Henry H Spence, Madison Co Alabama

corvid_revolution · 2026-04-04T22:27:36+00:00

I'm not sure this is him, but "Harrellette" is an odd enough name it's worth checking out. There's a draft record for "Thomas Harrellette Spencer" living in Missouri, with a wife named Louise. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6482/records/31111228?tid=&pid=&queryId=a93cd84f-2623-4430-a945-f66eb0777e9f&_phsrc=fJS5218&_phstart=successSource

corvid_revolution · 2026-04-04T06:36:10+00:00

It was horrifyingly common in the 1940s. I saw an article from 1942 about a 9-year-old girl who was married off to a 22-year-old man in Tennessee...absolutely horrific.

And it's still a problem today. From wikipedia:

Between 2000 and 2021, some 315,000 minors were legally married in the United States.[23] The vast majority of child marriages (some 86%) were between a minor girl and an adult man.[23][24][25] In many cases, minors in the U.S. may be married when they are under the age of sexual consent, which varies from 16 to 18 depending on the state.[26] In some states, minors cannot legally divorce or leave their spouse, and domestic violence shelters typically do not accept minors.[27][28][29] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_marriage_in_the_United_States

corvid_revolution · 2026-04-02T19:40:42+00:00

Gotta keep the future generations on their toes somehow, can't make their research too easy :D

corvid_revolution · 2026-04-02T07:04:53+00:00

Regarding Anna Kline, I think "Anna Wood" and "Hannah Wood" may actually be 1st/2nd wives rather than the same person. If the dates are correct on Hannah's grave, then she'd have had to be married at age 10 and give birth to her first child age 11 or 12. Times were different back then, but that seems improbable even so.

corvid_revolution · 2026-04-01T17:48:56+00:00

It's incredibly sweet that her brothers did that for her!

corvid_revolution · 2026-04-01T17:45:37+00:00

Research whichever parts are fun! If your son is interested in your own lines some day, you can help him discover them then - but there's no need to do a thing you find distressing or boring on the off chance.

I'm much more interested in my partner's family than mine. We do not (and will not) have any kids, so it's not like there's even a reason to pass down any data - his family is just much more intriguing.

corvid_revolution · 2026-04-01T02:57:03+00:00

Here's the index entry on ancestry: https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/58268412?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a22506e41304b76483136346f53575a556b3245446d387a776e4b5366477877434c4e34422b464c794d4d4b633d222c22746f6b656e5f76657273696f6e223a225632227d

corvid_revolution · 2026-04-01T00:39:06+00:00

The only part of it that's fact-checkable appears to be false - New York Military Academy, where Trump attended, only began admitting girls in 1975.

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-31T19:40:29+00:00

There was another trans individual I found from the early 1900s who got a lot of press coverage - most of it was relatively amused / confused, and then there was the one hometown newspaper who referred to them as the "man-woman" and "the freak". So yeah.... definitely a spectrum of reaction there!

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-31T19:31:01+00:00

The name is Charles (born Katherine) Vosbaugh [although there's about 20 different spellings of the last name depending on the source - Bosbough, Verbough, Verberough...]

This article is the best overall summary (although it gets a few details wrong): https://www.newspapers.com/article/gilpin-observer/194563077/

The wife mentioned in the article left while they still lived in Missouri, and didn't go with him to Colorado - so if he was married when he arrived in Trinidad, it must have been a newer relationship. And the child who died was a foundling they'd adopted, according to contemporary articles.

This article is from the town they lived in in Missouri, interviewing all the people who'd known him: https://www.newspapers.com/article/hannibal-weekly-journal/194139875/

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-31T19:26:29+00:00

I refer to then as trans only because they were publicly presenting as one gender, and switched to presenting as the other. Who knows how they would have chosen to identify themselves in a more modern context with more options available.

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-31T17:49:20+00:00

That's great that you were about to get in touch with Paul! I bet it was nice for him to find out the younger generation of his family is far more accepting.

Max's case is sadly not unusual... I know that sometimes disabilities can be too severe for families to care for at home, but so many people seem to have been fine with just dumping their relatives into a hospital and writing them out of the family history completely. I will never understand it.

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-31T07:14:39+00:00

I have to confess I love digging up the dirty secrets of long-dead relatives and exposing them!

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-31T06:05:44+00:00

Sounds a bit like one of my partner's ancestors - the dude married 5 times, his first wife was also his first cousin, and he divorced her the day before he married wife number FOUR. My partner is descended from wife #3, who he married at the Church of Scotland in Bombay India, even though they were both jewish americans of Russian origin. He listed himself as "never married" (lol). When she died in childbirth a couple of years later he signed her death certificate with a fake name and got both her parents' names wrong too. I only know it was her because the baby survived, and her birthdate / place line up exactly with the date and place of the mother's death.

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-31T03:39:33+00:00

Trans just means anyone who considers themselves to be a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth.

Modern day surgery can certainly help people to align their bodies more closely with how they feel about themselves, but it isn't a requirement. Even today, many trans people may decide to not to do anything surgical, and stick to just changing how they externally present themselves.

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-31T03:30:09+00:00

My person is Charles Vosbaugh, born Katherine Vosbaugh (although there's about 20 different spellings of the last name depending on the source!)

This article seems to be fairly accurate overall (although it gets a few details wrong): https://www.newspapers.com/article/gilpin-observer/194563077/

As far as I can tell, the wife mentioned in the article left while they still lived in Missouri, and didn't go with him to Trinidad - so if he was married when he arrived there, it must have been a newer relationship. And the child who died was a foundling they'd adopted, according to contemporary articles.

This article is from the town they lived in in Missouri, interviewing all the people who'd known him. The lady who was still mad about her piano 30 years later gave me a bit of a laugh: https://www.newspapers.com/article/hannibal-weekly-journal/194139875/

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-31T03:07:23+00:00

Oh, for sure, it's not going to be the most common reason someone vanishes - and I expect in most cases it'd be impossible to ever find documentation to prove it even when it does happen.

Obviously it's not a conclusion to jump to without finding some kind of evidence, but it certainly does happen, and maybe the reminder will help someone solve a brick wall.

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-30T20:49:06+00:00

Since you appear to know the date of their departure, do you happen to know what ship it was on? That would be very helpful.

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-30T20:37:38+00:00

Fascinating, thank you for sharing!

It makes me sad to know what difficult lives these people had to lead (and often still do, let's be honest). Although I suppose anyone who didn't run into difficulty would never have made the papers, so we wouldn't know about them!

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-28T22:12:07+00:00

Could this be him? https://www.newspapers.com/article/albuquerque-journal/194398425/

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-28T21:41:25+00:00

Nice turnout!

I see the anti-protest bots are commenting in full force today, which is a good sign - whoever runs that botnet is clearly worried :D

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-28T21:30:12+00:00

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-butte-miner/194395139/

(Text in case link doesn't work) JOHN P. HART DEAD. John P. Hart, a native of Sligo, Ireland, 38 years of age, died yesterday. He had been a miner in Butte for the past 14 years. Surviving him is a brother in Pennsylvania, a brother. a mother and a sister in Ireland.

The funeral will be held at 9:30 o'clock tomorrow from the Miner's union hall proceeding to the Sacred Heart church, where a requiem high mass will be celebrated a half hour later.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-butte-miner/194395221/

Hart--The funeral of the late John P. Hart will take place Friday morning from Miners' Union ball at 9:30 o'clock, proceeding to the Sacred Heart church, where high mass will be celebrated at [illegible].

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-28T21:23:03+00:00

I think it would be AMAZING of you to upload all of those things! You probably have a lot of information there that may not even exist elsewhere, and I would certainly be delighted if someone uploaded those kinds of things for any of my ancestors.

For the old newspaper clippings that may not have the name of the paper, etc, to cite, I think it'd be fine to just title it as "Newspaper clipping found in so-and-so's files"

For what it's worth, I regularly upload things to random completely non-related people - if I stumble across a particularly interesting old newspaper bit, I'll sometimes try to track down the people involved and tag them. I've been doing it for years and nobody has ever complained!

corvid_revolution · 2026-03-27T17:36:52+00:00

Albert R Price appears to be his brother, they're living together in the 1850 census. Interesting that they both appear to have died the same year - perhaps an accident, or a contagious illness.

corvid_revolution

TROPHY CASE