What the duck? Digging up the Drake line.

Several years ago, I began taking a look at my maternal grandmother's ancestry. She's the youngest of six children who were raised during the Great Depression, and the lone survivor of that family. Unfortunately, she just simply didn't have a whole lot of information to share regarding her parents or their ancestry. Older sister Esther would have been the best bet to know the genealogy of the Ellis clan, she informed me. Unfortunately, Aunt Esther had relocated to the Las Vegas area years before, and passed in 2010.

Armed with little more than the names of my grandmother's siblings and parents, and whatever dates and tidbits uncovered in their obituaries, I eventually uncovered some family trees on Ancestry.com that appeared to do the trick.

Trick proved to be the key word.

I knew my great-grandfather was Charles Cleveland Ellis, and his bride was an Sarah Drake. That was it as both had pre-deceased my arrival on the scene, and I've yet to uncover their obituaries as a result of not having definitive dates of death, and having not traveled to the public library of City Clerk's office in Worcester, Massachusetts, in an effort to track down vital records or newspaper microfiche that may feature their respective obituaries. What I uncovered online, however, was a handful of family trees assembled by other amateur genealogists that claimed to have the proper lineage for my great-grandparents. Over time, I explored these lines further with great interest, and built out my tree more and more.

In my newfound effort to better corroborate and document all entries and sources, with the goal of an infinitely more accurate and better assembled tree, I began looking at these trees. With a fine-toothed comb, I began looking at each and every line of U.S. Census data relevant to these people.

I decided to start with the most recent primary source materials, and work my way backward in time. While looking at the 1930 Census, everything appeared to line up just fine. That is, until I got to the recorded data for the places of birth for my great-grandmother's parents.

Data from the 1930 U.S. Census showing Sarah's father as Canadian-born.

According to the 1930 Census, Sarah's mother was born in Massachusetts. This was fine as it corresponded with the data I already had. What didn't quite jive, however, was the place of birth for her father. "Canada - English," it read. I cocked my eyebrow askew, as everything I had to this point was clear that Sarah and her father were born in Westfield, Massachusetts, some 50-60 miles west of Worcester. In fact, that Drake line had deep roots in Westfield. Canada? It made no sense.

I turned to the 1920 Census linked to Sarah & Co. in my family tree to see what it had to say on the matter. Sure enough, it matched up to this "new" data and conflicted with what I had long believed to be the case.

Data from the 1920 U.S. Census notes Sarah's father came from Nova Scotia.

Sarah's father was Canadian, not a native of Westfield, Mass. In fact, the 1920 Census further revealed that he was a native of Nova Scotia, a Canadian maritime province not far from the coast of Maine. Perplexed, I continued down the same path, now looking at the 1910 Census data linked to my great-grandmother. This primary source document affirmed the original assertion, and was in direct conflict with what I had just read. There was, however, a very glaring problem. According to the 1930 Census, Sarah had married Charles Ellis when she was 26-years-old, which puts the vows having been exchanged around 1919, maybe even 1920. The 1910 data would've been before the two had wed and started their family, and Sarah was a teenager at home with her parents and siblings — in Westfield. Clearly there was a disconnect, and it seemed to be the 1910s was where the problem was.

I combed through all of the other data and records relevant, searched through the family trees of others whom I had linked this data through. Ultimately, I came to a simple conclusion: this Sarah Drake from Westfield is not the same Sarah Drake that married Charles Ellis, and thus is not my great-grandmother.

Though I've had prior discussions with my grandmother, now aged 83, they had been largely fruitless. Eventually, I decided to give it another go all the same, and placed the phone call. She confirmed the pieces of data I already had and still believed to be true. Furthermore, she confirmed, again, that she did not know the names of her grandparents, my great-great-grandparents. When I explained the conflicting data I had been going over, she noted — for the first time in any of our discussions on her heritage, that "Nova Scotia is what I was always told growing up." She further confirmed that her mother was born in Worcester, and summarily rejected the possibility of her being born in Westfield — again the first time this piece had been shared with me, to my recollection.

Having dug around further with other census data, I believe to have found my Sarah's actual pre-marriage family in the 1910 Census, and more. While I need to further confirm this maiden Sarah Drake is the same who marries Charles Ellis, all signs point to my great-grandmother being one of six children bore to George R. Drake (born 1861 in Nova Scotia) and Elizabeth Lawson (born 1861 in Massachusetts). Furthermore, through independently assembled family trees by other amateur genealogists, a strong line of information appears to be available to check out the rest of the family.

Ultimately, however, one must remember to avoid the pitfalls of the quick and easy answers of these trees by verifying through whatever primary source documents possible. After all, I'd hate to end up on yet another wild Drake chase.