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I am not a genealogy expert but you may be inferring too much from a lack of records available online. I do know that in casual searches for family ancestors I can find almost no references to them, especially women, even though I know they were happy members of close families and I have stories and photographs of them.
If I had to speculate anything about Jenny Wright it would be that she went to California for college or even boarding school and stayed there. She died in Menlo Park and Menlo Park is a very affluent suburb of San Francisco, so life can't have ended too badly for her. Just because she didn't marry or have children isn't indicative of unhappiness. Perhaps she had no interest in having a family?
Have you tried researching college archives and enrollment records for Jennie Wright in California?
I am not a genealogy expert but you may be inferring too much from a lack of records available online. I do know that in casual searches for family ancestors I can find almost no references to them, especially women, even though I know they were happy members of close families and I have stories and photographs of them.
If I had to speculate anything about Jenny Wright it would be that she went to California for college or even boarding school and stayed there. She died in Menlo Park and Menlo Park is a very affluent suburb of San Francisco, so life can't have ended too badly for her. Just because she didn't marry or have children isn't indicative of unhappiness. Perhaps she had no interest in having a family?
Have you tried researching college archives and enrollment records for Jennie Wright in California?
No, but I will. And you're right, that doesn't mean she was unhappy … but being kinda dumped by your family of origin in the first place, while lucky brother got to stay with his father and half-siblings, seems a bit harsh, no?
Hopefully I'll find a swell ending. Though so far all I've been able to do is follow three or four Jeanette Wrights, only to find out they can't have been her. I'm a Jeanette Wright expert, I tell ya.
No, but I will. And you're right, that doesn't mean she was unhappy … but being kinda dumped by your family of origin in the first place, while lucky brother got to stay with his father and half-siblings, seems a bit harsh, no?
Hopefully I'll find a swell ending. Though so far all I've been able to do is follow three or four Jeanette Wrights, only to find out they can't have been her. I'm a Jeanette Wright expert, I tell ya.
She may not have been dumped. She may have lived with her grandmother and aunt in order to help them out, especially if it was just two women running a farm.
The South Salem Presbyterian Church still exists. You might see if they have any info on the family. A bulletin or newsletter might have mention of Jennie's death.
If there is an obit, it should not be hard to find, and libraries usually only charge a small fee to search and send you a copy. (I usually add a few dollars to the fee as a donation. Libraries are hurting these days.)
"For questions and obituary requests, contact us at (740) 702-4145 or crcplresearch@oplin.org. You may copy the obituaries you need onsite for 10¢ per page, or you may contact us to do it for you for $2.50 per obituary."
No, but I will. And you're right, that doesn't mean she was unhappy … but being kinda dumped by your family of origin in the first place, while lucky brother got to stay with his father and half-siblings, seems a bit harsh, no?
You are only assuming she was "dumped."
Her father went back to Persia with his son, leaving his daughter back in the US with relatives. It's very possible that he decided that Persia would not be a safe or desirable place for a little girl to grow up, under Muslim law. Maybe girls in Persia couldn't attend school? It also appears that there were lots of violent protests in Persia around the turn of the century, which lead up to the Constitutional Revolution. Many families in 1900 would think that was no place for a girl. Or maybe, as in many families, they decided that boys should be with their fathers, while girls should be raised by female relatives (if the mother isn't alive).
"Lucky" brother got to go live in a foreign country where non-Christian religion was blended with law and government, where violent protests were happening, and when his mom had recently gotten murdered? I'd have thought Ohio preferable, but that's just me.
She moved to California at some point, but you also can't assume that means her family "dumped" her.
On genealogybank, I found lots of newspaper references to a Miss Jeanette Wright, but in Riverside California (outside of LA). She was apparently a court clerk or municipal clerk in 1938, and she pops up in a few society articles. This might be that other Jeanette Wright in CA you mentioned, and not yours. It might just help to know about this Jeanette, in case she confounds your results in searching for your Jeanette Wright.
Another confounder would be Jeanette Wright Graham in Ohio. This one is a Jeanette G. Wright who married a Thomas Graham in Cleveland in 1890. Another Miss Jeanette Wright joined with some other young ladies in a farm area near Toledo Ohio in 1918 to raise money for the war effort. Your Jeanette would be 32, so I don't think they'd call her a young lady (back them she'd be a middle-aged spinster). there is a grainy photo, but the girls look young, maybe 18-20.
If I can't find the correct person, I fond it helpful to at least identify other people my the same name who might mess up my search results, so you can weed them out.
You are only assuming she was "dumped."
Her father went back to Persia with his son, leaving his daughter back in the US with relatives. It's very possible that he decided that Persia would not be a safe or desirable place for a little girl to grow up, under Muslim law. Maybe girls in Persia couldn't attend school? It also appears that there were lots of violent protests in Persia around the turn of the century, which lead up to the Constitutional Revolution. Many families in 1900 would think that was no place for a girl. Or maybe, as in many families, they decided that boys should be with their fathers, while girls should be raised by female relatives (if the mother isn't alive).
"Lucky" brother got to go live in a foreign country where non-Christian religion was blended with law and government, where violent protests were happening, and when his mom had recently gotten murdered? I'd have thought Ohio preferable, but that's just me.
She moved to California at some point, but you also can't assume that means her family "dumped" her.
You're correct about many things, but all of the missionaries' children, little girls onward, lived with their parents. The missionaries' jobs were teaching, so the children all went to those schools, along with the lucky lucky Syrian Christians who got to learn English etc. at the price of being endlessly proselytized.
Rev. Wright's oldest child with his third wife, his daughter Sarah, lived there with him, her mother and brothers until he retired in 1910. So … it just seemed unhappy to me.
I'm wrong about many things. But it would still be nice to find Miss Jennie.
On genealogybank, I found lots of newspaper references to a Miss Jeanette Wright, but in Riverside California (outside of LA). She was apparently a court clerk or municipal clerk in 1938, and she pops up in a few society articles. This might be that other Jeanette Wright in CA you mentioned, and not yours. It might just help to know about this Jeanette, in case she confounds your results in searching for your Jeanette Wright.
Another confounder would be Jeanette Wright Graham in Ohio. This one is a Jeanette G. Wright who married a Thomas Graham in Cleveland in 1890. Another Miss Jeanette Wright joined with some other young ladies in a farm area near Toledo Ohio in 1918 to raise money for the war effort. Your Jeanette would be 32, so I don't think they'd call her a young lady (back them she'd be a middle-aged spinster). there is a grainy photo, but the girls look young, maybe 18-20.
If I can't find the correct person, I fond it helpful to at least identify other people my the same name who might mess up my search results, so you can weed them out.
Yes, thank you, I'm starting a database to help sort them out!
You're correct about many things, but all of the missionaries' children, little girls onward, lived with their parents. The missionaries' jobs were teaching, so the children all went to those schools, along with the lucky lucky Syrian Christians who got to learn English etc. at the price of being endlessly proselytized.
Rev. Wright's oldest child with his third wife, his daughter Sarah, lived there with him, her mother and brothers until he retired in 1910. So … it just seemed unhappy to me.
I'm wrong about many things. But it would still be nice to find Miss Jennie.
Still, I would not underestimate the importance of having a motherless little girl raised by female relatives of the father. All those other children of missionaries may have also had their mothers as well as their fathers. Sarah was with him because her mother was there.
I wonder how eager a new (Persian?) wife would have been to raise her husband's daughter from a previous marriage? Sons would be different, always considered a respected asset. Also, I wonder if he was worried that the relatives of the dead wife would try to take the girl, so she was better off in the US? There are lots of possible explanations aside from cruel abandonment.
My grandmother was born in the early 1900s and her mother died soon after giving birth. My grandmother went to live with an aunt & uncle, her father's brother and sister-in-law, until she was 3 years old and her father re-married. The brothers stayed with their father, but everyone at the time decided it was best for the widower to raise his sons, while his daughter went to be raised by a woman. It was never an abandonment, or seen that way. It was just how things were.
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people to weed out
