{"id":2046,"date":"2013-01-15T00:02:54","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T07:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blackenedroots.com\/blog\/?p=2046"},"modified":"2013-01-15T00:51:16","modified_gmt":"2013-01-15T07:51:16","slug":"hes-dead-jim-or-down-a-blind-alley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackenedroots.com\/blog\/hes-dead-jim-or-down-a-blind-alley\/","title":{"rendered":"He’s dead, Jim (or, Down a blind alley)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In the last three posts, I laid out the evidence for my hypothesis that my great-great-grandfather’s death shortly before 1900 was a ruse, and that he had instead lived to the ripe old age of 87, dying in 1965 in Denver, CO.<\/p>\n

I felt at the time that this was the simplest explanation that accounted for all of the known facts. Over the last two days, I’ve been digging hard and deep into historical documents to fill in the blank spots in the story. The evolving picture was consistent with the posts I wrote about the death being a ruse. As I mentioned in the third and final post, the alternative scenario was that there had been two Gilbert M. Scherers running around at the same time, who just happened to have been born in the same place on the same date, to families which had the same first names, and with only one of these Gilberts at a time being documented in the historical record. To me, that seemed a greater stretch than the faked death story.<\/p>\n

But then I stumbled upon this document\u2014an 1870 census return from Smyrna, Iowa\u2014and everything started to fall apart. On this census is a five-year-old boy named Gilbert M. Shearer, a Gilbert M. Shearer who would have been about 13 years older than the Gilbert M. Scherer I had been documenting.
\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After seeing this document, I realized that of the only three pieces of historical documentation I had about the Gilbert M. Shearer who was my great-great-grandfather (the “G1” Gilbert of yesterday’s post), one of these documents\u2014the one upon which I relied most heavily, the 1880 federal census entry\u2014was not actually of my great-great-grandfather at all, but rather of this mysterious “G2” Gilbert M. Scherer.<\/p>\n

Eureka! \u00a0Of course<\/em> the two Gilberts (G1 and G2) seemed to match up so perfectly\u2014much of the information I had about G1 was actually information about G2! With the information from the newly found 1870 census record added to the picture of G1 Gilbert and the information from the 1880 census pulled out of the picture of the G1 Gilbert, here’s the revised comparison chart:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/th>\n“G1” Gilbert<\/strong><\/th>\n1880 census<\/strong><\/th>\n“G2” Gilbert<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Name<\/strong><\/td>\nGilbert M. Shearer<\/td>\nGilbert Scherer<\/td>\nGilbert Michael Scherer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Birthdate<\/strong><\/td>\nca. 1865<\/td>\nca. 1878<\/td>\nJune 7, 1878<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Birthplace<\/strong><\/td>\n(? Smyrna, Iowa)
\n(was living there at 5 years old)<\/td>\n		(? Perryville, Missouri)
\n(was living there at 2 years old)<\/td>\n		Perryville, Missouri<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mother<\/strong><\/td>\nEmeline C. Shearer<\/td>\nEmma B. Scherer<\/td>\nEmma B. Scherer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mother’s maiden name<\/strong><\/td>\n?<\/td>\nFink<\/td>\nZink<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Father<\/strong><\/td>\nJohn F. Shearer<\/td>\nWilliam Scherer<\/td>\nWilliam Scherer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Siblings<\/strong><\/td>\nJoseph F. Shearer
\nCynthia A. Shearer
\nMary C. Shearer
\nJohn D. Shearer<\/td>\n		Iva “Ivy” L. Scherer
\nZulieke<\/td>\n		Ivy L. Scherer
\nJulieke
\nLeslie<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Yikes\u2014the G1 Gilbert and G2 Gilbert actually do<\/strong><\/em><\/span> seem to be\u00a0different people after all, so the last three posts can essentially be completely ignored. Wow. I’m going to need to do a bit of post-game analysis to figure out how I could have gone so very far down that blind alley.<\/p>\n

In case you already read the last three posts, let me correct a couple of my conclusions:<\/p>\n