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Tuesday, February 18, 2020

52 Ancestors 2020 – 7 – Favorite Discovery – Deborah (Hockett) Blair


I wasn't sure how this topic would work for this great-grandaunt of mine, Deborah (Hockett) Blair, an older sister of my Great-grandmother Mary Magdalene (Hockett) Albertson. They were daughters of Francis and Rebecca (Hartley) Hockett. They had 9 other brothers and sisters. I had a bare minimum about Deborah on my genealogy website – joanne skelton.com. It does show Deborah was born 18 Feb 1849 in Henry County, Iowa. She married Albert Dillon about 1868 and they had two children: Ella Kay and Allie May. After Albert died she married Joseph Blair and they had four children: Lawrence Edwin, Henrietta M, Howard and Gale E. She was listed as surviving in her sister Lydia's obituary in Nov 1922.

But when I began researching to discover what more I could learn about her, I did make 3 interesting discoveries.

First was her death certificate which was listed as a source for her death at familysearch Family Tree. I was glad to find documentation for her death, which was 12 June 1925 in Hardin County, Iowa. But I was surprised at the maiden name given for Deborah's mother. It shows her maiden name as Rebecca Larr. It was Rebecca's mother who probably had the maiden name Larr. So this does give me evidence that the Larr name is in the family.

Secondly I found her Find a Grave entry as Deborah Ann Hockett Blair. It shows that she was buried in Honey Creek Cemetery in New Providence, Hardin County, Iowa. There are links to her parents, 8 of her siblings, her first husband and 6 children.

The third discovery is a mystery. Looking at the familysearch Family Tree it showed one more child than I had already entered on my website, Archie Artell Blair. I am not convinced that he is a child of Deborah. His birthdate is shown as 29 Mar 1899. Since Deborah was born in 1849 she would have been 50 years old, which would be possible but not probable. There was a nine year gap from the previous known child. In the information about Archie or Artell, there is a document showing his mother as Deborah, but there is another which shows Etta. Deborah had a daughter Henrietta aka Etta who was born in Oct 1878, so would have been old enough to be his mother.

I decided to check for Archie on the census of 1900 and try to find who he was living with as a baby. I have not yet found him. Deborah was living in Hardin County, Iowa with her husband Joseph and their two sons, Edwin and Gale. The census taker marked that she had had 4 children, 3 living. The Dillon girls seem to be left out but it does account for the Blair children I have on my website. Henrietta was also living in Hardin County in the household of Seth Hammer, marked as a servant and single. But it does list her as having 1 child, who was living.

Since the 1910 census also asks the question about number of children and number living, I checked both Deborah and Henrietta in 1910. Deborah and Joseph and their son Gale were living with Edwin in neighboring Marshall County, Iowa. There her number
of children is 6, with 5 living. So this matches what I have entered on my website, including both Dillon and Blair children. But what about Henrietta? She was married in Marshall County in 1902 to John Mohler as Etta Blair. She and John are in the 1910 census back in Hardin County with a baby daughter Garnet age 9/12. On the number of children question the census taker wrote down 2, with 2 living. So again I searched for Archie or Artell in the 1910 census. I looked for anyone named Blair, born in 1899 plus/minus 5 years, first in Hardin County, Iowa and then in Marshall County. He does not show up in either of those searches.

He does appear on the 1920 census in the household of John and Etta in Hardin County, as Artell Blair, along with 3 Mohler children and Deborah. With John as the head of household, Deborah is marked as mother-in-law and Artell as brother-in-law. So I still have not solved the mystery. Is there anyone who has further information?

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