gave her full name - Ama Jimima! My great-grandmother was Ama Jemima Simmons Crail; her mother was Edith Crousore [daughter of Jacob and Jemima].

Census records that had been interpreted as Annie, Anny, or Anny I. were actually Amie, Amy or Amy J.

I was able to follow Jacob and Amy, along with extended Smith, Reel and Reeder families, from Ohio to several stops in Indiana.

Jacob and Amy seemingly vanished after 1870, no death or burial records could be found in Howard Co., IN where they had settled. Further investigation showed that the couple went to Kansas with their son William. They settled in McPherson Co. where records for Amy ended in 1875 and for Jacob in 1877. William left the county in 1878.

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