Indirect Indicators

 

In the case of a young bride dying so soon after the birth of her second child, not much can be found to record her life's story—not, at least, for those living in the early 1840s in Perry County, Ohio. To find anything more on Lidia Miller, wife of William Gordon, it may be necessary to rely on indirect indicators of her family and infer from those details what would likely be Lidia's life story.

Lidia Miller was my mother-in-law's second great-grandmother. One of the few actual signs of her existence is the faded record of her marriage to William Gordon on April 24, 1838, in Perry County. Though she did have two sons who survived her, not much can be found concerning those children's early years; I have yet to find baptismal records, for instance. The brief life of the second-born son, William, can be found in his 1841 memorial headstone where he was laid to rest at Holy Trinity Cemetery in Somerset. There, the faded engraving indicated the infant lived one month and died on February 25. Even the note etched on the stone, naming his parents, seems to blur out Lidia's name, though the child's father's name—also William—can clearly be seen.

From there, the details dim further. Firstborn son Adam spent his earliest years living with his widowed paternal grandmother—where he can clearly be seen listed in her household for the 1850 census. We need to fast-forward to the 1900 census to see where Adam stated that, while his dad was born in Pennsylvania, his mother was an Ohio native.

Adam can also be found in his by-then deceased paternal grandfather's 1849 will. This grandfather, also named William Gordon, had seen to it that provision be made not only for the many grown children from his two marriages, but specifically for his orphaned young grandson in the sixth item in his final testament, also naming Adam's father.

As for any other signs of Adam's mother, we need to jump to the seventy ninth year of his own life to see one last mention of Lidia's name. On Adam's March 5, 1918, death certificate, his son Simon reported that Adam's mother was named "Lida" Miller.

So Lidia was remembered, at least by family. But where else was she documented? And can we find anyone else from her own Miller family? That's the question I'll have to grapple with this month. I want to find something more than mere indirect indicators of her existence.