Recording Clara's Siblings

Scholefield Family Tree

When writing a family history, one must decide how much research they wish to complete regarding the various sidelines of a family. Do you trace the main descendant line back and also trace down all of the siblings lines? If you do that, how many generations do you want to research? For my personal trees, I research as far as I can go. My reason for this is that by finding cousins, I have received some great finds. I’ve gotten photocopies of the German family pages from a descendant of the writer Zane Grey about our shared Wilhelm ancestors, a copy of pen and ink drawing of my 4th (or 5th) great-grandfather, and loads of information that helped point me in a direction for further research!

Other researchers only focus on their direct lines, sometimes discovering that they need to research siblings in order to discover information about parentage. And only doing research into the sidelines (or neighbors) as needed.

For the Scholefield history for this site, my goal is to trace the direct line as well as locating the vitals of the sibling’s spouses and the birth information for each of their children.

To reach that goal, this post will focus on checking on any possible birth and death records for Clara Moore Scholefield’s siblings and their spouses and children. I will be running quick name searches on the usual sites (FamilySearch, Ancestry, and AZ Genealogy).

Clara was the daughter of James Armour Moore and Matilda Jane Burnett.

Matilda Jane Burnett had married first John V. Crampton. Their children, and therefore Clara’s Half siblings, were: Mary E., Sarah J., and John F.

Based on the census, Mary E. was born about 1857 in California.¹ She married Henry Fitzgerald in 1874. An article about her brother-in-law Charles Kenyon mentions that she was a widow who lived in San Francisco.² She looks to have died before 1940 which is the date that Ancestry’s California Death Index begins. The indexes at VitalSearch don’t contain enough information to identify which of the many Mary Fitzgeralds might be the one we are looking for. I also checked several likely indexes. Nothing further about this family can be located through these sources at this time — census records are next.

Sarah Jane was born on 6 Dec 1857 in California and died 14 Dec 1957 in San Diego County, California.³ She married Charles Kenyon in 1872.² He was born in 1840 in New York and died in Dec 1906.
Their children:
Maud B. was born in New York.
Arthur Moore Kenyon was born 20 Aug 1878 in Rome, New York.⁴
Myrtle M.

John Franklin Crampton was born on 1 Dec 1860 in San Bernardino, California, and died 21 Apr 1947 in Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona.⁵ He married Rovilla Snelling in 1882. She was born 12 May 1861 in Indiana and died 6 Feb 1940 in Globe, Arizona.⁶
Their children:
John William born 23 May 1883⁷
Rovilla J. born 1885 in Globe, Arizona⁸ (this is likely the Rovilla who married John C. Crowley in 1906)
Evelyn May born 27 May 1892 in Globe, Gila, Arizona⁹

Clara’s full siblings were Susan A. and J. Arthur.

Susan A. Moore was Clara’s twin sister; therefore, she was born 2 May 1863 in San Bernardino.¹⁰ She married Charles T. Connell in 1882 according to a biography online.² The same source gives Susie’s death date as 20 Feb 1895, reports that Charles was born 21 Jan 1859 in Mount Vernon, Iowa, and lists their children as:

Frances S., first white child born at San Carlos, March 11, 1883; Henrietta F., born September 23, 1885 and Robert Moore, born July 4, 1893.

Additionally, the Arizona Genealogy site contains birth and death records for twin boys who were born and died a few hours later on 4 May 1891.¹¹

J. Arthur Moore’s death certificate reports that he was born 10 Aug 1866 in San Bernardino, California, and died 15 Feb 1946 in Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona.¹² Contrary to the possible marriage record which was indicated he might have married a Mollie Shanley in 1891,¹³ the death certificate names his wife as Frederica. No certificate for her exists, and there are no certificates that name James and a recognizable wife so the censuses will need to be checked for James to sort out the name of his wife as well as discover any children.

Research Plan

1. Check censuses for Mary and Henry Fitzgerald to find the names of their children.
2. Check for James Arthur Moore in the census to discover his wife and children’s names.

1. See post dated 13 Sep 2008.
2. See post dated 14 Sep 2008.
3. “California Death Index, 1940-1997,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 Oct 2008), entry for Sarah Jane Kenyon (14 Dec 1957); citing State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics.
4. Arizona Department of Health Services, death certificate no. 77 (1923), Arthur Moore Kenyon; digital image, Arizona Genealogy Death Certificates (http://genealogy.az.gov : accessed 19 Oct 2008).
5. Ibid., death certificate no. 281 (1947), John Franklin Crampton.
6. Ibid., death certificate no. 77 (1939), Rovilla Crampton.
7. Ibid., death certificate no. 103 (1935), John Wm. Crampton.
8. Ibid., death certificate no. 257 (1928), Rovilla J. Crampton.
9. Arizona Department of Health Services, birth certificate (27 May 1892), Evelyn May Crampton; digital image, Arizona Genealogy Birth Certificates (http://genealogy.az.gov : accessed 19 Oct 2008); report of birth with accompanying document that names the child and parents.
10. See post dated 17 Aug 2008 regarding Clara’s birth date.
11. Arizona Department of Health Services, birth certificate (4 May 1891), Twin Boy Connell; digital image, Arizona Genealogy Birth Certificates (http://genealogy.az.gov : accessed 19 Oct 2008); Arizona Department of Health Services, death certificate (4 May 1891), Twin Boy Connell; digital image, Arizona Genealogy Death Certificates (http://genealogy.az.gov : accessed 19 Oct 2008).
12. Arizona death certificate no. 261 (1946), James Arthur Moore.
13. See post dated 9 Oct 2008.