Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Cecelia May McGee King..Where are You??

Cecelia May McGee King is my maternal great grandmother.  My "brick" wall. (Or should I say one of my brick walls.) 


Cecelia Mae McGee - My Family History Journey - Debbie Lowrance
Cecelia Mae McGee

My grandmother, Helen Louise Wise King, who started our family history/genealogy, is wanting information on my grandfather's mother Cecelia May McGee King.  I really don't have any information for her.  Cecelia  has been one of my biggest brick walls since I started my journey back in the 80's.  My grandmother knew Cecelia remarried a man named Jack Monroe, information that I did not know until this week.  That is all the information that we know at this time.

  • Cecelia May McGee
  • Birth 03 May 1900 in District of Columbia, USA (or so we thought)
  • Married Elmer Joseph King Sr in 1915
  • 1920 Census lists the family at 11th St. S.W., Washington City, District of Columbia
  • Divorced from Elmer Joseph King Sr in 1925
  • Married Jack Monroe
  • Died 12 Apr 1936

We had a search done for Cecelia's birth certificate and this is what we received.

My Family History Journey - Debbie Lowrance
"Cecelia May McGee - alleged date of event 3 May 1900.  There is no listing under this date of birth, but we may be able to locate siblings with parents names.  This search of six years covers the period of 1898 through 1900, inclusive."

"May be able to locate siblings with parents names"?  If I had that information, I probably would have correct info and a birth certificate.  

Why can I not find you anywhere?  My grandmother told me years ago that Cecelia one day just up and left her family.  My grandfather was very young when she left and never really knew what happened to her.  It's been a mystery, and I intend to find out what happened to her.

Nothing new on Ancestry.com.  

Looking in Find A Grave, I search and search with no results.  As you can see, I have tried all the different variations of her name that I can think of.
  • Cecelia McGee, Cecelia May McGee, Cecelia Mae McGee
  • Cecelia King, Cecelia May King, Cecelia Mae King
  • Cecelia Monroe, Cecelia May Monroe, Cecelia Mae Monroe
  • Cecelia MacGee, Cecelia May MacGee, Cecelia Mae MacGee 
  • Cece McGee, Cece May McGee, Cece Mae McGee
  • Cece King, Cece May King, Cece Mae King
  • Cece  Monroe, Cece May Monroe, Cece Mae Monroe
  • Cece MacGee, Cece May MacGee, Cece Mae MacGee
  • May McGee, May Cecelia McGee, 
  • Mae McGee, Mae Cecelia McGee
  • May King, May Cecelia King, 
  • Mae King, Mae Cecelia King
  • May Monroe, May Cecelia Monroe
  • Mae Monroe, Mae Cecelia Monroe
  • May MacGee, May Cecelia MacGee
  • Mae MacGee, Mae Cecelia MacGee
I went to FamilySearch.org and only found the 1920 census, which I already have.

Nothing at Heritage Quest.

The 1920 census on Google, again, I already have that.

( The above list of websites that I researched, are not the only sites I have looked on.  These are just a few. )

I have to expand my search.  Hmm, I am thinking that I will search in Maryland or Virginia.  I don't seem to be getting anything in Washington, DC.


Where are you Cecelia???


Cecelia Mae McGee King, Agnes, and Edith.  My Family History Journey - Debbie Lowrance

I have no idea who the other 2 women are in this picture with my great grandmother.  All I do know is that the woman in the middle is Agnes and the woman on the right is Edith.  Sisters maybe?  Friends?  Cousins?  I wish I knew!  I wish I knew where you went?  Why you left?  So many questions, and not very many answers.

Debbie





      




4 comments:

  1. Debbie,

    I want to let you know that your blog is listed in today's Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2014/08/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-august-1.html

    Have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I found two tiny hints in newspapers. The birth of a son - probably Raymond, and the marriage of Horace Atwell, who was living with them in the 1920 census. I will contact you through email.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Another resource that has just "opened up" in a big way is genealogy books in ebook format.

    Amazon recently introduced its Kindle Unlimited program, which allows you to borrow and read as many Kindle ebooks as you like, for $9.95 a month. I wonder if genealogists have grasped what a godsend KU may be. Here's why:

    In the genealogy section of the Kindle ebook store on Amazon, along with the how-to-climb-your-family-tree books, there's a huge number of reference and raw-data collections, from histories of specific families to ships' records, newspaper abstracts, etc. The problem with such books in the past has been that you didn't know until after you purchased one (whether a print or a digital copy) if it contained information relevant to your own research.

    With Kindle Unlimited, this pig-in-a-poke problem vanishes.

    Here's what you could do to further your research without gambling on books that may or may not have anything of use in them (to you). With a Kindle Unlimited subscription, you could borrow ten genealogy ebooks (the maximum allowed at one time). Then you could flip through them, or use your Kindle device's search feature, to find any information of use to you. If you don't find anything, then you can simply return them and borrow ten more.

    I know that these days, there are tons of information for ancestor hunters available for free or for a subscription fee at the dedicated genealogy websites such as Ancestry.com.

    But there's still a lot of data locked up in various small-press books and books by individuals writing their own family's story. Kindle Unlimited gives us genealogists a virtually cost-free way to unlock those books -- at least the ones that have been committed to ebook format (and you might be surprised how many there are).

    By the way, you don't even need a Kindle device to read Kindle books. You can download a free Kindle reading app for your smartphone or laptop that will do the trick. (Also BTW, I do NOT work for Amazon.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for the information Steve! I will definitely have to check that out!

    ReplyDelete