Solving the mystery of my mother's grandfather

Family secrets and uncertain parentage marked my mother's early life. She never knew her grandfather's name, and questions lingered about her own maternal lineage. The timeline between her mother's marriage and birth records suggested her biological father might have been her mother's former husband rather than the man listed on her birth certificate.

To get a better understanding, I'd like to introduce you to my great-grandmother, Lucy Amanda Jones. Lucy was the seventh of ten children born to William Nelson Jones and Krishanna Dora Ihda, in Coon Creek Township in Lyon County, Minnesota.

From my mother, I learned that her first husband, Frank Bean (m. 1903), was the love of her life. Unfortunately, Frank apparently died in a logging accident. To date, I've been unsuccessful in finding any records about his death (~1907). Lucy and Frank had three children; Frank (b. 1904 Minnesota), Birdie (b. 1906 Minnesota), and Harry (b. 1907 North Dakota). 

Lucy migrated west from Minnesota to North Dakota, finally settling in Washington State by 1910 where she married Henry Ferdinand Rabanus (m. 1910 Tacoma, Washington).

Then, on 15 February 1913, Lucy married Robert Harrison, followed a little over a month later by the birth of a daughter, Alice Hester on 24 March. Though Robert is the father listed on her birth certificate, there was always some mystery around her father. In her later years, Alice mentioned her father being Henry.

Lucy and Robert had two more daughters, Louella Esther (b. 1915 Montana) and Verna Irene (b. 1916 Washington). Lucy and Robert divorced in 1922. 

Lucy lost Birdie (d. 1920) and Harry (d. 1923).

Lucy was briefly married to John Lewis Roderick (m. 1923). Lucy married a final time in 1932 to Claiborne Lane Neil.

When my mother was a young teen, she went to live with her grandmother for awhile, it was during this time she tried to learn more about her grandfather. Sadly, Lucy didn't share about him, she only spoke about her first husband, Frank.

Lucy died on 2 April 1981, in Centralia, Lewis County, Washington, and was buried in Claquato Cemetery, one of the oldest in Washington State.

I finally decided to tackle this family mystery head-on. Our journey began with a crucial first step: having Mom take a DNA test. At the time, my research into both potential fathers proved challenging, as historical records for the limited information I had about them were scarce.

In 2018, I found WikiTree and started building out the family lines for both Robert Harrison and Henry Rabanus. None of the matches for Mom on 23andMe and Ancestry matched for either Rabanus or Harrison. There were matches for a surname listed on Robert's marriage records though! Robert listed his parents as George Harrison and Priscilla Pedicord. Since there were matches for Peddicord, I went ahead and added profiles for the families of the matches and there I found a George Anderson married to a Priscilla Harrison whose mother was a Peddicord! 

When I looked at the children of George and Priscilla, I found a son with a matching birth date of 6 January 1876. This son though was named George Anderson, not Robert Harrison. By now I had been thoroughly drawn in and got the feeling I was dealing with someone who may have been using an alias. Perhaps this is why Lucy told my Mom that she wouldn't want to know her grandfather as he wasn't a good man. 

Researching George Anderson unlocked the mystery! George entered the Retsil Veteran's Home with his second wife, Carrie Kastl. Carrie's death certificate from the home matched Robert's second wife. From there the rest of the story could be found. 

George Ferris Anderson, was the seventh of nine children of George Anderson and Priscilla Harrison, born on 6 January 1876, in Union Township in Jasper County, Indiana. At 14, George left home to travel the country.

In June of 1898, George enlisted in the 13th Minnesota Infantry, serving in the Spanish-American War, until October 1899 when he was honorably discharged in San Francisco, California. George returned to his widowed mother's home in Chicago, Illinois by 1900.

After his divorce from Lucy, George married the widow, Carrie Marie (Kastl) Dittmar, in 1923. 

Throughout the twenties, George appears in criminal registers and newspaper articles as a bootlegger.

George and Carrie moved from Lewis County to Kitsap County, Washington, where George lost Carrie in 1957.

George died on 4 June 1965, at the Retsil Veterans Home in Retsil, Washington, and was buried at the cemetery there. 

In 2022, another WikiTreer, Donna Tucker, started a One Place Study for an orphanage in Chicago where a nephew of George, Herschell Arthur Anderson, was an inmate. 

I'm ever hopeful that someday we will find an image of George so that Mom can see what he looked like.

* Find source documentation and more information on the linked WikiTree profiles for the members of this family.