Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Who Does This Child Belong To?

Often one will ask a census search to give you everyone of a specific surname in a county. Sometimes odd things crop up when you do. Over a month ago the results of a1920 census search of Rutledges in Upshur County, Texas, turned up a stray. A one-year old boy, Dean Rutledge, is listed as "grandson" in the William T. Foster family. So I made a note of him, a mystery to be solved. In the 1930 census a "Dan Rutledge" of the age Dean would have been 10 years later was living with the Oliver Carmack Rutledge family.

However, the marriage information on the 1930 census for Oliver and wife Viola, and the ages of the other children led me to believe Dan was the son of a first wife. And a search of the Texas Birth Index located a Dean March Rutledge born in Upshur County in 1918.

Were Dean and Dan the same person? Today I think so because a Georgie F. Rutledge is buried in Morris Cemetery, Pritchett, Upshur County, Texas. The dates on her grave marker are 1896-1918. In the 1910 census Georgia Ann Foster is living with her father, William T. Foster, on the farm next door to Oliver Rutledge. Coincidence? I think not.

Oliver was single when he registered for the World War One draft on 5 June 1917. My best guess is he married Georgie shortly afterwards and she died when her son was born. Maybe someday someone will read this entry and confirm it.

1 comment:

  1. Dean March Rutledge (1918-2005) is the son of Oliver Carmack Rutledge and Georgia Foster Rutledge. Georgia died of pneumonia, I believe, shortly after Dean's birth. Oliver, my Father, moved in with mother- and father-in-law: the Fosters. Oliver married my Mother, Evy Viola Gooslby, in 1922(?) and Dean remained in the Rutledge family until he entered WWII in 1942. Dean was discharged in Washington State in 1945 and remained in WA until his death in 2005. He was the oldest of Oliver's children and I am the youngest. Charles Jerry Rutledge

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