I tried my bag of tricks on the Wendel line of Mark’s ancestry and hit pay dirt. I had noticed that Wendel had been spelled not only Wendell with 2 “l”s but also as Windel. I decided to try a search as Jacob Windel* with the wild card and see what I would get from the 1900 census. I included his birth information and the state that I figured they were living in. The first page of search results didn’t show Jacob but did show his wife Mary with a spouse of “Jake.” I now had 2 problems solved for this line.
Jacob went by “Jake” in the 1900 to 1920 census. Their last name was spelled in all of these censuses with an “i” and that is why I wasn’t finding them at the top of the search. The results from 1900 to 1920 showed the family moving from Mammoth Springs, Arkansas to Duty, Arkansas and then Portia, Arkansas. After a little research I noticed that Portia was probably a part of the 1910 Census for Duty. All of these places are on the same main road that winds south east through Arkansas. We travel through them on the way to Mark’s parent’s house every holiday.
After finding the Wendel family, I decided to go back and take another look at Jacob’s wife’s family, the Epperson line, and see if any of them had followed the same path. Mary had 2 brothers, William and John. I started with William and searched using Mammoth Springs, Arkansas as the location and the 1900 Census. I had a hit, not only did I have a hit but they were living in the next house over from Jacob and Mary. I had missed this bit of information when I found Jacob.
Now that I had William’s wife and children’s names I knew it would be easier to locate where they had moved on to. The 1910 census has them living in Bird, Arkansas. By 1920 the family had moved on to Glaize, Arkansas. Many of the children had married and were all living in same location, many next door to each other. They would still be living in the Glaize area in 1930.
So far Mary’s brother John has escaped capture using my little bag of tricks, but I think with a little more information from Mark’s family I can find him!