Mother Was A Leapling

My mother was one of the relatively rare people (one in 1500) who were born on February 29th. Had she lived, she would be celebrating her 26th birthday today and she would be 104 years old. She was the fourth child of  six born to Edwin and Augusta Zabel Brown.

Here is her birth certificate and a picture of Mother with her three older siblings:

Unfortunately, Mother died at age 67 of pancreatic cancer just a month before her 15th birthday. She is buried close to the graves of her mother and father and several of her brothers and sisters in East Cemetery, Grass Lake, Michigan. She is still missed by all who knew her, particularly on her special day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTHER

Genealogy Lessons Part Three, Continued

I apologize for being so late in posting the conclusion to Part Three as the other part of my life (family, an attempt to organize my piles of research, general housecleaning, and a few doctor appointments) got in the way.

As you may remember I was comparing the two birth certificates for Edwin Brown, both with wrong information. In order to find his correct birth date, I decided to go back to the old fashioned preponderance of evidence. Remember the first US Census in which I found Edwin was taken in 1880 and his age was 11 years. After many years I finally found him in the index of the 1870 Census with the same parents in Shiawassee Co., thank you to Ancestry.com, and his age was listed as 1 year. Other censuses I have are the 1910 in Saginaw Co., 1920 and 1930 in Jackson Co. All agree his year of birth must have been 1869.

Other records I had collected from courthouses were his first marriage in Tuscola Co. on 23 Jul 1892 his age 23, his second marriage to my grandmother in Houghton Co on 4 Aug 1900 his age 31, and his mothers divorce papers. Since all records and his family agreed that his birthday was February 15, I would say his birth year was 1869.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!