Arizona?

Today I found myself working on the family of Casville Arnett (1848-1919) & his wife, Mary Boomershine Arnett (1846-1933). Casville & Mary were married 20 Oct 1864 in Darke County, Ohio. They were the parents of 11 children, to wit: Ernest, Caroline, Sarah, Frank, Henry, William, Rosetta, Alice, Lawrence, John & Ira A. Arnett.

Slowly over the past 10 years since the first Boomershine book, My Hessian Soldier came out, we've been working to identify and locate all missing Boomershines from the book. What a challenge this has been. Not that we are close to being anywhere near done, I think this work will be in progress for a very long time.

Back to Casville & Mary. I've been chasing their children & descendants. Today I was working on locating a few of the difficult ones. I had not been able to locate Ira A. Arnett - nothing I did, no stone I turned he just was not to be found. Considering he was born June 1883 and dies in 1919 - he doesn't leave lots of time for me to be searching eh??

Today, while digging around (no pun intended here!) over at Family Search I came across a death certificate for Arizona Arnett. Arizona Arnett??? I printed off the certificate, I wanted a better view. Take a look see:

If you click on the image it will enlarge so that you will have a better view.

First thing I checked is the parentage. Exactly who are the parents of Arizona? Well when I check it is Casville & Mary Boomershine Arnett, just the parents I needed to see.

Checking my data base I note that the birth date does NOT match up with Ira's birthdate, but the death year and location do. My sources indicate that the information in my file came from one of the earliest Boomershine researchers I know. Unfortunately I do not know her source. She has been deceased for many years now. A search of her papers in my possessions is of no help either.

The informant is a Stella Arnett, is this his wife or maybe a daughter? My records show his wife to be Myrtle? The father, Casville dies in 1919 and the mother, Mary in 1933. Attemps to locate the family on the 1900 census have been unsuccessful as of this writing, as were my attempts at the 1910. We'll continue the search to clarify just who this Arizona really is. Is he really Ira A. or is he another child born the next year? Until then....

Will the real Ira A. errrrr Arizona please stand up???

Happy Researching!

Karen