Cheesy Grits: Valeria's sister Cecelia/Lillian

Sometimes people just seem to disappear from the documentary records. Gone. Disappeared. No idea where they went. We genealogists always celebrate when that long-missing sibling or cousin suddenly shows up, sometimes having been living, as it were, just out of plain sight the whole time. Such was the case with Jane's great-great Aunt Cecelia, also known as Lily.

Both the 1870 and 1880 federal censuses show Jane's great-grandmother, Valeria, at home in Charleston (on Henrietta Street) with her parents, Robert and Rebecca Thorne Howard, Jr., and her sister, Jane's great-great Aunt Cecelia. The 1900 federal census finds Valeria (now named Ralston) in Savannah, GA, with a husband, George, and two children, George Jr. and Myrtle Christina. The same census, however, finds Cecelia, now called Lilly, still living in Charleston with her mother Rebecca who is now a widow, her husband Robert having died in 1886.

But then the big surprise: the 1910 federal census show us that Rebecca Thorne Howard was no longer living in Charleston:  she was in New York City in Manhattan's (in)famous San Juan Hill district (more specifically, at 347 W. 59th Street), living with Valeria (now Wilcoxson) and the two children, George (Jane's grandfather) and Myrtle Christina. No sign of Cecelia/Lillian Howard anywhere. What happened to her? I had no idea until my reader "Mr. Robinson" chimed in with a comment on a blog post here.

Here is what the comment said:

"Hi Mr. Miller, I discovered some research in the 1905 state census I saw Valeria Wilcoxson's sister Lily Mendoza who died in Jan 1914. I am unable to find her in the 1910. However in the 1905 census her daughter is listed as 3 years old and her daughter's birthplace is listed as New York."

Well, as you might imagine, Mr. Robinson had my full attention with this claim that Valeria's sister had also come to New York City. So what did the documentary record show? Well, the first claim was that her name was no longer Lily Howard: it was Lily Mendoza. And that was how she was listed in the 1905 New York State census, along with her three year old daughter.

So I went to the 1905 New York State census to look for "Lily Mendoza" and a three year old. As is often the case in these matters, at first I found nothing. So I started searching for variants on "Mendoza" and got a hit: there was a "Lilly Mendozet" living at 157 W. 21st St. with a three year old girl named "Lazel Mendozet" living with her.

From the 1905 NY State Census
Lillie Mendozet and her daughter Lazelle, living on W. 21 St.

I then went to the 1910 federal census, but couldn't find her—and still haven't. So back to the 1915 New York State census. She wasn't there either. But my correspondent, Mr. Robinson, chimed in with another pertinent fact: Lily had in fact passed away in 1914, which would be why she wasn't in the 1915 census. So I felt stymied for a bit: I appeared to have found Lily/Lilian in New York City, but still hadn't found enough information to confirm that she was Valeria's sister.

An old genealogical habit is to go back over the documents you've already looked at to see if you've missed anything. So I went back to the 1915 New York State census to review Great-grandmother Valeria's entry. And there she was, still as a Wilcoxson, with Jane's grandfather George still living at home. No sign of grandfather George's sister, Myrtle Christina, but—land sake's alive, what's this at the bottom? A fourteen year old niece identified as "Lionel Mendozia"?!?

1915 NY State Census
Valeria Howard Ralston Wilcoxson with her mother Rebecca Howard, her son George
and her niece "Lionel" a/k/a Lazelle.

Well now. If Lily had passed away in 1914, then it would make sense that her sister, great-grandmother Valeria, would have taken in Lily's daughter until she came of age.

And further confirmation: Grandfather George was required in 1917 to register with the military as part of the run-up to World War I. His draft registration card notes that, while single, he nevertheless has a dependent: his cousin. This would almost certainly be "Lazel" or "Lionel." Her given name turned out to be "Lazelle," which has been confirmed via her application for a marriage license and her application for her Social Security card.

Lazelle Mendozia married twice, and the second one, to Clarence Booker, "took," lasted the rest of their lives. The marriage license also confirmed that her mother's maiden name was Lilian Howard. Lazelle died on Long Island in 1973.

One last piece of confirmation: Lillian's death certificate, which arrived just the other week and which gives her parents' names. She died of pulmonary tuberculosis on 10 January 1914. Her age is listed on the death certificate as 38, but...somebody fibbed: the 1870 federal census shows her as being almost two years old in 1870, which means she was born some time in 1868, which would make her around 46 years of age. Her parents are listed as Robert Howard and Rebecca Thorne.

Lillian was buried at Cypress Hills along with her uncle Weston Thorne, who had died in 1905. Her mother, Rebecca, would join them there in 1916.

Lilian had apparently come to NYC sometime around 1901-02. She married Richard Mendozia, who is identified in several places as Cuban. What became of him I do not know. Even as early as 1905, he is not listed as living with her. There is no indication of any other relationship, although the record is of course short and intermittent. We know nothing of her personal happiness or sadness during those years.

For me, however, a larger picture was coming into view: my early impression was that Great-grandmother Valeria had struck out from Savannah all by herself, leaving the madness of the Jim Crow south to move to the "big city" to make a new life, especially for her young son, Jane's grandfather George.

Well, in one sense she had done that, but, as it was turning out, she had rather more family there to greet her than I had suspected: her Uncle Weston and Aunt Letitia and her sister Lily were already there, and possibly even her mother Rebecca. Plus, there was at least one cousin on her father's (Howard) side of the family who had moved from Charleston to NYC around this time.

And, as it turns out, there was still one more Thorne aunt there to greet her when she arrived.  I'll write next about Valeria's Aunt Harriet Thorne Desverney, also known as Hattie. The story of Hattie and her children took me to still another place I had not dreamed of going: Carnegie Hall.