Illegitimate

After researching my five Euphemias from a previous blog post, I decided to try to go further back in the family tree.  But I ran into a brick wall.  Let's go through the facts.

Family member name: Robert Crosser

Lifetime: 1821 - ?
Tree branch: Anderson
Relation: My great-great-great grandfather? (my mom's dad's mom's mom's dad?)

I already knew my great-great-great-grandmother's name was Agnes Gilchrist, (more on her story in an upcoming blog post) so I was researching her husband, Robert Crosser.  Here he is in my family tree.

Here's what we know:

• Agnes Gilchrist's husband's name was Robert Crosser
• He was born about 1821 in Carluke, Scotland
• Agnes' youngest daughter, Euphemia, is my 2x great-grandmother
• Agnes is a widow on the 1861 census, meaning Robert died before 1861
• Some believe he died on August 1, 1858, but there is no source material to prove that date  (PS: That is 162 years ago today.)

The Brick Wall: When did Robert really pass away? If he passed away more than 9 months before Euphemia was born in May 1859, that calls into question her ancestry.

With some kind help from two Ancestry.com power-users, I located Euphemia's birth certificate.

Notice that Euphemia is listed as "illegitimate" and no father's name is given.  Also, Euphemia's mother Agnes is shown as a widow.

So now we do not know Euphemia's father's name.  It is lost to time.  (Major brick wall!)

However, years later on Euphemia's marriage certificate, she listed Robert Crosser as her father.  That is confusing.  Maybe her mother told her that Robert was indeed her father.  After all, August 1, 1858 was 9 months and 6 days before her birth, making it technically possible that he was her father.  But again, we're unsure of that date.

Until that date is confirmed, I'll have to consider this birth certificate as fact since Agnes was present and "signed" it with her mark.

So I've updated my family tree with this new information.  Do you notice that the ancestry line for Euphemia only points to Agnes, and not to Robert? Robert Crosser is now only a part of my family tree in that he is my great-great-great grandmother's husband, and not my great-great-great grandfather.