Who's Your Mother?

My paternal great-great-grandfather, Andrew Jackson Wilson (1828-1918) fathered at least nineteen children. I've spent quite some time trying to get vital records for each, and to learn something of their children. Originally, it was thought there were "only" eighteen children. Then in 2015, my cousin stumbled across an obituary for the nineteenth and youngest of the brood.

Andrew J's children by his first wife, my ancestor Mary Jane Rambo (1828-1867), were pretty straight-forward finds. For one thing, they tended to go by one given name, although whether it's Mary Etta or Marietta may never be sorted out definitively. Within a couple of years of starting family research, I had gathered lots of information about Andrew's and Mary Jane's nine children.

Mary Jane died 7 months after the birth of her last child, William. Andrew married Charity Jane Anderson 20 months later. You would think he would have married sooner, but he might have had some difficulty finding a wife willing to take on nine minor children, six under 10 years of age. As it was, family rumor said that Charity had come into the marriage with one child of her own, apparently born out of wedlock to an unknown father. (It would later turn out this child, Dora, was Andrew's.)

Grover L. Wilson's 1905 marriage record states his mother was Christina Fauley

For years, before learning that the child Charity brought to her marriage was actually Andrew's, and long before finding child nineteen, it was thought Charity and Andrew had eight children. Finding the vital records and families for nearly all of those eight proved challenging and took decades. For one thing, unlike Andrew's and Mary Jane's children, the given names of Andrew's and Charity's were confusing. Some variations of names were obvious: Dora turned out to be Eldora A.; Flora was Florence. But Ellie was Ellen who sometimes went by Blanch; Millie Myrtle liked to be called Nellie (one can see why); and Minnie gave me the most difficulty because she mostly went by Annie.

Lawrence Wilson's 1907 marriage record states his mother was Christina Faulay

I felt quite good about all the information I finally managed to acquire on Andrew's children, regardless of which mother they had. When Bessie, the nineteenth and last child was "discovered", my cousin was able to interview a family member who knew her, and so getting her information was relatively easy.


Then, along came a surprise that remains an unsolved, possibly unsolvable mystery. The Ohio marriage records for Charity's and Andrew's two youngest sons, Grover (1883-1925) and Lawrence (1887-1972), state their mother's name was Christina Fauley! Grover and Lawrence were born between the births of Minnie/Annie and recently discovered Bessie. It's fairly clear from the number of children he fathered that Andrew was a bit, as the British say, randy. If Charity became unable or unwilling to fulfill her marital duties, I can imagine Andrew wasting no time in finding a surrogate. I'm inclined to think Charity might have been unable to do her wifely duty since she is listed as the mother on an unnamed male's (Grover) birth record. Perhaps she felt obligated to take in another woman's child under such circumstances.

Birth record, 1883, for male child, son of A. J. Wilson and Charity J. Anderson.
Grover's marriage record states his mother was Christina Fauley

I've searched any number of ways for Christina Fauley without success. Having nothing to go on but her name (and not even knowing if this is a married or maiden name) makes the likelihood of ever identifying Grover's and Lawrence's mother nearly impossible. Some day a DNA match might solve the mystery, but until then, I can only wonder---Who the HELL is Christina Fauley?