52 Ancestors Week 43: Shock

 From Amy Johnson Crow: The theme for Week 43 is "Shock." Halloween is a time of surprises. What is something shocking or surprising that you've found about an ancestor? Shocking could also be a lightning strike or an electrical jolt. Remember — feel free to interpret the theme however you want!

SHOCKING!

      Having been around the Internet for ages I can safely say that nothing really shocks me anymore. I'm not sure if that makes me jaded or anything. At most it just makes me more aware of the world around me. The world isn't all sunshine and rainbows no matter how much we wish it was the case. Lord knows I sure do. If you take a peek into any fandom of your choice, you might see what I mean. That isn't to say people are always awful. It just means I'm more "on guard" for shocking behavior because I've seen quite a few things. I'm not tooting my own horn. I'm just saying it takes a lot to really, truly surprise me.

Gertrude and family.

    On the genealogy front, however, things have sometimes surprised me and made me wonder "Huh. Why did this happen?". This was definitely the case for my second great-grandmother Gertrude Stevens' brother, Arthur Plummer Stevens. More on him in a bit because I do have a bit of news to share about Gertrude!

    In August, I wrote a blog about how the cemetery she was buried in was vandalized. It made the news on WMUR and various other news outlets here in New Hampshire. Many stones in Pine Grove Cemetery were toppled and there was a mess everywhere. Check the blog here for details.

    News of the cemetery getting vandalized caused me to spring into action. So, I posted a request on Find a Grave to find her stone. A couple of days ago, I got the request fulfilled and the stone was found safe and intact. It was one of those stones embedded in the ground. It's hard to vandalize those! You can see for yourself here. I really want to clean that corner of the stone, though! I don't know if that's OCD or what. It just vexes me.

    I messaged the lady who took the photograph and uploaded the picture to my 2nd great-grandmother's profile. You can bet I was thankful. I told her why I needed to know if the stone was okay and the backstory of my connection to her. She said that the community in Farmington came together and cleaned up the place so that it was good as new in no time. All of the stones have since been repaired. There hasn't been any word on the culprits, though. I'm still betting that they are haunted and hey Halloween is just around the corner. Mwahahaha!

Umm...Arthur? Why aren't you with your wife?!

    Now let's turn our attention to the story of Arthur Plummer Stevens. He was born in Lynn, Mass and was Gertrude's younger brother. The two were the only children of Austin Stevens and Evaline Augusta Fisher to survive to adulthood. When I initially researched him the first time around, I didn't find anything unusual. I found his birth in Lynn and a marriage to a woman named Ida Sansouce in 1906. Seems rather straightforward, right? No surprises here!! Wait for it. It's coming.

    The more I dug, the more I found things that didn't seem to add up. Before he married Ida, he was in the 1900 US census in Lynn as a lodger in the house of Phebie Kimball. I thought nothing of it. The man needed a place to stay and at the time his parents were living in nearby Haverhill. Then things started to take a right turn into "Weirdtown".

Boston Globe, Apr 10th, 1942., pg 30

   On Newspapers.com, I found Arthur's obituary. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until I saw a woman named Caroline Kimball listed as his sister! I was confused. How could Caroline be his sister?!  His parents had the following children: Georgiana, Gertrude, Bennie and Arthur. There had to have been some mistake.

    I went back to that 1900 census and saw that Caroline was actually a daughter of Phebie! She was 31 years old in 1900 and it made me wonder something. Did Arthur and Caroline have a thing going? Were they romantically involved? If so, why was she listed in the obit as a sister? Was she just a friend? 

    I researched Caroline and found that she was born in 1870 and despite what what was written in Arthur's obituary, I have yet to find a spouse for her. She passed away in 1961. That and she was clearly the daughter of two people who definitely weren't Austin and Evaline! Phebie was clearly her mother as the birth records in Lynn proved.

    The weirder part was yet to come. I found Arthur's grave on Find a Grave! There were a few oddities on there that made me scratch my head and yes it was a little shocking. According to the stone, Arthur was buried with the Kimball family! That's not all. Bennie was buried with them! Why? This didn't make any sense and I like things to make sense! 

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.

    I have so many questions and shock went straight into confusion. Maybe someone reading the blog can help. The biggest question is this:

    Why was Arthur and his older brother who died at the age of one buried with the Kimballs? Were the Kimballs really good friends of the Stevens family? Stones like this really vex me. There's clearly a story here and you know how much I love a good story.

    Phebie's maiden name was apparently "Plummer" and since that's Arthur's middle name, I really wonder if they were really good friends of the Stevens because I haven't been able to find any familial connection!

    I have also checked to make sure Arthur belongs to the Stevens and Caroline belongs to the Kimballs. They might really be good friends. I'm honestly not sure. 

    Now here's a question. Where's Ida Sansouce? She was born in 1880 in Lynn.  The last record I have of her is from the 1940 US census in Lynn. She was  living with Arthur and was around fifty-nine years old. The two didn't have any children together so I'm probably not going to have any DNA matches from that line. She did have a son from a previous marriage. So, perhaps a descendant from that line could have answers! It is curious that the obituary didn't mention Ida at all, right? What if they got divorced sometime after the 1940 census? What if she died before Arthur did? There are a lot of possibilities and each one is more shocking than the last!

    Arthur's situation can be a bit shocking for some, I will admit. For me it's more confusing than anything else. Shock turned to questions that need answers and I'm likely not going to get any unless there really are descendants of Arthur and Ida that I don't know about. If so, please message me and help a cousin out.

    I am curious, though. What are your thoughts? Why are Arthur and his older brother Bennie buried with the Kimballs and not with the Stevens? What do you think the story is? Flex those creative muscles, everyone! We've got a story to write and I want it on my desk by five!

See ya next time!