The Possible Duplicity of Lulu Johnson

Lulu Johnson is the daughter of Rebecca Johnson and sister to my great-grandmother Florence.

Lulu was born in 1895 in New Jersey and died about 1971. Her childhood is rather interesting - she is apparently listed on the 1900 and 1910 Federal Census twice, both with her biological family and an adoptive family.

You may recognize this image from my earlier post about her mother - this is the family in Bradley Beach, NJ in 1900 when Lulu was five. 

At the same time, on Atlantic Avenue in Neptune Township, we find the Landin family:

Lulu Johnson is listed here as George Landin's niece.

Now, in 1910 she is again listed with the family:

And also with the Landins, although here their name is spelled Landis. Now she is listed as an adopted daughter.

I'm not completely sure that this is the same Lulu, particularly because the one with the Landin/Landis family is listed as being black and because they have different birth months in 1900 - the one that I know is my relative is listed as being born in February 1895 while the other says May 1895.

However, there has been talk among my mother's family about Lulu being given away as a child so it seems odd that she would be listed with her parents at all. It's not impossible that her adoptive family didn't know her birthday. And the census taker could have assumed that George Landin's niece/adopted daughter was black because he and his wife were; perhaps he never saw Lulu himself.

I wonder if we'll ever conclusively solve this mystery.

Rebecca Johnson

Rebecca Johnson was my great-great-grandmother. One of her daughters, Florence, had a daughter named Phyllis, who had my mother Wanda.

Ancestry.com has a feature on the profile page of everyone in a family tree; when you add an event with a date attached, it automatically displays the age the person was when that event occurred. I noticed today that Rebecca Johnson's profile listed her marriage in 1888 - when she was just fourteen years old. This is indicated by the 1900 U.S. Federal Census (click to enlarge):

There is the family living in Bradley Beach, NJ in 1900. The third-to-last column on the right is "number of years married;" Rebecca and George reported 12 years. Their oldest child, Helen, was eleven in 1900, and was therefore born the year following their marriage. The last two columns are "Mother of how many children" and "Number of these children living." As you can see, by the age of 26 Rebecca had already given birth to five children and lost one. This snapshot of her life is very meaningful to me, at twenty-two. I'm not married nor do I have children, and I cannot imagine the struggles and joys of this woman without whom I would never have been born.

Rebecca's maiden name and married name are the same. I don't know her parents' names but have been assured by family members that she was a Johnson before she married George Washington Johnson, who was eighteen at the time of their marriage. He died at the age of 56 in 1926. Rebecca at least matched his age; I don't know when she died but the 1930 Federal Census shows her living with her son Walter in Belmar, NJ.

Requiescat in Pace Mary Fetzer

Mary Boehm Fetzer, "Aunt Mary" to me, passed away tonight. She will be thoroughly missed by her husband and four children.

The Mystery of the Youngest Harris Gammon

Presumably named after his great-grandfather Harris Gammon who fought in the Revolutionary War, the youngest of the three Harrises in my tree revealed to me that his life had been something of a mystery. These days with census records online, Harris had never been missing from my family history.

However, something that was simply a little odd to me turned out to be very important to his family. I didn't think it was terribly strange when, on the census records, Harris went from Eden, Iowa in 1885 to Aspen, Colorado in 1900, and then back to Eden in 1910. People move, right? The Gammons did it all the time. Then I came across this news clipping:

Leon Reporter, Leon, Iowa
Thursday, January 23, 1902
HARRIS GAMMON arrived last week from Colorado to visit his brother WAYNE GAMMON and other relatives and friends. After an absence of fifteen years and not hearing from home for more than ten years, he finds many changes, but still many familiar faces. MR. GAMMON had long ago been given up as dead by his relatives and they are indeed glad to see his countenance once more, and in appearance he has changed but very little since leaving Leon.

Harris remained in Iowa with his family until his death in 1920, at which point he was interred in the family plot at Meek Cemetery.

The real mystery to me, however, is this: Why was he in Colorado for fifteen years? My guess is he went in for the last Colorado gold rush. If he did, it doesn't look like he came home rich. On the 1910 federal census he's living with his sisters Mary and Anne as well as a boarder. In the 1915 state census he's living alone, but by the federal census in 1920 he's listed with Mary and Anne once again.