I spent the better part of Sunday this week researching and investigating Jessie B Coder Sylvester at the request of my mother-in-law. The reason she ask for my help is because of the birth records. There are two records of births of Jessie Coder's to her parents, David S Coder and Catherine Coder. One in 1873 and one in 1876. The one in 1873 is listed as a male, and the one in 1876 is listed as a female.
You can click this link to see the 1876 female birth info and free image of the record book:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NQ44-V4C
(The picture isn't easily cut and pasted since you need parts of the
whole document, and the image is freely available to all to see, it is
easier to include a direct link.)
She is listed as Jessie L Coder, female, born 8 Jan 1876 to David Coder and Cathrin Coder in Charlotte, Eaton, Michigan.
The thing to notice is all the births were recorded on June 7, 1877 into the book. These are not original entries from when the parents came and told the county clerk. Could the L have been a B originally? It is possible.
You can click this link to see the 1873 male birth info and free image of the record book:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NQCM-PQ7
He is listed as Jessie Coder, male, born 4 Nov 1873 to David Coder and Catharine Coder in Charlotte, Eaton, Michigan.
Again, these are not original entries. The date recorded column says June 3, 1874, as do most of the entries. Could the gender have been incorrectly recorded? Maybe.
What we can conclude is that there were two babies born to David and Catherine Coder and since they named the second one the same name as the first, it is likely the first baby died. While there is a record of another baby named Howard being born in 1871 and dying in 1873, there is no record of baby Jessie Coder dying, at least in the Michigan records.
However, when we get to the 1880 census, we find the David and Catherine Coder family in Parker county Texas (just west of Fort Worth) with three children, Minnie, Corl & Jessie. (Corl is transcribed as Carl, but clearly reads Corl in the original record, which is consistent thru his life, but that's another topic).
1880 United States Census,
Precinct 7, Parker, Texas, United States (click any of the names to link to the source, and you can see the original image)
Notice that we have a female Jessie who is 6, which matches up with an 1873-1874 birth. But he was listed as male! Also, where is the female child born in 1876? Is she the Jessie listed here, or did she die?
The next document we have is the 1900 census where Jessie is already married and has a daughter of her own. How do we know it is her when we can't find the marriage record? The 1910 census holds a key. But first, the 1900 census.
1900 United States Census, ED 72 Justice Precinct 3 (voting precinct 11), Parker, Texas, United States
(click any of the names to link to the source, and you can see the original image)
So we learn several things in this census. First, we learn that they have been married about 1 year and have 1 child who is already 10 months old, so really we can guess they have been married at least 19 months, and were probably married in the second half of 1898. Richard is listed as a farmer here. The 1900 census gives us month and year of birth. Jessie's says Nov 1873. Interesting since that coincides with the birth of the male Jessie Coder!
1910 United States Census Justice Precinct 7, Parker, Texas
Not only do we have Jessie B Sylvester's single spinster sister Minnie Coder living with the family, they are right next door to her brother Corl F Coder, his wife and 7 children! Can we just say a big thank you to them for being so nice and thoughtful to do that for us?
Notice that D R & Jessie B are listed as having been married for 12 years now. Even though this census was in April 1910, while the 1900 census was in June 1900. After less than 2 years of marriage, they were more exact about how long they'd been married. After 12 years, more time has passed and they are not as exact in dating the length of marriage. Notice again, that she is listed as 37, indicating an 1873 birth. It is also possible that the info was obtained from someone not in the family (maybe the brother next door even!), since we have the age of Herbert as 6 with a 7 over the top, and he was 7.5 at that point. D R (Richard) is listed as a farmer again.
The next interesting document is actually the death record for Jessie's husband, Richard Sylvester, or D R. He dies just 2 years later in February 1912 in Waco, Texas from a gunshot wound, with his occupation listed as traveling salesman. Was the farming unsuccessful? Was the traveling salesman job a secondary job to bring in extra money? Was he robbed or did he die in a saloon fight? So many unanswered questions about an interesting and early, untimely death. He left behind a wife and 4 children, aged 13,11,9 and a baby born that year he probably never met. There are no Waco papers from the time archived to search, and Parker county was too rural to have a paper. It is possibly in one of the Fort Worth paper archives, I would have to travel to the state archives to look through them.
As far as death certificates go, it has very little personal information, even though the informant is his brother in law, C.F. Coder.
In the 1920 census, Jessie is a single mother, still next door to her brother, and we see the fourth child Elizabeth, born in 1912.
1920 United States Census
, Parker, Texas
Now here, she is listed as 45, which would be a 1874-1875 birth, the closest we ever get to another document agreeing with the 1876 birth year.
I cannot find Jessie in the 1930 census, she is not with her three children I have located. I cannot find Elizabeth either though.
In the 1940 census, Jessie is living in Yuma, Arizona with her eldest daughter Vera.
1940 United States Census,
Supervisorial District 2, Yuma, Arizona, United States
| Head
|
Marvin Fox
|
M |
41 |
Texas
|
| Wife
|
Vera Fox
|
F |
40 |
Texas
|
| Mother-in-law
|
Jessie B Sylvester
|
F |
66 |
Michigan
|
|
Jessie is 66 here, indicating an 1873-1874 birth still. The consistency is surprising to some extent. The 1940 census also tells us that she lived here with her daughter in the same house in 1935, so we know she has been here at least 5 years. It also tells us she went to school through 4th grade.
The last document is her death certificate. It is a lovely filled out with lots of information death certificate.
The informant was her daughter, "Mrs. Marvin Fox" in other words, Vera. It is interesting because it lists the exact birth date "Nov 4 1873" of the male Jessie Coder birth record! So the likelihood that her gender was accidentally changed in the birth records seems possibly high based on all the other documents. But we just can't be sure. But why another child, a daughter no less, clearly also named "Jessie Coder" in 1876? Why?
So I've added a lot of commentary to these records to share my thoughts and what I noticed as I looked at the documents. Hopefully it is helpful to someone and not confusing.
Lastly we have her tombstone, she was buried next to her husband in Aledo, Texas, you can visit the memorial here: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=SY&GSpartial=1&GSbyrel=all&GSst=46&GScntry=4&GSsr=1001&GRid=66344723&
I have tracked three of her children, their spouses and descendants also. But I cannot find information about the youngest, Elizabeth.
There you have it, the story of Jessie B Coder, who while clearly a female, was either recorded as a male in the birth records, or told the wrong birthday her whole life by her family.
