Help with a brickwall for Joseph Franklin?

Question:I know that he was born in or about 1864 in Illinois. He shows as 36 in the 1900 census. By the time he was married with children he was living in Tonganoxie Kansas. His wife's name was Eliza who was born in English Canada. My great grandfather was Joseph's son and his name was Herbert Franklin. Joseph also had children by the name of Walter, Bessie, Sarah, Mabel, and Jessie in the year of 1900. Joseph was enlisted in the United States Military at some point in his life as well.

My problem is that try as i might i cannot find his parents. In one of Joseph's Census records it shows his parents as coming from Kentucky. It is also possible that his mothers name was Mary.

Is there anyone out there with more experience than I have that could help me out? I am a member of Ancestry.com and have been searching it for a month now with no results.

Thanks.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I know that he was born in or about 1864 in Illinois. He shows as 36 in the 1900 census. By the time he was married with children he was living in Tonganoxie Kansas. His wife's name was Eliza who was born in English Canada. My great grandfather was Joseph's son and his name was Herbert Franklin. Joseph also had children by the name of Walter, Bessie, Sarah, Mabel, and Jessie in the year of 1900. Joseph was enlisted in the United States Military at some point in his life as well.

My problem is that try as i might i cannot find his parents. In one of Joseph's Census records it shows his parents as coming from Kentucky. It is also possible that his mothers name was Mary.

Is there anyone out there with more experience than I have that could help me out? I am a member of Ancestry.com and have been searching it for a month now with no results.

Thanks.

The beauty of Kansas is that they also did an extra census mid-decade, with a little different info.

From that we find that your Joseph served in the NJ Infantry, Company I, Regiment 9. Since this is a record from 1905, he probably served in the Spanish-American War. But you can contact the Military Personnel Center at the St. Louis Archives to get copies of his service records. http://www.archives.gov

The 1895 Kansas Census lists his parents as living in Stranger KS and his father is listed as "WH Franklin". Yes, he was born in KY. Under the category "Where from to Kansas" it does list Illinois.

According to the 1900 federal census, they were married for 11 years as of the date of the enumeration. So they were either married in early 1889 or late 1888. His DOB was April 1864 and hers was Nov 1866. Since son Walter was born in 1890 in Kansas, and since we found Joseph's parents living in Kansas, I think it's a fair assumption that they were also married in Kansas. I would contact the county for a copy of their marriage license and marriage license application. The application contains a mass of information that the court files, but doesn't include on the actual license. It will give you all sorts of info on her parents. According to the State website, their copies of the records don't go back far enough and you have to petition for a copy through the local district court.

He owned his home outright, so the property records in Tongonoxie will tell you when he moved there. If that's where he lived when he died, then also look for a probated will in the local court house. Here's more on that: http://www.kshs.org/genealogists/land/in...

The 1910 Census has them moving to Oklahoma and once again they own the land. The good news is that it means there is a land sale record in Kansas and a land purchase record in Oklahoma. The other good news is that there are several small kids in the census list, and they were all born in Kansas. So from that we know that the move to Oklahoma was pretty recent. Also very curious is that in the 1895 Kansas Census, your Joseph and Eliza were living with his parents, as well as son Walter (aka Sebord), daughter Bessie and son Bert. In that 1895 enumeration, it also tells us that Eliza was living in Missouri before moving to Kansas. That's an important clue because then we know she wasn't in Illinois with Joseph and they probably weren't married there.

Do you know where at in Illinois he was born? That may help me as I search.

EDIT:

This MAY be it, but it says nothing about Kentucky. But the census taker could have been wrong and put Illinois instead as place of birth for the parents. This is the 1870 census for Washington County, IL. There are 3 families on this page with the last name Franklin. They may all be related since they all live next door to each other.

Name: Joseph Franklin
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1867
Age in 1870: 3
Birthplace: Illinois
Home in 1870: Township 3 Range 3, Washington, Illinois
Race: White
Gender: Male
Post Office: Pilot Knob

Head of house: John, age 24, farmer, place of birth Illinois
Mary A, age 22, keeping house, place of birth Illinois
Calvin(??), age 5, birth place Illinois
Joseph, age 3, birth place Illinois

I don't know if this link will work or not, but this is the direct link to the census page:

http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=V...

EDIT: Don't discount that as a possibility. Ages were often wrong by several years on census records. I have one I just looked at a couple days ago where one of my people were 45 in 1850, 45 in 1860, 55 in 1870, and 62 in 1880. Now how he didn't age from 1850-1860 I don't know. And how he only aged 7 years instead of 10 from 1870-1880, I'll never know. I don't rule out anything that comes "close enough". I would say that a difference of only 3 years is considered "close enough" to count as a possibility.

EDIT AGAIN: For future reference, also consider alternate spellings of the names. The census takers did not always know how to spell, or did not always have nice handwriting, and sometimes accents were an issue and the census taker might mistake the name for a similar sounding name. Therefore, when the records were transcribed on Ancestry.com, often things got messed up. I found one of my families for one year listed as "Rickett" instead of "Pickett". Another line was listed as "Bond" instead of "Vaughan". I have a Crouse line that I have found spelled all KINDS of ways on the census records for different years. They are a real thrill to try to find. I never know when I am looking for one of those branches how it is going to be spelled. Sometimes you got to get creative on how you search.........meaning when you enter your search criteria, change around the details and look at the results it gives you for clues, and be open to all possibilities. They were not as accurate about such details back then as we are now. Many did not even know exactly how old they or their kids were. They often estimated.

Still going through the book I mentioned, will email you with anything else I discover.

I didn't read all the answers but we found our great grandmothers name from the baptismal record at my grandma's church. Prior to the 1900's many towns did not record births but many churches will still have the old record books that list the parents names, including mothers maiden name. So if you know where he was baptized, try going to that church or the churches in that area and ask.

www.findagrave.com
Joseph Franklin
Birth: 1863
Death: 1936
"Father" (Shares tombstone with wife Eliza Franklin)
Burial:
North Persimmon Cemetery
Sharon ,Woodward County ,Oklahoma, USA

Eliza Franklin
Birth: 1865
Death: 1952
"Mother" (Shares tombstone with husband Joseph Franklin)
Burial: North Persimmon Cemetery; Sharon, Woodward Co., Oklahoma

www.ancestry.com
Joseph Franklin
Birth: 1864 , Illinois
Death: 1936 , Oklahoma
Married:
Eliza (maiden name unknown)
Birth: 1865
Death: 1952; Oklahoma
Their Children:
Cora Franklin F 1891
Bessie or Bessa Franklin F 1893
Herbert E Franklin-- M--b. 1894 in Junction City, Kansas
Sarah or Stella Franklin-- F--b. 1896
Mable Franklin-- F--b. 1898
Violet Franklin-- F--b. 1903
Elsie Franklin-- F--b. 1905

www.findagrave.com
Private Herbert E. Franklin (See draft card below )
Birth: unknown (1894 maybe??)
Death: Jul. 5, 1916
Inscription: Gloucestershire Regiment
Burial: Loos Memorial
Loos-en-Gohelle ,Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France
Plot: Panel 60 to 64.
(photo of cemetery on 2nd page of pictures)

www.ancestry.com--World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 (card number 391)
Name: Herbert Ernest Franklin
City: Not Stated
County: Woodward
State: Oklahoma
Birthplace: Tonganoxie, Leavenworth ,Kansas;United States of America
Birth Date: 1 Nov 1894
Race: Caucasian (White)
Roll: 1852245
DraftBoard: 0
Age:22
Occupation: Farm laborer for Ed Boggiss
Nearest Relative: None given on original; said he was "single, no dependents"
Height/Build: Medium
Color of Eyes/Hair: Light blue eyes/Light brown hair

1900 United States Federal Census
Name: Joseph Franklin
Home in 1900: Tonganoxie, Leavenworth, Kansas
Age: 36
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1864
Birthplace: Illinois
Relationship to head-of-house: Head
Spouse's Name: Eliza
Race: White
Household Members: Name-- Age
Joseph Franklin-- 36 (b. abt 1864, ILL.)
Eliza Franklin-- 33 (b. abt 1867; Canada English)
Walter S Franklin--M-- 9 (b. abt 1891, KS)
Bessie G Franklin--F --7 (b. abt 1893, KS)
Herbert E Franklin--M-- 5 (b.abt. 1894; KS)
Sarah S Franklin--F-- 4 (b. abt 1896, KS)
Mabel M Franklin--F --2 (b. abt 1898 ,KS
Jessie J Franklin--F-- 7.12 (7 months; b.abt 1899, KS )

Could this possibly be Joseph's father and his grandparents??:
William Thomas FRANKLIN** was born 24 Mar 1841 in Anderson Co., KY. He was the son of 2. William Lewis FRANKLIN and 3. LYDIA BUSEY.(**NO WIFE MENTIONED)
(if so, there are another 4 generations at http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin... that go back to JACOB PHILPOT , born 1710-1715, on Lydia's side.

(I hope this helps you a little bit.)

rootsweb.com has 3 files, all for the Joseph Franklin of Washington co, Illinois, whose parents are shown as John Franklin and Mary Lafferty.
The wife and children are listed for this Joseph, who died there in Washington co in 1938, and is not the same as your man.
If you possibly can.. look at your Joseph's death records, or anything else that may connect him to a sibling. Do you have wife's maiden name, or place of marriage? that is another place to hunt for his parents.
By 1880, it is not impossible that his parents died, and he may be living with relatives. Keep an open mind.