Dead men don’t register for the draft … or …How searching for the FAN club confirms direct ancestor data

So in recent weeks, there have been a few comments on some of my Mosley research (most recently on a blog post showing marriage license index cards for a few families that I’m researching).  One of the comments suggested that I had the incorrect death date for Richard Washington Mosley (b. 22 Feb 1834 in Pennsylvania).  The comment noted that his obituary puts his death in February 1918, and suggests that the 1942 death date was actually for his grandson, who was also known as Richard Washington Mosley although he was born as Richard Washington Graham.  My curiosity was sparked, and it seemed an interesting little quest to find out more while I waited for my current work project to upload.  Richard wasn’t a direct ancestor that I was researching, but part of the FAN (Friends, Associates and Neighbors) club of a direct ancestor.  So here is a little bit of what I found this afternoon…

If you haven’t already, take a look at the comments on the previous blog post that I linked in the intro here.  The family units that I was investigating today (with the information extracted from those comments and combined with other data that I already had and subsequently found) look like this:

• Father: Richard Washington Mosley (b. 22 Feb 1834 in Pennsylvania; d. Feb 1918)
• Mother: Barbara A. Hardin (b. [calculated] 1830 in Kentucky)
• Children (1):
1. Mary L. Mosley (b. [calculated] 1856 in Missouri; d. after 6 Nov 1877 in Colorado)

 

• Father: Isaac Turpin Graham (b. in Delaware)
• Mother: Mary L. Mosley (as above)
• Children (1):
1. Richard Washington Graham (b. 6 Nov 1877 in Colorado; d. 22 Jan 1942)

As with most research, I started with a general search on FamilySearch, which led me to a few census records.  In 1870, we see the Mosley family (spelled Moseley) living in Black Hawk, Gilpin County, Colorado Territory, as follows (click the thumbnail for a larger view):

• Richard Moseley [sic], 36 years old, white, male, carpenter, born in Pennsylvania; male U.S. citizen aged 21 or over.
• Barbara [Moseley], 40 years old, white, female, keeping house, born in Kentucky.
• Mary [Moseley], 14 years old, white, female, attending school, born in Missouri.
• Louis [Moseley], 22 years old, white, male, carpenter, born in Pennsylvania; male U.S. citizen aged 21 or over.
• John Ballard, 36 years old, white, male, carpenter, born in Maine; male U.S. citizen aged 21 or over.

While this document doesn’t explicitly state the family relationships, Richard, Barbara and Mary all fit with the father, mother and daughter as listed above.  I don’t yet know who Louis Moseley shown in this record is; with a 14-year age difference between Richard and Louis, it is still possible that they might be brothers, but from other research that I have so far, my guess is that they are cousins.  John Ballard is completely off my radar as a relation, but the record shows he was at least a housemate of Richard, so he deserves further research as well.

The previous blog post comments state that the younger Richard was born in 1877 and that his mother, Mary L. Mosley, died soon after childbirth, and he was known more often to use the Mosley surname than Graham, with which he was born.  The 1880 U.S. census for Black Hawk, Gilpin County, Colorado (admitted as a state in 1876), supports this (click the thumbnail for a larger view):

• Richard W. Mosley, white, male, age 46, married, carpenter and builder, born in Pennsylvania, both parents born in Pennsylvania.
• Barbara A. [Mosley], white, female, age 50, wife to head of household, married, keeping house, cannot read, cannot write, born in Kentucky, both parents born in Kentucky.
• Richard T. Graham, white, male, age 2, grandson to head of household, single, born in Colorado, father born in Delaware, mother born in Missouri.
• Mary Donely, white, female, age 22, servant of head of household, single, house servant, born in Iowa, both parents born in Ireland.

So based on the previous comment and this record, I can conclude that Mary L. Mosley died sometime between 6 Nov 1877 and the census enumeration of 1880.  The younger Richard was sent to live with his Mosley grandparents, who were well off enough to afford a servant.  I also noted that neither Louis Moseley nor John Ballard from the 1870 census listing were included in the 1880 household.

So far so good.  Things are lining up like I expect.  After a little more searching, I found a record that was at first a little confusing, but combined with the information we had already, fits right in and led me to the title of today’s post.  Here is the younger Richard’s World War I draft registration card, front:

… and back:

The birthdate matches that of the younger Richard, and we see that he is using the Mosley surname rather than Graham.  The registration date on the back of the card is seven months after the death of the elder Richard.  Also of note is that for a witness, Richard lists his cousin Alfred H. Mosley at 2601 Vine Street, which is the same Alfred H. Mosley that I had been researching (although the census records showed him at 2603 Vine Street instead of 2601).  These records don’t indicate when the younger Richard started using the Mosley surname, but prove that he was using it at least by 1918.

I’ll be taking a closer look at this line in the future, especially since the two lines maintained close relationships in later years.

---

Sources:

• 1870 U.S. census, Gilpin County, Colorado, population schedule, Black Hawk, page 4, dwelling 40, family 35, Richard Moseley household; digital images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 17 July 2013).
• 1880 U.S. census, Gilpin County, Colorado, population schedule, city of Black Hawk, enumeration district (ED) 50, page 22, dwelling 210, family 233, Richard W Mosley household; digital images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 17 July 2013).
• 1900 U.S. census, Arapahoe County, Colorado, population schedule, precinct 4, Denver, enumeration district (ED) 59, sheet 7-A, dwelling 145, family 153, Alfred H. Mosley household; digital images, Beta FamilySearch (http://beta.familysearch.org : accessed 3 November 2010).
• 1900 U.S. census, Arapahoe County, Colorado, population schedule, Precinct 4, Denver, enumeration district (ED) 59, sheet 7-A, dwelling 144, family 152, Richard W. Mosley household; digital images, Heritage Quest (http://persi.heritagequest.com : accessed 26 February 2012).
• "1910 U.S. census, Denver Colorado," index, Beta FamilySearch (http://beta.familysearch.org : accessed 3 November 2010), Alfred H Mosley household.
• 1920 U.S. census, Denver County, Colorado, population schedule, Denver, enumeration district (ED) 202, sheet 2-B, dwelling 50, family 56, Alfred H. Mosley household; digital images, Heritage Quest (http://persi.heritagequest.com : accessed 26 February 2012).
• 1940 U.S. census, Denver County, Colorado, population schedule, City of Denver, Ward 0, Block 73, enumeration district (ED) 16-175, sheet 1-B, family 9, Alfred H. Mosley household; digital images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 2 May 2012).
• "United States, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," digital images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : accessed 17 July 2013), Richard Washington Mosley draft registration card.