One of my ongoing genealogy projects is entering the information on
my Ellingwood ancestors and relatives onto my Ancestry.com tree
from Florence Evelyn O'Connor's book "The Ancestors and
Descendants of Asa Freeman Ellingwood and Florilla(Dunham)
Ellingwood". I've started with the descendants first because there
are so many of them and there are sources and images of records
that aren't available for earlier generations. Some of the people
mentioned in the book have passed away since it was published and
so I've been able to update the book's information with the records
on Ancestry. In a few cases I've been able to fill in some missing
pieces.
One such gap is concerns Fred Ellingwood, the son of Walter Fred
and Jane S(Brown)Ellingwood. He would have been the nephew of
my great grandmother Clara Ellingwood. In her book, Florence
doesn't have much information on him:
"...born in Upton, Me.about 1884; married Helen Wood and lived
in Lynn,Mass. where he worked for General Electric Co.; he died in
Lynn, Mass." (p.59).
Florence got a lot of her information from Ellingwood family members
but this entry is so small that my guess is that Fred didn't make it
back up to Maine often, if at all, and he fell out of touch with the
rest of the Ellingwoods. So I entered this into my Ancestry tree
and then searched for records.
The first thing I found were the WWI and WWII Draft Registration
Cards for one Fred Roland Ellingwood, born 18Apr 1884. But
there is a discrepancy between the two as to Fred's place of birth.
On the WWI form, he said his birthplace was Upton, Oxford, Me.
where he registered. But in 1942 when he registered in Lynn,
Essex, Ma. at the age of 58, he says he was born in Cambridge, Nh.
That puzzled me until I remembered his mother Jane had been born
in Cambridge as well. Perhaps he was born in his grandparent's home?
I still haven't found a birth record to settle on which birthplace was
correct although Fred gives it as NH on the Federal Census as well.
Next I found a record of his marriage to Helen Wood in the Maine
Marriages 1892-1996 Collection. They were married on 22Aug
1918.
The Federal Census for 1920 finds a Fred R. Ellenwood and his
wife Mary at 34 Neptune St in Lynn, Essex, Ma. Here another
discrepancy appears. They are living with a Michael O'Connor and
his wife Mary, and Helen is listed as Michael's daughter. So was
Fred's wife Helen Wood or Helen O'Connor? There was also a
Kathleen W. Ellenwood, age 6, listed as Fred and Helen's daughter.
Since they were married only two years before, I speculated that
Helen was married once already, and that Kathleen was her
daughter by her first marriage.
That theory was confirmed with the 1930 Census. Fred and Helen
were living at 21 Childs St. in Lynn and Kathleen, now 16, is
listed as Kathleen Wood, stepdaughter. By then there were also
three other children, all girls, Ruth, Jane, and Claire. Fred's job
description is given as "packer, shipping room, elec. appl. factory".
They would still be at that address when WWII broke out.
That's all I've been able to find so far about Fred and his family.
I'm hoping that someone who is related to Fred's daughters will find
this post and fill in the rest of the blanks!
Fred R. Ellingwood, b. 18Apr 1884, Cambridge Coos, Nh(?) d.
unknown m. Helen O'Connor on 22Aug 1918 in Maine.
Three Children:
Ruth b @1920
Jane b @1923
Claire b @ 1924
One stepdaughter:
Kathleen Wood b @ 1914
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