Week 41: Most (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2024 version)

The theme for Week 41 is "Most." Like last week, this theme can go countless directions! Most number of marriages, most children, "most likely to succeed." Let your imagination run wild! Click here to find out about all of the 2024 prompts.

As genealogists, I think we have those relatives who are the MOST involved to research. I could put MOST in front of a lot of relatives, MOST difficult, MOST confusing, MOST frustrating, MOST hidden, etc… I think you get the idea.

Anyway, I have been proofing a Descendant Book that I am creating on my 3rd great grandparents, Thomas Goodwin and his wife Jane Burns. I have done my first pass through of research, where I start with my 3rd great grandparents and research all their children, then starting with the oldest child, research their children, starting with their oldest child I repeat the process all the way done the line before moving to the next child and working up and down the lines until I think I have found everyone I can find.

I then generated a first draft of the book, using Family Book Creator from my software package of Family Tree Maker. What I am looking for, besides spelling errors, are huge gaps in my research. Missing vital information such as birth and if appropriate death information. I look for marriage information if they were married and divorce information if they remarried and I am missing that information. I also make sure that someone didn’t have any offspring by locating their obituaries if available.  I like to record their Find a Grave record too, thus if they died or probably died (based on birth date) I look for the record.

I am only down to the 3rd generation of a 7-generation book. I was looking at one of my relatives, Lester Mulvaney who was born in 1901 and died in 1982. I had three children for him and one died as an infant and then he had two other daughters. One daughter, Mia Mae Mulvaney died in 1967 and based on her obituary, I knew she had four children, three daughters and one son. Her husband was a Luther Dickerson who I had no information on. Thus my big red flag to do more research.

Based on Mia Mae’s obituary, she died in Marshall, Missouri. Thus, using Ancestry, I decided to look for a Luther Dickerson in Missouri, (fingers were crossed that it wasn’t a too common of a name). The following is what I found and I recorded it in my software program as private research notes:

• Found a Luther Dickerson born 9 Jul 1913 Missouri, died: 29 Jun 1995 Yuba California
• He married Alva Goodwin on 11 May 1932 in Cole Camp, Benton, Missouri, USA (both were under 21 years of age). Dora Sizemore mother of Luther Dickerson 
• 1933, April 26 Prescott, Yavapai County; Arizona - Zona Lee Dickerson birth
• Newspaper article: 17-year-old Mother shoots self, lives | Prescott, Aug 11 (1934) Mrs. Alva Goodwin Dickerson, 17 wife of Luther Dickerson, 22 and mother of three-year-old Zona Lee Dickerson, was in Mercy Hospital tonight, the victim, officers said, of a self-inflected bullet wound. The shooting occurred on the ranch of James E Goodwin, her father, 40 miles from Prescott in the Williamson valley. The young wife shot herself in the left side above her heart with a small rifle, investigators said. At the hospital physicians declared there was no immediate danger. Officers said she gave no motive for her act. The Dickersons were married in Missouri when the girl was only 13 years old.
• 1935, Jun 27 Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona - Fannie Corrine Dickerson birth
• 1939, Jul 11 Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona - Luther J Dickerson birth
• 1940 US Census: Prescott, Yavapai, Arizona - Luther 26, Alva 23, Zona Lee 6, Fanny Corene 4, Luther James 9/12.
• 1955, Oct 12 Saline, Missouri: Luther James Dickerson death (FG 77432239)
• 1955 Oct 13: Youth Fatally Wounds Self at his farm home. Luther Dickerson, Died at Hospital here early today. Luther James Dickerson, 16, fatally shot himself in the head with a rifle Tue night at his home west of Blue Lick and died at 12:10 o’clock, Wednesday morning at Fitzgibbon hospital. Surviving are his mother, Mrs Jackson Maynard, Kentucky; his father Luther Dickerson of home; two sisters, Mrs. Wayne J Clay, Mullins, West Virginia; Mrs. Kenneth Ussery, Marshall; his stepmother, Mrs. Luther Dickerson, and two half-sisters, Cheryl Ann and Michele Marie Dickerson of the home. (Newspaper Article)
• 1966, Aug 2 Carson City, Nevada: Marriage of Alex C Crawford and Alva M Goodwin
• 1975, Jun 13, Alva M Crawford, 58 died in Barstow, San Bernardio, California. Survivors are her husband: Alex C; three daughters' Zona Lee Clay; Connie Wilson and Corine Usery, all of California. (FG 33190138)
• 1982, Mar 12 marriage Watler R White and Fannie C Hack - Clark County, Nevada
• FG 112688691 Fannie C White b: 6 Jun 1935 d: 7 May 2008

Thus, looking at the Newspaper article  (in Bold) from Oct 13, 1955, I see that Luther Dickerson has a different wife than his first wife of Alva Goodwin (no relation to my Goodwin clan). I see that the son, Luther James Dickerson had two half-sisters, Chery Ann and Michele Marie. Could these be the children of my Mia Mae?

Some wide searches on Ancestry, lead me to a name of Michele Marie Davis who died in 2018. My search consisted of entering Michele Marie Dickerson, with an approximate birth date of 1950 in Missouri, I listed her parents and her sister Cheryl Ann. 

I decide to do a google search on Michele Marie Davis and I found an obituary for a Michele Marie Davis, which list her parents as Luther and Mia Mae Dickerson. BINGO, struck gold.

In the obituary it states she is survived by four children and a brother Gary and a sister Cindy. She was preceded in death by a sister, Cheryl Johnson. It doesn’t list any of her half-siblings, but now I have four children names for Mia Mae. 

Now this may seem very straight forward, however, this took me three days before I found the obituary for Michele Marie. I went down a few wrong rabbit holes. With names like Davis and Johnson, I wasn’t sure it was my people until I found Michele’s obituary. 

Cheryl Anne died in 1990 and I found her in the Ancestry, California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997 with her mother’s maiden name of Mulvaney and father’s surname of Dickerson listed. This was my only confirmation that this Cheryl Anne was my person. From here, I found her marriage record, which not only listed her date of birth but her husband’s name, date of birth and their marriage name. he died in 1998. HINT: To get the husband's information, I clicked on his name which made him the Primary person of the record and gave his age and birth date.

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!