Tag Archives: Arizona

Adopted Ancestor – Alice Irene (Sly) Bierman

Adopting Ancestors, Research - General, ,

Alice Irene Sly was my great aunt. She was the daughter of Lucy Long, born in 1910, and was unofficially adopted by Sanford Sly when he and Lucy married in 1913. I didn’t know about this right away. One time, while visiting my mom’s half-sister, she said to me in a semi-hushed tone “you know she’s not Sanford’s, right?” I looked around. First of all, it was just me and my mom there, no one else was around to hear. Secondly, all of the people in this story had died a very long time ago. The last one was Lucy who died in 1980. Why all the whispering? (But I digress.)

Alice contracted tuberculosis at some point. I haven’t been able to figure out exactly when this might have happened. But Sanford, Lucy, Alice, and their son Bill, moved to Buckeye, Arizona, for the benefit of her health. By following them in the Bowling Green, Ohio, city directories, I can tell that they moved sometime between 1934 and 1935. Alice died on 23 August 1938 in Tucson. Her death certificate states that she had been in the state for four years at the time of her death.

Alice met Cleveland Charles Bierman (commonly went by C.C.), also a patient at the hospital in Tucson. They married on 22 August 1936. They did not have any children and she died almost exactly 2 years later.

When Alice died, it was during the Depression. I am not certain what Sanford’s financial situation was, but Alice did not get a tombstone on her grave. I know she was a beloved child so I imagine the cost must have been a challenge for them. This spring, with the help of my mom, we got a tombstone ordered for her. It is set to be installed by October and as soon as it is, I’ll get a photo and will share it.

Even though she is not a direct line ancestor, I have adopted her and research more about her from time to time since she had no descendants who are “looking” for her.

Reviewing Assumptions

Clean-Up, , ,

I’m continuing my work to review and clean up my early research. And you know what they say about assumptions…

I had always heard about our “Arizona” family growing up. Sanford and Lucy Sly moved to Buckeye, Arizona, for the benefit of their daughter’s health. I had always thought they settled in Buckeye because they were from Ohio (the Buckeye state). Turns out, they weren’t the first ones to move there. Sanford had aunts and cousins who lived there before he did.

And this makes sense. People don’t often go to a place they’ve never heard of. Usually migrations happen in chains. One person goes (likely because THEY had a friend or family go first) and then the next person in the family goes and so on. Like a chain.

As I was working on some of my genealogy clean-up I’ve been doing, I did some basic research on the siblings of Sanford’s mother, his aunts and uncles. One of Sanford’s aunts, Emma Jane Avery married Andrew Glenn in Wood County, Ohio. They moved to Phoenix, Arizona, sometime between the 1900 and 1910 census.

Andrew died in New Mexico while on a trip in 1926. His widow, Emma, went to New Mexico and accompanied the body home to Phoenix. Emma died in 1927, just a year later. Some of their children lived in Arizona after their parents’ deaths. The daughter Pearl lived in Gila County until her death in 1963. Pearl’s siblings also lived in Arizona, mostly around the Phoenix area. Sanford and the children of Emma would have been first cousins and most likely known to each other. It was quite possibly the fact that he knew family in the area that brought him to Arizona. It is easier to move to a new place when you know someone there already.

So, check your assumptions. And if someone moved to a far off place, check for friends or family members who may have also moved to that area. They did not often go alone.