A tutorial on deductive reason when branching your family tree using Hiram Fee as the example.
If you happened upon this blog, recommend you read Part 1, Part 2, and/or Part 3. Having performed the prior steps, it’s time to move on to Step #6.
STEP #6: APPLY THE HARD PROBABILITIES TO YOUR POSSIBILITIES.
At this point, there may be no “smoking gun” that outright gives you the information you’re looking for. This is where you really need to dig into the collected records and go back through Step #1 thru Step #5… again. This is where you need to examine everything on a record. This is where we may need to correlate a lot of circumstantial evidence.
By now, we have to question if the obituary of Hiram “Pappy” Fee, Jr. is for the son of Hiram Jones Fee?
The Courier-Journal, IN (25 Dec 1997), p.9
No death certificate could be found. No marriage record indicating spouse or parents could be found.
First, we analyze the information in his siblings’ obituaries. That gives us location. Next, we search the city directories of those locations. That gives us possible spouses and occupation. Going back and following Step #1 thru Step #5, we find the 1997 obituary correlates location and occupation. Further research shows that Hiram Jr.’s children listed in the obituary have a mother named Colleen Flannery. Applying Step #5, when placed in chronological order, the collected records suggest that all of them pertain to one person.
- 1953: Jeffersonville City Directory with wife Colleen and occupation as “A&P Bakery (Lou[isville]).”
- 1955: Jeffersonville City Directory with wife Colleen and occupation as “mixer A&P (Lou[isville]).”
- 1970: James Fee’s obituary states “[brother] Hiram Fee, Jr. of Jeffersonville…”
- 1971: Granville Fee’s obituary states “[brother] Hiram Fee, Jr., of Jeffersonville…”
- 1973: Garrett Fee’s obituary states “[brother] Hiram Fee, Jr., of Jeffersonville…”
- 1981: Paul Fee’s obituary states “[brother] Hiram Jr. of Jeffersonville…”
- 1984: Arta Farmer’s obituary states “[brother] Hiram Fee of Clarksville.”
- 1997: Obituary for Hiram “Pappy” Fee, Jr., 74, [of Clarksville] died Wednesday [24 December 1997] at Audobon Hospital [Louisville]… a native of Harlan County, Ky., a retired baker for A&P bakeries in Louisville… with burial in Jeffersonville…” The obituary also lists surviving siblings, but neither of them are the children of Louisa Hensley or of Sallie Farmer.
Yet we still have not proven that he is the son of our Hiram Sr. There is still a high probability that there are two Hiram Jr’s in the Clarksville area.
From the obituary, we can deduce that Hiram Jr. was born in or around 1923 and that he was formerly of Harlan County. A records search brings up a 1940 federal census of Knox County in which “H.J. Fee, age 16 (born about 1924), stepson” is living with a “Lee Fee, age 19, stepson” in the household of Lewis Hensley. Hensley’s wife is “Susie” with an additional step daughter, Flora Eversole, age 21.
Going back through the steps, we find a birth date of 21 January 1923 and “Susan Hensley” as the mother of Hiram Jr. The death date on his tombstone is 24 December 1997 that matches the obituary date. But we still haven’t correlated Hiram Jr. with Hiram Jones Fee.
Going back through the steps, we find a record with a birth date of 12 January 1923 and “Susan Fee” for Lee Clellan Fee. His tombstone is inscribed with a death date of “…son of Mrs. Louis Hensley…” All this information matches the 1940 federal census, but again, we still haven’t correlated Hiram or Lee with Hiram Jones Fee.
It’s a small article on page nine of the Jackson County Banner (21 August 1957) that states “Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Fee and Mr. and Mrs. Garrett Fee were called to Cincinnati Tuesday by the death of Mr. Fee’s brother, Lee Fee.”
With all of this information, as well as the records for E.B. Hensley, Bruce Hensley, Keith Hensley, Norma Stopher, and Irene Williams, we can conclude with higher probability that Hiram Jones Fee and Susan Alice Reed had sons Hiram Fee and Lee Clellan Fee.
However, we’re still back to the 1880 federal census with Hiram Jones Fee enumerated as the son of Henderson Fee and Sarah Osborne which conflicts with the death certificate stating that Hiram Fee and Rebecca Jones are his parents.
STEP #7: TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH.
With extremely limited information, yet armed with your knowledge of family history, local history, social customs, and personal experiences, start asking “what if…?”
In a time where large families were needed to work the farm, where are the other children of Henderson and Sarah? Is there any evidence other than an 1880 federal census that Hiram is Henderson and Sarah’s son? Again, “no data is data…”
It’s the 1910 United States Federal Census that has the most interest. Henderson and Sarah now have a household that includes Louise Hensley and Granville, Artie, Finley, Garrett, and Ethel Fee.
Instead of daughter-in-law and grandchildren, Louisa and children are listed as nieces and nephews. Just to double verify, were they the children of one of Sarah sisters who married a Fee (or Hensley)? Mapping out Sarah’s siblings shows no Fee’s or Hensley’s. Are they the children of Henderson’s siblings? No, except Hiram Jones Fee.
What if the 1880 census is incorrect? What if Hiram was living with Henderson and Sarah, and although he’s listed as a son, he really isn’t their son? Is there a family situation that justifies this conclusion?
There may be.
HJF’s father Hiram had been previously married to Sarah Jane Daniels and had a son, John who was born in 1867. Later, Hiram married Joyce Howard on 02 October 1871. Together they had Granville (born 1871), Sarah (born 1874), Mary Jane (born 1876), David (born 1879), and Boyd (born 1881).
What if a pregnant Joyce was too busy to care for HJF with 3-year-old Granville, 2-year-old Sarah, and Mary Jane on the way? What if HJF was placed in his uncle Henderson’s home, especially when considering that Henderson and Sarah were married on 21 April 1861, and having no children in the fourteen years since, welcomed HJF as their own?
There may be another family situation. The “Rebecca Jones” from Hiram Jones Fee’s death certificate may be Rebecca Wells (1845-1924), the daughter of Clayborn Wells and Rebecca Midgett formerly of Tennessee who moved to Kentucky. With the birth of David Fee in 1879 and Boyd in 1881 (with evidence to suggest they were Joyce’s children), Hiram was still married, and therefore didn’t remarry to Rebecca. With no marriage license, was Hiram considered an illegitimate child and all of the stigma that it carried in 1875?
What if at the age of thirty, Rebecca did not want to raise Hiram? Did having a child hinder her chances of getting married now that she was in her thirties? What if Joyce refused to raise a child that wasn’t her son, especially due to her husband’s infidelity? With Hiram Jones Fee’s birth date of 16 February 1875, he would have been six months old when Rebecca married Marion Alexander Jones on 16 August 1875. What if Marion refused to raise Hiram because he wasn’t his son?
So which is correct… the 1880 census or the 1910 census? If you can answer the “what if” questions with a degree of certainty, the leap of faith conclusion is that Hiram Jones Fee must have been Henderson’s nephew.
Going back to Step #1 thru Step #7 for both Louisa Hensley, Sallie Farmer, and Susan Alice Reed, our tree now looks like this.
Click here to see how the family tree is starting to look.
Next blog: the final step and conclusion.
Philip Farmer is the author and publisher of “Edward Farmar and the Sons of Whitemarsh,” a 500-page, 155-year biographical history of Stephen Farmer’s family immigration from Ireland into Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Harlan County, Kentucky. Complete with bibliography and footnotes that supports the research. Check out LuLu’s current discounts which may save you money than purchasing through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, or other retailers.
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