A research challenge

Ralph S Schermerhorn [May 6, 1884 – September 1967]

Our challenge was to find the parents of Ralph S Schermerhorn with nothing more to go on than one entry in the 1900 US Census. Ralph was born around 1884 so this was the first Census collection that he could appear in, the 1890 collection was destroyed in 1921 during a fire in the basement of Commerce building in Washington. The information from the 1900 US Census (Figure 1) has Ralph listed as the nephew to the family, and there was a George Mingle listed as a father in law. (click on the images to see in better detail)

Figure 1 – 1900 Census

Ralph was either nephew to Luther or Martha L, the surnames Wells and Mingle lead us to believe that a female sibling of Luther or Martha had married a male Schermerhorn. So the search is now for a female Mingle or Wells around 1880, just a few years before Ralph was born. Before we did that we discovered the 1895 Iowa state census (Figure 2).

Figure 2 – Iowa 1895

Here is the same family, however the wife’s name is now listed as Lydia (Martha L in 1900), Ralph and George are listed with the family.

We then took the ‘easier’ name route of looking for George Mingle, rather than the more common name Wells, In earlier census records we discovered George and Lydia in 1870 (Figure 3) living in Amboy, Illinois with another daughter Cora, age10.

 Figure 3 – 1870 Census

We know that Lydia married Luther Wells so the only other possible candidate to be Ralph’s mother from this family was Cora. We then looked for George Mingle in the 1880 census, none listed. We then looked for variations or incorrect spellings of the surname. We found George Mangle, still in Amboy, Illinois (Figure 4) with wife Mary and daughter Cora, now Cora Schermerholm.