Thomas Ray Allen’s first wife Georgie Ann Martin/McDougal was born about 1853 in Larue County Kentucky. Her mother was Fannie McDougal and her father was Ephriam Martin. In the records her surname is given as “Martin” although Thomas uses “McDougal”. She had a large number of siblings. One brother, Thomas McDougal, served in the United States Colored Troops, although in a different unit than Thomas Ray Allen.
In 1870 Georgie Ann was enumerated twice, once with her family in Larue County and then with her future husband Thomas in Marion County. Thomas Ray Allen and Georgie Ann were living with his sister Sarah Ray Primus and her family. Georgie’s occupation was given as “servant”.
Thomas Ray Allen and Georgie were married on March 9, 1871 in Larue county. They moved to Indianapolis about 1877 and were divorced there in 1878. I lost track of Georgie after that, finding her only once in the 1880 census. She was living in Indianapolis, divorced and doing washing. I found someone with the same name giving mandolin lessons and so wanted it to be her, but when I followed up that person in the census it was someone else.
I found this information in the Pension file and in census records.
You must have easier access to records than we have in the UK. It costs an arm and a leg to access documents. Do you have to pay for those you are showing us?
The pension files are available at the National Archives in Washington DC. It doesn’t cost anything to view them, but since I am not in that area, I hired someone to go and copy them for me. I paid about $60 to get it copied. It’s about hundred pages. I’ve been able to access the census records, marriage records, etc that weren’t in the pension file either on Ancestry.com (which I subscribe to yearly) or FamilySearch.com, which is free.
I am always amazed at what surfaces in pension files. I have a marriage record and a transcript from a family bible giving birth dates of children — records I would not have but for the pension file. Similarly, where else would you look for this divorce record? I have an 1840 divorce on my direct family line…and I’m still trying to track that down!
I didn’t even know he had been married before, until I got the pension file.
Wow. That opened up a new route, but also created more questions.
I would like to know what happened to her. Did she remarry?
Family history can be so fascinating. It always makes me wonder what descendants will say about me in a couple hundred years, lol. 🙂
I know, right? I try to leave enough writings about myself that they won’t have to rely on their memories only.
I’m impressed by the amount of work you do in these researches!
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Eva – Mail Adventures
It seems like no matter how much research I’ve done in preparation, when it comes time to write it up, I always want to look for just one more thing.