I've still been a bit lax this year in my researching. I've spent more time organizing and making lists than doing any actual digging, but I have done some minor searching here and there looking for more information on the people I've already identified in the family tree.
One of the mysteries I've been trying to solve is what happened to my great grandfather Marshall's siblings. I found his missing sibling identified in the 1900 Census -- Lizzie -- earlier this year in old cemetery records for Calvary Cemetery, and I know his younger sister Nellie died in childbirth in 1909. That left figuring out what happened to his older brother John Henry, his younger brother Joseph, and his older sister Mary (aka Mollie.) I know Joseph is alive as late as 1920 since he is living with Marshall in the 1920 census. I know John Henry is alive as late as 1918 as his is a witness to Marshall's marriage to Mary Mullane. The best information I had on Mollie is her name appearing in Nellie's death notice in 1909. The only direct record I had, however, was when she appeared in the 1900 Census with the rest of her family.
After 1900, I've had a heck of a time finding what happened to Mollie. I don't know what she did for a living, so any possible leads in the city directories are just guesses. If she got married, I would need to know her husband's name to find her. In Nellie's death notice in 1909, she's referenced as Nellie's sister, Mollie Murray. Mollie was born in 1870, which would make her 39 in 1909, so my best guess based on that information was that she had never married. Still, I couldn't find any record that I could confirm was my Mollie (Mary) Murray.
I've recently spent some time going back to resources that I was aware of, but hadn't really utilized much. There are several sources of historical mortuary records available online and I decided to spend a bit of time running through them at sfgenealogy.com and familysearch.org. Mostly I was entering surnames of family members and seeing if anyone turned up in the records. I found a bunch of the Mullanes on the SF Genealogy site that matched up with records I'd already found, but didn't have much luck with any of the other surnames. Over at FamilySearch, however, I got a hit on Murray.
The record indicated the father's name was John Murray, so I looked over to see who the child was. Her name was Mollie Johnson and she died on February 25, 1917. Well, that's interesting. I clicked on the record and the attached image from the J.S. Godeau Funeral Records had details on the funeral and, quite helpfully, a copy of the death notice in the paper. I took a look at the record and the very brief death notice indicated that Mollie was the "beloved wife of Charles Johnson and sister of John, Joe, and Edward Murray." Now, according to this record, Mollie was 38 years old, but based on the census records I have, Mollie should have been 46 or 47 years old in February 1917. Considering the liberties most of the Murrays took with their ages, I'm not going to discount this being the correct Mollie because of her age. Her father's name is correct as are the names of her three brothers. It would have been more helpful if my great grandfather had been referred to by his first name Marshall rather than his middle name Edward, but since he went by both, I'm not going to discount that bit either.
The funeral record indicated she died at home in Oakland and that the cause of death was pending an inquest. I would imagine that record would be found in the Alameda county records and with a death date and a married last name I can also check the state death records and try to obtain a copy of her death certificate. She's buried at Holy Cross like so many other family members, but it doesn't appear as if her husband Charles was buried with her. There is a Charles Johnson buried somewhat near her with a Mary Johnson, so it's possible he remarried and wound up buried with his second wife. The name is a bit too common to be certain though.
I've done a little bit of searching on Charles Johnson to see if I can find a marriage record for he and Mollie, but so far no luck. I would imagine they got married in San Francisco or Oakland sometime between 1909 and 1917 based on the information I have so far, but nothing's turned up in my usual search locations as yet.
While I'm not 100% certain that I've found "my" Mollie, I again have a pretty good probability.
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