Did you read Elizabeth Shown Mills’ Facebook post about using the FamilySearch Family Tree? While I missed this excellent post on her personal FB page, I read the cross-posting of it in The Genealogy Squad group (membership in group likely required to read the post.) Her post along with many of the comments shared one of the primary reasons why I try to use the FamilySearch tree and WikiTree: collaboration!
Elizabeth’s excellent post was also a reminder that I need to do a better job of adding the sourcing I’ve collected in my RootsMagic file. Having just found an Iowa death certificate for Sarah Ann Gilbert on Ancestry (who is one of my Thompson cousins), I decided to add that source to Sarah Thompson on the FS tree. That’s when I discovered that I was linked to a Sarah A Thompson [K2QL-XPY] who did not have a spouse or children on the FS tree but was linked to her parents.
Ironically, I had some of her children linked from my RootsMagic file to the FS tree. Those children show a different Sarah Ann Thompson [KDSQ-7TN] as their mother. This Sarah Thompson is not linked to parents but has the same birth and death dates as K2QL-XPY.
Both Sarah’s have sources. These sources don’t overlap. The Sarah with parents has sources for before her marriage, while the Sarah with children has sources for after her marriage. Neither Sarah had the death certificate attached, even though it came up as an Ancestry hint for me.
This death certificate clearly identifies the parents of Sarah Gilbert. In addition to the death certificate, obituaries for Sarah identify the children and some of her siblings.
Mrs. Sarah Gilbert
“Mrs. Sarah Gilbert Dies Wednesday,” Chariton Herald Patriot (Chariton, Iowa), 28 June 1945, page 6; digital images, Advantage-Preservation (chariton.advantage-preservation.com : viewed online December 2018).
Dies Wednesday
Mrs. Sarah Ann Gilbert, 87, died
Wednesday afternoon at her home
621 York avenue. She had been
in ill health for several months.
Mrs. Gilbert was a pioneer resi-
dent of Lucas county, and came to
Charlton from the vicinity of La
Grange in 1920.
Surviving her are three daugh-
ters, Mrs. Effie Anderson. of Hum-
eston, Mrs. Corn Adcock and Miss
Malsey Gilbert, of Charlton; 12
grandchildren and 12 great grand-
children; one sister, Mrs. Ella
Hight, of Bridgewater; and two
brothers, Grant Thompson, of
Belleville, Kansas, and Andrew
Thompson of Townsend, Montana.
Funeral services, conducted by
Rev. Everett Hollingshead, will be
held at 2:00 o’clock Friday after-
noon at the Assembly of God
church and burial will be in the
LaGrange cemetery.
Mrs. Sarah Ann Gilbert
“Mrs. Sarah Ann Gilbert,” Chariton Herald Patriot (Chariton, Iowa), 5 July 1945, page 4; digital images, Advantage-Preservation (chariton.advantage-preservation.com : viewed online December 2018).
Sarah Ann Thompson, born Sept.
4, 1857, in Kansas, and passed away
at her house in Chariton, Iowa, on
June 24, 1945, at the age of 87
years, 9 months and 23 days.
She moved to Wayne county,
Iowa, when young with her par-
ents, where she grew to young
womanhood.
She was married to Jacob W.
Gilbert on March 13, 1877, who died
Jan. 3, 1915. To this union six chil-
dren were born, one son and five
daughters, three of whom are liv-
ing. Malsey Gilbert of Chariton,
who was at home with her mother;
Mrs. Cora Adcock, also of Chari-
ton; and Mrs. Effie Anderson of
Humeston. The son, Donnie, of
Chariton and two daughters, Mrs.
Pearl Strouse, of St. Paul, Minn.,
and Mrs Millie Weller, of Albia,
preceded her in death.
One sister and two brothers also
survive her. They are Mrs. Ella
Hight, of Bridgewater, Iowa;
Grant Thompson, of Belleville,
Kansas; and Andy Thompson, of
Townsend, Montana. There are also
twelve grandchildren and twelve
great grandchildren.
She had three grandson in the
service of their country, Gerald
Adcock, stationed at Spokane,
Wash.; Selby Weller, in the Pacific
area, and John Strouse, who lost
his life in Ireland. Three great
grandsons, Paul and Bill Adcock
and Keith Muson are also in the
service.
At the age of ten she was con-
verted and lived a faithful Christ-
tian life until death.
How feeble are words to carry
consolation to hearts bereaved of
a beloved mother. No one can fill
her place in a vacant chair; no one
will take her place in their hearts,
and they would not have the void
filled, even if they could, as she
had suffered poor health for so long.
the years to come to children and
friends, that she shed a radiance
in her home as long as she did.
It will be a blessed recollection
that her family grew up to love
her and were at her bedside to give
her every possible comfort in her
last hours on earth.
Her memory will be tenderly
cherished by all.
Funeral services, conducted by
the Rev. Everett Hollingshead,
were held at 2:30 o’clock Friday
afternoon at the Assembly of God
church, and burial was in the La
Grange cemetery.
Thus, I believe I have enough documentation to conclude these are the same person. Since the Sarah with children has more sources attached, I am going to use her as the ‘original’ and merge the Sarah with parents with her. Once the merge was finished, I added the transcriptions of the obituaries to the sources.
Hopefully, I provided enough information to justify the merge. I’m also hoping that this merge will help other Thompson descendants in their research so that we can move back another generation in our Thompson tree.