red paper boat

I had a hell of a time finding this census record. I found an as yet unmarried Edward in the 1905 New York State census, and I found him with wife Mary, three children, and Mary’s mother in the 1920 United States Census. Both times he was living in Troy, New York. I thought it was unlikely (though possible) that they would have been living somewhere else at the time of the 1910 census, so I started searching for Edwards who were born in Ohio around 1878. Though you can see in the index entry that someone has corrected the spelling of the first name, it wasn’t coming up for me.

And obviously, searching for either Basquill or Basqu*l* wasn’t going to help, either. I finally left both name fields blank and searched Troy, Rensselear, New York for all people born in Ohio within five years of 1878. I thought that might be too big a net, but I was out of alternatives for narrowing it. It worked, though. There he was, with the last name of Pasquill. An easy mistake for an enumerator to make, because P and B sound similar.

Normally I’d switch to searching for one of the children or his wife, but the children were all born after the 1910 census, and I don’t yet know when he and Mary were married. Now that I’ve found them together in the 1910 census, I can narrow my guess for a marriage date to sometime between 1905 and 1910.

So many questions answered! I found this young man and his younger sister Mary in the 1870 census, living in Jackson, Ohio, with John Basquill and his wife, Margaret Daughan. I knew the two kids were related to Margaret, but HOW? John Daughan was 13 years younger than Margaret, so that’s a big stretch, but not impossible, if they were siblings. But they could also have been Margaret’s niece and nephew or even cousins. Without more information on the kids, I just couldn’t hope to figure it out. (I have zero information on Margaret, before her marriage to John. Partly because the last name has been recorded as everything from Daughan to Dugan to Vaughn. I found John’s and Margaret’s marriage license, but no parent names were listed. Meaning that tracing the relationship of the kids to Margaret, via her family, is so far impossible.)

So I searched the Chronicling America website at Library of Congress, and I found this obituary. Such a horrible story. John was only 27 when he died. But it confirms that the John Daughphine (see what I mean about the name?) I found in the 12 Jun 1880 census, who was living with the James Carr family, is “my” John (James’ daughter Susan was living in the same household). And that, along with the obit, confirms that the 7 Sep 1880 marriage license I found for John Daughan and Susie Carr, is for “my” John, too.

This may not pass the genealogical proof standard (three sources for each fact), but I think it’s pretty convincing evidence.

“Death of Johnny Dauhan,” The Jackson Standard, 23 Oct 1884, p. 3, col. 3; digital images, Library of Congress (www.loc.gov/ : accessed 16 Jan 2017), Chronicling America. Rec. Date: 15 Jan 2017. Cit. Date: 16 Jan 2017

Death of Johnny Dauhan

On last Saturday morning Johnny Dauhan, a young Irishman of this place, met a horrible death at Springfield, Ohio. In company with a man named John Farley, he was tunneling for a sewer, under Limestone street, and was working some eighteen feet below the surface. About thirteen inches of the mass above them was clay — the rest sand and gravel. A portion of this was left unpropped, and a street car passing above precipitated the mass of sand into the tunnel. Farley leaped for the mouth of the tunnel, and saved his life. Dauhan was caught by the mass and crushed and suffocated.

The body was taken out and brought to Jackson, on Saturday. On Monday the funeral took place, under the auspices of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, of which deceased was a member. The remains were interred in the Catholic Cemetery, east of town. The Wellston Division A.O.H. attended the funeral.

Dauhan was married, a few years ago, to a daughter of Mr. James Carr, and a sister of Mrs. Marshal Owens. Mrs. Daughan has been dead for some time. Johnny was a warm-hearted, whole-souled Irish boy, and one of the most popular of our young men. His death will be mourned by a large circle of friends, a large number of whom followed the remains to the cemetery. Deceased was a brother of Mrs. John Basquill.