If there is anything a researcher in search of matrilineal descendants wouldn't want to see, it would be to discover that the line of interest didn't "daughter out." That, however, is exactly what unfolded as I looked at what became of the two daughters of Sarah Mitchell. Sarah, if you'll recall, was herself a daughter of the recently-discovered extra matrilineal descendant, Rosanna Jackson Mitchell, who in turn was daughter of my mother-in-law's third great-grandmother Sarah Ijams Jackson.
With that youngest daughter of that newly-discovered matriline, Sarah Mitchell, I was at first elated to discover she had had two daughters of her own. Anna Nugent was the oldest of Sarah's daughters, born in 1881 in Chickasaw County, Iowa, where Sarah's parents had originally settled after their move from Ohio.
After her widowed mother moved the family to nearby Wright County, Anna met and married a twenty eight year old railroad man from Indiana by the name of Orville S. Carr. Their wedding was performed by a Justice of the Peace and recorded in Wright County on December 12, 1900.
As had many of the rest of Anna's family, Anna and Orville Carr moved from Iowa to California. They can be found in the 1910 census in San Joaquin County, on Roberts Island, just outside the city of Stockton, along with their two sons, Cecil and Leo. Ten years later, Anna, though still listed as married, had moved with her children to live with her mother in nearby Sacramento County. Though she now was mother to three children, not a one of them was a daughter. Checking her obituary, published only months after her mother's passing in 1939, we can see that Anna was confirmed as having been survived by three sons: in addition to Cecil and Leo, there was third son Bernard. No daughters.
Anna died at the home of her sister in Roseville, Placer County. Her obituary mentioned that she had resided with her sister for the past three months. It is quite possible that illness obligated her to reside near someone who could care for her in her last months of life.
Her sister, Mary Elizabeth, had married someone before 1918 who was alternately referred to as Thomas F. or Francis T. Harrigan. Though this will come as no surprise to learn at this point, Mary's 1947 obituary confirmed that this daughter of our matriline also died leaving only sons: Virgil and George Harrigan. Where were those daughters we were hoping to find in that next generation?
Striking out on our matrilineal tour with this youngest daughter of Rosanna Jackson Mitchell, Sarah Mitchell Nugent, we still have one other option among Rosanna's daughters: the middle daughter Martha. Tomorrow, we'll see whether we can hold out hope for potential mtDNA matches from any descendants of Martha Mitchell.
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