I get to meet many people through the workshops I teach who want to come into the FSC for help. I always ask them what they are looking to accomplish or find, because without an objective, it can be very difficult to provide any help. That objective can be as general as “I want to learn how to use FamilySearch.org,” or “I am not sure what records are available for Ireland.”

But some people come in with a very direct objective, such as my new genealogy friend, Kay. I met Kay at a workshop, and she asked to come to the FSC because she had some questions I might be able to help her with. She showed up with a few very direct objectives with one being that she wanted to verify that a book she owned belonged to a woman listed on a headstone at a local cemetery, Sea View Cemetery. We worked on this objective together and after 2 hours of research, we had an answer. So, I asked Kay if I could use her evening with me as the basis for this article, and she was happy to oblige!

Let’s step back a bit so that you can understand where her objective stems from. In late July, Kay was perusing a bookshelf at a Barn Sale at the cemetery in this story. An older book caught her eye, and she looked inside and saw an inscription dated Christmas 1892 to Mariana J. Davis.

Now, the cemetery near the Barn Sale has a lot of Davis family members buried there, so Kay wondered if Mariana J. Davis might be buried there too. In early August, she inquired whether there was a record of a Mariana J. Davis buried there, but she was told there was not. This is where perseverance steps in to take over her objective of finding the “history of connection” to this wonderful book which surfaced after 134 years! Kay continued to think about this woman and was not going to give up on her quest.

One week after being told there was no one named Mariana J. Davis buried in the cemetery, she was in the cemetery with a volunteer group she belongs to. She paused to admire a small headstone she saw popping out of the ground. When she picked her head up, another headstone came into her line of vision. At this point, you may have leapt to the conclusion that it was the headstone of Mariana J. Davis. Well, it was close, but no cigar. The headstone had the name Mariana J. Davies on it, but with a man named Nathaniel T. Davis above her name. She was listed as his wife too.

But was this the same Mariana J. Davis from the book or not? We can now come back to that fateful evening in the FSC with Kay and myself.

Kay showed up with a piece of paper with list of a few objectives written on it. We reviewed them together and she decided that the one she wanted to pursue that evening was to determine if Mariana J. Davis was Mariana J. Davies.

So, step one for a strong research plan was in place, namely the objective of finding out if

the book belonging to Mariana J. Davis was the same person found on the headstone for Nathaniel T. Davis and Mariana J. Davies?

Step two required us to make a hypothesis. We both thought that Davies may have been an error on the headstone and it should have been Davis and that the person listed on the headstone was indeed the one named in the book. Once we have our hypothesis, we laid out our research plan, which was to see if Mariana Davis is on the tree on FamilySearch; if she was, then review the sources given; and then search for more records.

We needed to find documents regarding Mariana J. Davies. We have a birth (1863) and death (1924) date from the headstone, her husband’s name (Nathaniel T. Davis) and the town and county where she is buried (Mount Sinai, Suffolk County, NY). Since FamilySearch is one big tree, I recommended we look to see if she is in the tree. We were lucky and found her on the tree, with the correct birth and death dates as well as husband.

That does not mean our research is done though. You can never just take someone’s word that information in a tree is correct. Yup, perseverance again! We need to go through all the documentation given to see if it is a primary source (the original document) or a secondary source (a transcription of a record, for example). Primary sources are reliable and valid, whereas secondary sources cannot stand on their own as proof of anything.

We then proceeded to review all 13 sources connected to Mariana J. Davies. At this time, we do not even know if Davies is her maiden name or just a continuation of a possible misspelling of Davis on her headstone. We see 4 censuses (State and Federal) that have a child named Mariana or Mary Davies with her family in Brooklyn NY. This still does not help us since we have no way of knowing if this is the woman we are looking for.

Snippet 1865 New York State Census for James and Sarah Davies with their children, Julia, Samuel and Marianna.

But then we see her marriage certificate to Nathaniel T. Davis in 1891! It lists her parents as James and Sarah, the same parents’ names on the censuses. And it says she was born in Brooklyn around 1863.

Marriage certificate for Nathaniel Davis and Mariana Davies

This primary source record, her marriage certificate, confirms she is the same person on the censuses (which can be considered as a secondary source since we have no way of knowing where the census taker got the information). Furthermore, her husband, Nathaniel T. Davis is listed as being born in Miller Place, the town next to Mount Sinai. His age corresponds to the year of birth on the headstone too.

We do not stop there though; we continue to inspect the remaining sources. We have more State and Federal censuses that show Mariana married to Nathaniel and over the years, it shows her children being born. There is a marriage record for a son, Walter, that lists his parents as Mariana Davies and Nathaniel Davis. This further proves that Mariana Davies is Mariana Davis. Other records consist of a Find A Grave memorial (most definitely a secondary source since anyone can upload a memorial and put in any information they want to), a death index for NYS for Mariana J. Davis dated 12 July 1924 with a death place as Brookhaven, Suffolk County NY, and a Social Security claim for a daughter, Marion, which lists her parents as Mariana Davies and Nathaniel Davis. Although this is a Social Security record, it is just the transcription making it a secondary source. However, all the primary sources found back up the information on the secondary sources.

Social Security Transcription for Marion Davis, daughter of Nathaniel and Mariana Davies Davis

An excellent case for reviewing all the sources on any tree, whether on FamilySearch, Ancestry or any other website, was found when two 1915 censuses were listed as sources for Mariana Davis, both women being born around 1863 and living in Brookhaven, Suffolk County NY.

1915 NYS Census transcription for Mariana Davis #1

1915 NYS Census transcription for Mariana Davis #2

Mariana Davis (#1) was living in Port Jefferson (the town to the west of Mount Sinai and Miller Place) with her husband Robert Davis, a Publisher, and their two daughters. Mariana Davis (#2) was living in Miller Place with her husband Nathaniel, a farmer, and their three children. We have one of those children’s marriage certificate and another’s Social Security claim. Also, Nathaniel was listed as a farmer in his marriage certificate and that matches this census. So, someone had not done careful research and attached a wrong document to this Mariana Davies.

Again, we did not stop there. We used the Full Text Seach on FamilySearch to see if we could find any other unindexed records, as well as a Book Search. We found a book that listed Nathaniel T. Davis with all of the wives he had (he outlived the first two) and some of his children. Mariana Davies was listed as his third wife and one child was listed, who was the same one on the marriage certificate we had. We also found some land deeds that named both Nathaniel T. and Mariana J. Davis. Later searching of local newspapers found more information that supported everything we had found already.

The Port Jefferson Echo, 22 April 1916, page 1.

We can now finally say with certainty that Mariana J. Davies was married to Nathaniel T. Davis and is the woman named in the book and on the headstone, and that there was no error on the headstone. She was buried with her maiden name, Davies.

In review, a good research plan will have the following components:

Objective: Is the book inscribed to Mrs. Mariana J. Davis from her Aunt at Christmas 1892 the same person found on the headstone of Nathaniel T. Davis and Mariana J. Davies?

Hypothesis: We both thought that Davies may have been an error on the headstone and it should have been Davis and that the person listed on the headstone was indeed the one named in the book.

Research Plan: See if Mariana Davis is on the tree on FamilySearch; if she was, then review the sources given; and then search for more records.

Document retrieval: Look at all the sources for Mariana Davies on her FamilySearch “person” page; look for other resources in as many places as possible.

Document analysis: Read the documents to make sure they are primary sources. Look at the data on each document to see if they all give the same information, such as dates, locations, occupations, children, etc. Determine if your analysis supports or refutes your hypothesis.

Final report: We were able to use the information found to refute the hypothesis that Mariana’s name was misspelled on the headstone. Davies was her maiden name. All the documents we found support this. Furthermore, they support the fact that she married Nathaniel T. Davis, the husband listed on the headstone with her.

This article was written with help from Kay and her great editing. Thank you for allowing me to share our story from that night!

Mariana Davies or Mariana Davis? How a book and headstone led two people on a hunt for the truth.

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