[or-roots] Re: Census Records, Marks family

[SwimRef34 at aol.com]

Hi Marilyn,
     The lookups I did were from the online census image and index data at 
Heritage Quest. I am not a paid member, but have access through my local public 
library. I simply go to my library's webpage, enter my library card number, 
and can go straight to Heritage Quest. Many library systems are adding this 
service, check with your Whatcom County system.
     Regarding George Marks, he was probably the source of the information 
enumerated in the 1900 census. Some of that information was that he was then 24 
years of age and was born in Oregon in October of 1875. He also reports that 
his sister Jessie was born in Oregon in February of 1880. Subsequent children 
were born in Wyoming in 1885 & 1890 and in Montana in 1898. If this information 
is close to correct, it is most likely that the family was enumerated for 
1880 in Oregon on the June 1st census day, with Wyoming being a possibility, and 
other states or territories not so likely. 
     Regarding the date and place of George's birth, I would keep an open 
mind. Family stories are great, and are always based on facts, but nearly always 
in the telling and retelling some small (and often large) inaccuracies sneak 
in. George may indeed have been born in the Willamette Valley (if so his mother 
would have probably been visiting relatives), but it is probably more likely 
that this occured in the Deschutes Valley, or even possibly where you have 
speculated, in the mountains in between. The date is also in question. You don't 
really know, as far as I have heard, exactly when either George's birth or his 
mother's death occured, or whether or not these events were simultaneous. 
Information found on a commemorative marker placed years after the fact should be 
viewed with great caution. I would keep an open mind on both events until 
other evidence is found.
     The best chance for finding the family in the 1880 enumeration would be 
with a thorough search of the Soundex films, beginning with Oregon. When 
online and CD index data fails, people can still be found using the much more 
accurate soundex index found on microfilm. You are fortunate that Bellingham is 
only an hour and a half away from the National Archives branch in North Seattle, 
I urge you to stop in and advance your research. I am a volunteer there, 
specializing in the federal census records.

Best wishes,
Kevin Fraley


Kevin,

Thanks again for the census lookups for the Marks families.  Do you have a CD 
with all this info on it?  How do you look it up so quickly?  I don't know 
all the ins and outs of genealogy yet.  I haven't been a really serious 
"genealogist," but mainly I just have been trying to find out who my family was 
because we knew so little until we started this search 3-4 years ago.  

My grandfather, George Alfred Marks, was born, as I said earlier, "in the 
Willamette Valley" of Oregon.  But, the family moved on to eastern Oregon then 
Wyoming/Montana when he was a child.  Grandfather George Marks died at age 30 or 
31, in 1906, on the day my father Maurice was born.  George's widow, Edith, 
remarried twice, as you noted from your census lookups.  Mr. Marks left her 
with an apparently profitable horse ranch in Montana, but her second husband, Mr. 
Chadwick, was a scoundrel who sold her property out from under her and ran 
off with another woman, leaving her destitute with 4 children.  Her third 
husband, Mr. Davis, was a good man, but they struggled to support the continually 
growing family. They moved to Washington, the children all took the Davis name, 
and I believe at that time all contact with the Marks family was lost.  
Contact with the Noble family in Oregon had probably been lost years earlier when 
George was only a year old and his mother, Charity Noble Marks, died in 1875.  
Mr. Davis also died young, and there wasn't much family history passed down.  

Thanks again.

Marilyn Schwartz