Does Emberson Know Who He Married?

If records always agreed, there would be less of a need for professional genealogists.

The 1865 marriage record for Emberson Randles in Coshocton County, Ohio, indicated that he married Mary J. Rampley on 2 July 1862. The precise location of the marriage within the county is not given. 

part of the marriage record for Emerson Randles and Mary J. Rampley, Coshocton County, Ohio, marriage records 1859-1867 (vol 2), page 369; digital image on FamilySearch.

 In answering questions from the Commissioner of Pensions, Emberson indicates that he married Mary Jane Foster on 2 July 1865. The same Justice of the Peace (John Meridith) is listed on both records.

part of the 31 January 1898 reply of Emberson Randles (Company D, 51st Ohio Infantry) to the Commissioner of Pensions' request for personal information; digital image made from original record at the National Archives.

Which should be believed?

That's a good question. Aside from the slight variation in the spelling of his name, the only real difference between these documents is the last name of the bride.

Our initial conclusion might be that Mary was married previously and that Emberson was providing her "real maiden name" in his 1898 answers.  To call this a conclusion is a bit strong--conjecture may be a better word.

However, initial conclusions (or conjectures) can be incorrect and there is actually nothing in either document to suggest that Mary was married twice. The 1865 marriage record does not list her as "Miss" or "Mrs."

One would initially give more credence to the marriage record. After all, it was created the closest to when the actual event took place. The problem is that the piece of information that is inconsistent between the two documents is not the date, the place or the officiant, but the name of the bride. If the date, place or officiant were different, one would be inclined to view the marriage record as being correct.

What the difference indicates is that more work on this family needs to be done. It would be odd for Emberson to get his date, place, and "who married him" correct and remember incorrectly the maiden name of his wife.

Mary J. Randles as Mary J. Reynolds--One Day Off and One County Away

An earlier post challenged readers to find the death certificate for Mary J. Randles using information on her "drop pensioner" card.

The actual certificate for Mary illustrates some simple errors that researchers encounter in terms of dates and names when researching records. The "drop pensioner" card would likely be considered to contain secondary information on Mary's date of death.

Mary's name was Mary J. Randles--her husband was Embertson Randles.  The "drop pensioner" card indicated she was living in Malvern, Ohio, on 5 April 1932.

Searching for Mary took a little bit of time. The image with this post is her death certificate which was located on FamilySearch. These death certificates are indexed on the Ohio Historical Society's website. Mary was finally located by searching for women named Mary who died in April of 1932. When she could not be located in the county in which Malvern is located, adjacent counties were searched. That is how the index entry for this death certificate for Mary J. Reynolds who died on 4 April 1932 in Canton, Stark County, was located.

The name of the husband is "correct" and the name of the father matches information in her widow's Civil War pension application which is where the "drop pensioner" card was located.

The date of death only differs by one day--not a serious difference to be honest. Of course someone cannot die on two days and (without additional information) one would usually consider the death certificate to be more likely to be accurate than the date of death on the "drop pensioner" card.

Where Did Mary Randles Die?

This is the card used by the pension department to "drop" pensioners from the roll upon their death.

It indicates a date of death for Mary J. Randles, the wife of Emberson Randles, who was receiving a pension based upon his service.

The problems is that searching for her death certificate produced no results--at least initially. We've challenged our Facebook Fans of Genealogy Tip of the Day to find it as well.

Mary's death certificate is online at FamilySearch. The Ohio Historical Society also has an index to Ohio death certificates for the time period of interest as well.

We'll have an update shortly--along with the story of how her death certificate was actually found.

Stay tuned--or try searching for her yourself.