Rosanna McBride

Here is the sequence of events around my great grandmother Rosanna McBride:

 

When I started filling out my family tree, I concentrated on my father's side -- Maplethorpes and Marshalls -- because that is where the whole focus of our family life was.  There was very little mention of my mother's side, and when it came up it was brief.  I knew that Dr. Jesse Bowen was my ancestor, but there were few details, other than that he was a friend of John Brown, the abolitionist, and that he hid John Brown in his house to protect him from an Iowa City mob.

 

After completing the bulk of the Maplethorpe/Marshall side of the tree (including determining that my grandmother's often-repeated statement that we are descended from Chief Justice John Marshall's brother Thomas -- was not true!), I switched to my mother's side.  I was happy to see that it was true that we are descended from Dr. Jesse Bowen, but I was a little shocked to see that my great grandmother Rosanna McBride was half his age when they 'married', and I was unable to find a marriage record.  When I checked the 1880 census, I found something strange:  the censuses always listed a 'dwelling number' followed by a 'family number' followed by the family members, listing the head of household first followed by the spouse, then the children, and then the servants (many ordinary families had servants back then).  The 1880 census shows Dr. Jesse Bowen under a family number (#136), and then a line is drawn and a new family number (#137) is listed for 'Rosanna Blair' followed by the names of 5 Blair children.  Then it lists 2 servants attached to Rosanna's family.  Why would my great grandmother be listed with a different last name (Blair) and why would she be listed as a separate family?  If she was a separate family, how could she afford to keep 2 servants?  From various marriage and death records of the children, I could see that 'Blair' referred to a mysterious Joseph Blair.  The 1880 census form said that her first 3 children (Joseph b. 1865, Clara b. 1868, and Alfred b. 1870) had been born in Pennsylvania;  however, it was clear that the last two boys (William Jesse b. 1874 and Leonard b. 1878 -- my grandfather) were both born in Iowa City.  Why did William Jesse and Leonard have the last name Blair on the 1880 census form?

 

I traced the descendants of Rosanna's son Alfred Blair (1870-1908) down to Mr. Blair Paul of Ft. Worth, Texas.  Blair's wife Arlene had been doing genealogy in the past, and I now communicated with her to try to clear things up.  She repeated the information from the documents - that the ancestor of her husband Blair Paul was Joseph Blair -- but she had no information about him. I explained the confusion, and Blair Paul agreed to take a DNA test.  Over the next half year we finally sorted things out.  By finding the people who were common matches with Blair Paul and another descendant of Alfred Blair (1870-1908), Arlene identified a common Blair ancestor in the family trees of the people in the common match list -- William Blair (1798-1860).  Further research identified Joseph Blair (1839-1903) as the prime candidate among the countless 'Joseph Blair's that pop up when you do a general search in the 19th century databases.  Working together, Arlene and I determined that he was a Civil War soldier (Pennsylvania 12th Infantry, 41st Regiment, company A) and that he and Rosanna McBride must have been together immediately after the Civil War in Philadelphia, where she gave birth to three children by him.

 

The key was the 1870 census.  The 1870 Philadelphia census, conducted in June 28,1870, shows Rosanna Blair with her three children Joseph, Clara, and Alfred (2 months old).   The 1870 Iowa City Census, conducted August 23, 1870, shows Rosanna Blair, again with the same three children.   For some reason, this 30 year old 2-months post-partum mother traveled from Philadelphia to Iowa City with three small children!   Arlene and I think we know the reason, because records show that our Joseph Blair (1839-1903) married a girl who recently immigrated from England, and fathered a baby with her, apparently during Rosanna's final pregnancy by Joseph.  When Rosanna gave birth to Alfred, she immediately moved away from Philadelphia to Iowa City.

 

I don't know how Rosanna ended up in Dr. Bowen's household.  But Dr. Bowen's wife of 40 years, Mary Ann Poor, died in 1871, and Rosanna may have been her caretaker/maid.  At any rate, Rosanna lived with Dr. Bowen until both he and she died in 1882.  There are notices of his death, but not of hers.  The adult Bowen daughters apparently had her buried in a paupers grave.

 

I would like to find information about Rosanna so that I can leave her with a more visible and lasting legacy.