The Missing Sister

Week 2: #52 Ancestors – Favorite Find

By Eilene Lyon

All the genealogical information passed down to me about my Anderson ancestors gave the impression that my 3^rd great-grandmother, Elizabeth (Anderson) Ransom, was the oldest child in her family. There was also some confusion about the identity of her mother, and I still haven’t tracked down the source.

Elizabeth’s father, William C. Anderson Jr. married Agness Grier on February 13, 1806 in Belmont County, Ohio.¹ It seems reasonable that a child would have been born not long after. Elizabeth, however, was born July 2, 1809, more than three years after the marriage.² Was there a child missing from the records?

The first inkling that Elizabeth possibly had a older sister came from a county history by attorney Benjamin G. Shinn, written in 1900: Biographical Memoirs of Blackford County, Ind. On page 273, after naming all the members of the James and Elizabeth Ransom family who arrived in October 1836, Shinn states:

“About the same time or soon after, James Ransom’s father-in-law, William Clark Anderson, came, having also a large family. His wife’s name was Eliza, and the children who came to Indiana were Mary Dean, Elizabeth Ransom, Asa, Humphrey, Bazel, William T., John K. and Ann, wife of Thomas H. Bowen.”³

There are a number of incorrect “facts” given here. William Clark Anderson did not move to Indiana at the same time as his (adult) children. By the time he did arrive, sometime in the 1840s, he was with his second wife, whose maiden name was Mabel Waters. Eliza (sometimes given a last name of Fry or Frew) is almost certainly erroneous.

Was Mary Dean also a mistake, or could she have been Elizabeth’s older sister? For years, I searched and found nothing. There was a Thomas Dean associated with the Ransoms and Andersons in Indiana, but his wife was Hannah Anderson and her parents were not William C. and Agness. Last year, I tried a more organized approach.

A search in the marriage records for Belmont and Guernsey Counties, Ohio, where the Anderson family lived for many years, turned up two Mary Anderson nuptials. In 1826, a Mary Anderson married a man named James James.⁴ If Mary was the child of William C. and Agness Anderson, she likely was born about 1807 and would have been 19.

The second record was for an 1837 marriage to James Lanning.⁵ If both records were for the same woman, then the second marriage should have given Mary’s last name as James, not Anderson. Since I have not found additional records for James James, I speculated that he may have died shortly after their marriage (or the marriage was annulled) and Mary reverted to her maiden name. Or maybe Mary simply didn’t wed until the age of 30.

The Lanning and Ransom families had close ties—they were neighbors in Blackford County, Indiana. It stands to reason that Elizabeth and Mary might have chosen to live close to each other after relocating west. I found a “James Laning” in Blackford County in the 1840 census, but of course his is the only household name given.⁶

Shinn’s book, on page 244, states that Mary Lanning was the executrix for the estate of James Lanning, sometime after Blackford County established a probate court in 1851. Unfortunately, Blackford County disposed of their old probate records (shame!) and only created an index list that names the deceased and the estate administrator and a box number. No dates.

The index gives James Lanning’s administrator as Robert H. Lanning, not Mary, but it could be a different James, or Mary could have turned the matter over to her brother-in-law. I suspect that the probate actually occurred well before 1851, because…

I received some photocopies in 2019 (for my gold rush research) from a family history that includes the Lannings. The pages state that James and his older brothers, Robert H. and Ezekiel, moved to Blackford County in 1839. James patented land there in 1840.⁷ This document (without supporting evidence) states that James died August 28, 1844.⁸

The history also states that he was buried in the Trenton Cemetery, which is on land that once belonged to James and Elizabeth Ransom. I know from personal inspection that the grave is no longer marked, if it ever was. The oldest stones I found date to 1849.

So what happened to Mary after James Lanning’s death? She married again to…James Dean! (Note that she never had to worry about calling her husbands by the wrong first name.) This marriage took place in Blackford County on January 29, 1848.⁹ In the 1850 census, James and Mary “Deen” lived in neighboring Delaware County (a place I had not searched previously).¹⁰ Her birth year is calculated as 1807—just right to be Elizabeth’s older sister, and William C. and Agness Anderson’s first child.

Feature image: Elizabeth Anderson Ransom photo taken in 1850s or 1860s. Courtesy of Bruce Wickward.