Lou Ann Stratton

Research note: two versions in the family tree

Mark Malott’s Ancestry family tree carries two versions of her: one born 1 April 1869 and died 26 September 1904, agreeing with her headstone’s death year; the other born 1 September 1863 and died between 1910 and 1920, agreeing with the 1910 census. Neither cites a death record.

Research note: was she still living in 1910?

Her headstone, which she shares with William, reads “Lou Anna 1863–1904.” But the 1910 census, taken in May, lists William, 50, with a wife aged 47 whose first name looks like “Louanna.” Both are in their first marriage and have been married 30 years, and she is the mother of 14 children, 8 living, which follows on from Lou Ann’s 12 born and 6 living in 1900. A second wife married after 1904 would not fit any of that. The stone was very likely carved long after her death, perhaps when William died in 1942, and its 1904 may be a mistake, as on the stone of Harry C. Malott.

Ohio death certificates survive from late 1908. If Lou Anna died after that, her certificate should be in the Ohio deaths index for Brown County under a name such as Lou Anna, Louanna or Lou Ann Malott, and would settle the date. (A 1918 certificate for an Anna Louisa Malott of Williamsburg is a different woman: born 1845, a widow, daughter of John S. Smallwood.)

Source: 1910 U.S. census, Sterling Township, Brown County, Ohio, enumeration district 19, sheet 10A, enumerated 6–9 May 1910, dwelling 342, lines 32–33.

Research note

Lou Ann’s birth year was once recorded as 1869. Her headstone, which names her “Lou Anna,” reads 1863–1904, and 1863 is the year used here. The 1900 census gives her birth as May 1865, aged 35.