And Yet Another?

Earlier today I came upon what looked like yet another sister of my great-great grandmother. While following up on Wednesday’s revelation that a sister named Dora Blanche lived in California, I discovered a woman named Clara Ellen Seay, maiden name Boal.

She was born on November 7, 1870 in Iowa and died in 1951 in Los Angeles. Her mother’s maiden name was Foster while her father’s surname was Boal. That would make for five sisters: Clara, Dora or Blanche, Jennie, Stella and Nettie, my great-great grandmother.

Yet, in digging a bit deeper I’ve found that Clara’s parents are not the same as the other four. Clara’s father was Robert Boal, a stone mason, and her mother was Lydia Ann Foster.

ajh

The Lost Sister

There’s another sister?! There’s another sister!

While poking around the online family tree I’ve been updating regularly on FamilySearch I clicked on one of the automatically generated clues and boy wasn’t I surprised.

A woman named Dora Blanche Boal married a man named Fleming in 1895 in Washington County, Iowa. And her parents were named Boal and Foster!

She’s another sister of my great-great grandmother, Nettie Ann Bowl. So that’s now four sisters: Nettie, Jennie, Stella & Dora Blanche. Apparently she later went by the name Blanche rather than Dora.

How I missed her I don’t know. I’m gonna have to track down who took care of her after their parents died so tragically young.

ajh

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1865 — A.D.

Even while serving during the Civil War, taxes still had to be paid.

This is the 1865 tax assessment of the grandfather, A. D. Foster, of my great-great grandmother, Nettie Ann Boal. His full name is Azariah Doane Foster. He served in Company C of the 63rd Ohio Infantry Regiment. When my great-great grandmother’s parents died, Azariah and his wife took on the task of raising the granddaughters: Jennie, Stella and Nettie. Decades later Stella still used the name Foster as the name of her parents, despite the fact that her birth name was Boal.

A distant cousin has written a book on Azariah’s grandfather, Ichabod. When I get a chance I will be reading it.

ajh