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From:
Subject: Re: Nora / Leonora SPURR, b. IA circa 1856
Date: 21 Aug 2005 21:13:47 -0600


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Classification: Query

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/YW.2ADI/3851.1.2.1.1.1.2.1

Message Board Post:

I agree that D.F. was probably paying the host families a monthly stipend. I did check the Sonoma County probate files to see if there was any record of an official adoption or foster parent agreement but there was nothing at all on the name SPURR. As an attorney, D.F. probably knew how to work the system and avoid such entanglements. Based on some of the later vital records, I believe that D.F. remained on good terms with his children in later life. Thus, it is probable that he kept in touch as they were growing up.

I found the SPARR family in Iowa some time ago by using Ancestry at the local LDS Family History Center. Heritage Quest doesn't allow Soundex searches, as you undoubtedly know, a disadvantage.

Did you notice that Nora, age 14, was listed as an "idiot" in the 1870 census? I need to find a professional to help me make an educated guess as to the level of her disability. That may relate to why Nora was kept at the County Farm even after Sonoma opened in 1891.

I need to get up to Ukiah and check on a possible probate file for D.F. in 1903 or whatever year I said he died. It will be interesting, if such a file exists, to see which, if any, children are mentioned. Other than tracking down a living descendant, I probably won't chase the SPURR family much farther. After all, Nora is not much more than a footnote as the longevity champion (50 years) for County Farm inmates and as a developmentally disabled person who was not sent to Sonoma. It would be nice to figure out what happened to her mother.

I can't really say that the manuscript for my new book has been started, much less finished. In fact I just recently figured out how it will be organized. Now that Eugene Pierrot's new tombstone is dedicated, the money for the painting restoration almost in the bag, and the county taking over more and more of the Chanate Cemetery work, I can concentrate on the book and get my research finished.

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