A 20 Year Search

Some mysteries endure. The life of Sarah May Orris includes a seemingly unending series of Brickwalls with the largest still standing at the end. Once one is broken down another arises. I have long since learned to not get my hopes up whenever a new clue emerges, yet in struggling to piece her life together I have become a better Genealogist. The appeal of Genealogy to me has always mirrored my interest in reading mystery novels. A genealogist, like a detective, is always searching for clues, making deductions, playing hunches and hoping to solve a mystery. The most important thing is to not get discouraged and let the Brickwall defeat you. If you are stuck, set it aside and do something else. I am always amazed at the new ideas that occur to me with a fresh eye. "Why didn't I think of that before?" is a constant question.

Sarah was born into difficult circumstances in North Liberty in Johnson County Iowa. At just over a year old she lost her father leaving her mother with a large, young family to raise on her own. Her mother remarried within two years to Cornelius Toohey and started a second family. In the 1860s another family settled in the area. Mary Runyon and several of her children left Kentucky behind and moved to Iowa.

The search for Sarah Orris began with a search for the Runyon's. Initially all I knew of her was her name. I also knew my Great Grandfather was born in Dubuque, but there were no signs of Orris families there.

The Runyon's were from Kentucky but searches of the census lead me to Johnson County, Iowa. In the days before the internet all searches were done by scrolling through microfilms. I was searching a film of Johnson County marriages for the Runyon siblings when I stumbled upon the one marriage I didn't expect to find...Sarah May Orris of Johnson County marrying Gilford Runyon of the same. The location lead to more census searches and I slowly pieced together the family.

City Directories and the 1880 Census allowed me to place her in Ames in 1880 and 1881. City Directories and the Iowa State census placed her in Dubuque from 1886-1897. The 1900 census places her in Charleston WV and the 1910 in Palestine TX. I obtained a picture of her son James and it was taken in Lexington KY and City Directories and James' obit confirmed their presence there from 1904-1905. That amounted to about 18 years of searching for her. One obvious problem is the frequency with which they moved great distances. Her husband was a salesman. It seems he would move to a small town, open a store and after a few years move on and start over again.

For a long time the brickwall stood just beyond the 1910 census. I had evidence of Gilford being in Illinois in 1924 and then in CT by the late 1920's when he moved to CT to live with his son, my great grandfather. My Aunt Rita thought that in his old age he was sent to live with my Great Grandfather and that Sarah went to live with one of the daughters. I now know that is almost certainly wrong, and one of the rare stories Aunt Rita got wrong.

For over a decade the brickwall proved impenetrable. Then I became aware of City Directories for Palestine Texas and there they were in the 1914 edition. So her known life had been extended by 4 years. Again a Brickwall stood at 1914 for several years.

(From the 1914 City Directory for Palestine, Anderson, TX)

Sometimes inspiration comes from the most unusual of circumstances. In a chance conversation with the Director of my local FHC the subject of divorce came up in regards to difficulty she had in tracing a female ancestor. If you had no knowledge of the divorce, you would have no reason to search marriage records for an already married ancestor. Thus a quick remarriage means finding her anytime after that event is very difficult. The more I thought about that scenario, the more I wondered if it applied to me. If Sarah and Gilford had divorced and she remarried it would explain why I had so much trouble finding her and why he ended up living alone. Luckily divorce records existed on Microfilm for Palestine Texas and I ordered the index ASAP. Success!! There was an entry in the index for GH Runyon and Ida M Annis. The obvious problem is her name. I hoped that perhaps Ida was a nickname, the M is right, and Annis isn't too far off Orris so perhaps a misspelling. I ordered the actual divorce record. The first surprise was that Gilford was listed as living in Lonoke Arkansas and not Palestine. A new location added to his travels. My first interpretation of the record was that it didn't paint a pretty picture of Gilford. A wife of 40 years making such claims against him would carry a great deal of weight in my mind. Then, on a second reading of the account, it became clear to me that this wasn't Sarah he was divorcing, but a second wife. Gilford still doesn't come off well, but Sarah stuck with him for 40 years and I later discovered that this was Ida Annis' second divorce, and thought, perhaps she was the difficult one. I have since found their 1917 marriage record in Little Rock, Arkansas, another new location in the travels.

The latest brickwall is much narrower than ever before, but it still stands. Sarah was alive in 1914 and her husband married a second time in 1917. In those three years she either died or divorced him. I am inclined towards the former. The records for Little Rock and Lonoke are sparse for the time around 1915-1917 but I am hoping something new will turn up to break another brickwall, but I fully expect there to be a new one just behind it.