John, And I read every one of those posts!! I am always hoping you will turn up something, too. I also very much appreciate all of the research work you do for everybody. As far as more details, Mary sold her land in Carroll Co in 1893, so she was alive then. A court case (that she didn't attend) in 1894 referred to her as being alive, but maybe she had already died and they just hadn't learned it yet. So there are your minimum dates. The family stories sort of centered around 1908 as her death year, so I went through that whole year's worth of KC Stars looking for a news article, but didn't turn up anything. But then I traced that uncle (he was actually Mary's first cousin, a Finch), and he married in 1891 but moved to Iowa, maybe around 1905. I doubt that his wife would have let him travel all the way back to Kansas City to go to the funeral of his female cousin! Also, the daughter was born in 1890. You would think that if her mother had died when she was a teenager it would have made a pretty big impression on her and she would have remembered it. The grandmother died in 1906 and then the daughter went to stay with another Gillispie great-uncle. So it all seems to point to more like around 1900 or earlier. I've looked at every Mary in the 1900 census that might fit, but she doesn't seem to be any one of them, though people often got left off. I've also been through the KCMO death records and found nothing. Now I'm going through the KCKS ones. So maybe I will send you a few interesting names to report on. Even if they turn out not to be my Marys, they were somebody's. Of course, the big thing is that just because the uncle took the train from Carrollton to KC to go to the funeral, that doesn't mean the funeral was actually in the city. That could have just been the nearest transfer point to some destination farther away. But I'm checking anyway. Somehow, wherever it was, they heard about her death in Carroll County in time to get to the funeral. The newspapers would have been brought in by train from the city early in the morning, so maybe they read about it there. Which means they knew what name she was using. Or, somebody notified the family. And that means somebody where she lived knew who to contact. So the mystery also includes how the news got spread, and whether it can still be picked up on today. Back then, people did know. But they never told anybody younger than themselves. > Steve, whenever I read about a fire in an old newspaper I think of you and > your gggrandmother, and I always make a point of posting the article or > obituary. You sure have a "cold case" challenge. Hopefully we'll come > across something one of these days. > > I don't remember, don't you have a time frame of when the fire might have > occurred? I assume you can eliminate the years from 1859 to the year her > daughter was born and maybe a few years after? > > Do you know the birth date of her daughter? > Do you know the death date of the uncle? > > John > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Steven Gillispie" <gillisp@earthlink.net> > To: <kansascity@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 1:35 AM > Subject: Re: [KANSASCITY] the Kansas City Mailing List members > > >>> As we begin a new year, I thought it would be interesting to >>> know a little something about us members, ... >> >> >> My name is Steve Gillispie, and I live in Washington. My gggrandmother, >> Mary Finch Gillispie, was born in Carroll County, MO, in Oct 1859. The >> last >> record we have of her was from there in 1893. But then she disappeared. >> The family stories are that she died in a fire, but the people who knew >> the >> details didn't want to talk about it, so they have been lost. Her >> daughter, >> who was just a child at the time, wrote some notes in the 1920s that were >> only recently found in an old suitcase in a garage attic, that said an >> uncle >> took the train to Kansas City to go to her funeral. That daughter was >> raised by her grandmother, and spent many years trying to find out what >> happened to her mother. Through the subsequent years, each generation has >> tried and failed as well, and now it is my turn. The rumors are also that >> she had remarried, but nobody knows what her new name was, either. So I >> subscribe to this list hoping that someday one of her step-children's >> descendants will talk about her and our long mystery will finally be >> solved. >> >> >> --- >> Steve Gillispie <gillisp@earthlink.net> >> >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> KANSASCITY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >> quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > KANSASCITY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message --- Steve Gillispie <gillisp@earthlink.net>

On the Gillispei fire death, check the residence file of st. Joseph state hospital and of course the Jackson county home. And even closer to the daughter's birth. Sometimes things happen that requires families placing an adult via the court in these institutions. Very Little is ever reported about happenings there. Families would have been rather secretive also and it wasn't always mental illness, TB and StD were also reasons. I suspect several of today's disorders were sent to these faculties. Bud. -----Original Message-----