Eleanor Robertson - can not find her anywhere, please help!

[RWL]

Hello,

I am hoping that someone might be able to give me some ideas in how I might be able to track down my great grandmother who has eluded me for so long.

Her name was Eleanor ROBERTSON and she ended up in Victoria, BC, Canada with her husband George William LAPP in 1910. She died from Typhoid Fever in 1919.  From that census the following year (1911) it states she was born August 1887 in the US. And from her death certificate her husband lists her place of birth as Wyoming and her father as "Mr. Robertson," born in Scotland. Very helpful... Obviously he knew little to nothing about her family.

Unfortunately one can not check for her in the 1890 census because only a small fragment remains. And in 1900 I can not find anyone of that name (or remotely similar) in the US at all. By the 1910 census she was in Canada.

George Lapp was born in Maryland in 1885 and travelled to California in his teens, eventually working as a conductor in San Francisco (on a tram, I guess... I have a photo with his conductor's hat). He then learned to be and possibly worked as a machinist. What I was told was that the two met (where?) and were married in Washington State (again, where exactly?), travelling to Victoria on their honeymoon and returning permanently to have their first child (my grandfather, born 21 July 1911).

Any ideas how I could possibly locate this woman? I do not know the first name of her father or her exact place of birth. Wyoming could simply be where she was born or grew up. I can not find George Lapp after the 1900 census in Maryland (as "George Steel") until he shows up in Canada. And I do not know in which county in Washington State they were married in. It must have been between 1909-1910, though.

City directories for California or Washington State? Is there a way to search marriage records state wide for those years? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! And I apologize for the length of this post, but it has been frustrating me for years now! 

Regards,
Raymond

[KathMc]

Is it possible Eleanor named one of her kids after her father. That could help in searching Ancestry. I found one set of ggg grandparents that way. Any little clue could help. I've searched Ancestry for the 1900 census and couldn't find anything.

Kath

[KathMc]

I found a George Lapp on the 1911 Canadian census with wife Eliza. Is that them? Was that a mistake or what she was called maybe?


Kath

[RWL]

Hi Kath,

Yes, that's them in 1911...although the name does not look like Eliza to me, maybe Elnora, Elenna. And I've never seen anything else that names her as 'Eliza', at least not death certificates, obituaries, etc.

If there was an Eliza Robertson that fit her birthmonth/year and general area. There seems to have been many Robertson families at the time 1880s-1900s in the area of Wyoming and its borders, Colorado and Utah especially.

Her four children had the names George William, Richard Henry, Philip Douglas, and John Raymond. Some are names not popular on the LAPP side - Richard, Douglas and Raymond. Douglas is a Scottish name even and could be her mothers maiden name or some other family name?

I will have another look on Ancestry, although my searching is limited. Thanks!

Raymond

[jorose]

You could try to find their border crossing into Canada, as that would give you the last residence - which would likely be the place that they married.  Unfortunately I don't think border crossings into Canada have been indexed, but at least you know the approximate time of crossing and probably where they crossed, so it's not impossible.

http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/ - there are some records here, I couldn't see them but they don't have marriages for all counties.

http://www.victoria.ca/archives/archives_vit.shtml
It might not show much, but it appears there was a death notice/obituary published for her.  (Same site shows she was buried in Ross Bay cemetery).