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Some of the images on this page (mostly the 1900 Census forms) are TIFF's which are generally quite large (150-200K) and may take a while to load on a dialup connection You may also require a special view to view them. (If you are prompted to save, do so and use an external viewer). We pick up our story in Poplar Bluff (Butler County) Missouri in June of 1900. The Census Form shows Mary A. Waltman (the widow of George) living with a bit of an extended family (census form here, a TIFF)
The seven children living poses a question. Which ones were these? From the family bible and other evidence, we know about:
Some people remember a Henry Waltman, which could be William Henry, b. 10/12/186? That makes 6. There is a George A. listed in the bible, born 11/23/1877. Also in Butler County (Ash Hill Township) is a George Waltman of the proper age. (See the form here). The only discrepancy is this George has his father born in Missouri while the ones above all have their father born in Pennsylvania. However, I have noticed a similar discrepancy many other times, so this may be our guy. He lists as family (census for here, a TIFF):
An "Aunt Maggie" is remembered by some, this could be her. So I'll count the George as one of us. That leaves as not surviving:
I did find a Grover C. Waltman of the proper age living in NY in the 1920 census, but he said he was born in PA, so that is probably not him. There were probably lots of children named "Grover Cleveland" at the time. Which makes you wonder how many children these days are named "Bill Clinton Smith" or "George Bush Jones?" Moving ahead to 1920 we find: In West Helena, Phillips County, AR, Elvis and family (census form here)
In Poplar Bluff, Butler County, MO we find Harlen's family, living with his wife's sister, Margaret Wright (census form here):
In Leslie, Searcy County, AR we find a John Waltman (census for here):
Normally, I would say this was probably not our John, except I found another web site of somebody's family tree (see it here) that lists this John's birthdate as 3/5/1871, exactly matching the family bible. So for now I am putting it down to another confused census taker. As a footnote, here are a couple of census forms of folks that have the correct names and ages, but I don't think are close relatives, but may be descended from George2 on the Pennsylvania Page.
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