Last night I found Marion Chase!

These are pictures from Vale Cemetery in Schnectady, New York that I took summer of 2003. Evans and Triphena are my 4-great grandparents (Mimi's gg-grands for a reference point). They had 4 boys. The parents and 2 of the boys died between 1880-1886 and are all buried here. That left Gilbert (our ancestor) and Marion. Gilbert's wife and daughter (the daughter is Mimi's mother) show up in the 1900 census in California and she is remarried, so he most likely died between 1887 and 1895 (or ran off, or something).

I had not been able to find Marion anywhere. I thought perhaps he had also died (the 1880 census shows the mother had "consumption") and, being the last of the family, was perhaps buried in a pauper's grave without a marker. Last night I was checking on the accuracy and completeness of my information on this family as I was working in the New FamilySearch and I came across my notes showing a middle initial for Marion in the 1870 Census. Now, he's also listed as a female in that census, so I took that with a grain of salt!

But I got to thinking...Marion E. Chase...his father's name is Evans M. Chase...what are the chances that E stands for Evans? I went to Ancestry and searched.

Here he is in Alabama (of all places) in 1900 with a wife and 2 daughters. The clincher is the fact that the second daughter is named Triphena!


The brick wall was broken down and the information started rushing out! I found the family in the 1910, 1920, and 1930 censuses. In 1920 his daughter Triphena was there with her husband and her son is on the next page. I found her husband's WWI draft registration with his full birth date and place. The other daughter, May Ida, was a spinster schoolteacher who took a trip to Europe. Here is her passport application:


It not only has her full birth date and place, but also her father's full name and his birthplace. Yes, he is Evans Marion Chase. And Little Falls is where his father (the Evans M. on the tombstone) is with his parents in the 1850 census.
I then found death records for Evans Marion and his daughter May Ida in Georgia and for Triphena and her husband and son (both named Perry Lewis Harrison) in Florida.
From 1880 to 1985 in one very productive night!