COG: Lee Rutter - How Do You Connect?

 Carnival of Genealogy, 85th ed.: Orphans and Orphans




The first time I encountered Lee was Dora Emily Rutter-McCall's obituary: "Survivng are three daughters and one son: Mrs. Rose Thomas, Seaside, Ore.; Mrs. Nina Evans, LosGatos, Calif.; Mrs. Maude Linner, Minneapolis; and Lee McCall, White, S.D."[1]  I've never heard mention of my great-grandmother (Maude) having a brother. I have numerous pictures and stories of her with her sisters. I had not run across a Lee McCall in any of my research either. I chalked him up to a newspaper misprint.

The next time I ran into Lee was in two photographs my aunt sent me. The first was "Uncle Lee," Maude McCall-Linner (great-grandmother), my aunt, Bertram Linner (great-grandfather), and Dolores Linner-Mattson (grandmother) in front of a car. The second was Bertram, Maude, and "Uncle Lee." They were taken at the same time (the three in the second picture are wearing the same clothing in the first picture), crit. 1948. Perhaps Lee was an honorary or adopted member of the family?

I went through my research and found that I did have a record of Lee: The 1905 Minnesota state census for Maude's uncle and Dora's brother, Adelbert, had a "Lee Rutter" listed immediately after his family.[2]  The census is not broken up by family, nor does it list relationships. However, it does list place of birth for the person and his/her parents. Lee Rutter is listed as having been born in Iowa, father born in Rhode Island, and mother in Pennsylvania, the same as Adelbert "Dell" Rutter. Lee's age is listed as 26 years, making his date of birth about 1879. Dora and Adelbert's parents, Alonzo John and Mary (Finch) Rutter, have a well documented lineage, and I have never run across mention of a son named Lee. No one by that name, nor that approximate date of birth appear in any of the family records (censuses, AJ's pension file, other family member's obituaries, other researcher's trees).

I was able to find Lee Rutter's World War One draft registration card which lists his date of birth as 28 December 1879.[3]   He states that his nearest relative is Dora McCall.&

Lee Rutter died 30 May 1955 in Sioux Falls, Minnehaha County, South Dakota. I ordered a copy of his death certificate.[4]  His parents are listed as Richard and Dora E. Rutter. The informant is Mrs. B.G. Linner (Maude McCall-Linner). His birth is given as 28 December 1878 in Little Rock, Iowa.

Conclusion: AJ and Mary had children born in 1878 and 1880, making it unlikely that Lee is their child. The family had a farm in Elgin Township, Lyon County, Iowa in 1878/9. Little Rock would have been the closest post office upon its creation in 1884 (however, the family had already moved by then). His birth was not recorded in Lyon County, however, none of the Rutter children births were. Dora would have been 17 or 18 years old when Lee was born. All of the evidence points to her as his mother.
The earliest record I can find of Lee is his enlistment in the army on 2 July 1898.[5]  This past June I was visiting my aunt (the same one who had given me the photographs) and was presented with Lee's original discharge, a thank you leaflet from the city of Augusta, Georgia, and a tube containing his pass while in that city. He spent his entire enlistment (2 July 1898 - 27 March 1899) state-side.

I do not know who raised Lee or where. His mother was probably an unmarried Dora Emily Rutter. I know that as of 1905 his mother's family acknowledged him. On 19 November 1920 Lee married a widow named Gertrude A. Taylor-Hardy.[6]  They ran a cafe in White, South Dakota for many years. Gertrude died 2 November 1934.[7]

Uncle Lee continues to be a brick wall. I'm hoping that his military and pension files will shed light onto his early years. He has been a solitary figure on my tree for quite a while and I would very much like to give Lee his place among the branches.

Sources
[1] "Death of a Former Pipestone Woman: Mrs. Phil McCall, Sister of Mrs. J.D. Wilson, Dies in Minneapolis Sunday," Pipestone County (Minnesota) Star, 3 April 1936, p. 1; microfilm held by the Pipestone County Historical Society and Museum.
[2] 1905 Minnesota state census, Rock County, Luverne north ward, population schedule, p. 56, p. 23 (penned upper left corner), p. 38 (penned), lines 45-51, Rutter surname; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : downloaded 25 May 2007); citing Minnesota Historical Society reels 1-47 and 107-164, MNSC_152.
[3] "World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," digital image, Ancestry.com (http:/www.ancestry.com : downloaded 2007), Lee Rutter, serial no. 1739, order no. 1549, Redwood Falls, Redwood County, Minnesota; citing World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, NARA microfilm publication M1509; FHL microfilm 1675777.
[4] South Dakota, Department of Health, death certificate 285257 (6 June 1955), Lee Rutter (informational copy); Central Location, Pierre.
[5] Franklin F. Holbrook, Minnesota in the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection (St. Paul, MN: Minnesota War Records Commission, 1923), 401; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2008).
[6] "South Dakota Marriages, 1905-1949," digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : downloaded 13 May 2007), Lee Rutter and Gertrude A. Hardy, 19 Nov 1920, Codington County; South Dakota Department of Health. South Dakota Marriage Index, 1905-1914 and South Dakota Marriage Certificates, 1905-1949. Pierre, SD, USA: South Dakota Department of Health.
[7] Minnesota Historical Society. "Death Certificates Index," database (http://people.mnhs.org/dci/ : accessed 27 May 2009), entry for Gertrude A. Rutter; citing death certificate no. 1934-MN-012981, Redwood County.

Thoughts On Certification

I have mentioned before that I am seeking my profession genealogy certification. I am going to do this through the Board of Certified Genealogist, although it is not the only avenue. My goal is to have my portfolio completed by the NGS convention in April. No, I have no started the application process yet. This entails sending in the application and fee. Then I will have a year to send in my portfolio. My torture resume is up to date. There are several things I could pull from my files for the transcribe/abstract part. I actually have a client lined up for after New Years, so I will use that client report. I've decided on the topic for my case study. I was wavering between Lee Rutter and Annie Linner. Both would also work as my kinship study.

• Lee Rutter is one of those orphans on the family tree. I know "Uncle Lee" connected somewhere. I'm almost positive now that he is the illegitimate son of my gr-gr-grandmother, Dora Rutter-McCall.
  
• Annie is my gr-gr-grandmother. She m. (1) Joel Linner, my gr-gr-grandfather. I would cover my search for her maiden name and parentage, which I discovered by tracing her siblings.
  

I've decided to use my hunt for Annie's family as my case study; there is a finite ending. While I'm almost positive on who Lee Rutter's mother is, I have not found that definite proof yet and I will probably never discover who his father is. There is also a lot of things on my to-do list for Lee that might shed more light on to his parentage. Actually, stay tuned, I'm thinking about discussing Lee as my Carnival of Genealogy submission.

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While writing this post I realized that I should explain something. You might have noticed that I hyperlink all of the names in my blog. The link is to their family group sheet on my website. If you're interested, you can click on the link and learn more about that person and their family.

You'll notice that my website is not up to date. I will be completely rebuilding it after my database update is done.

Wordless Wednesday - Two pictures 65 years apart

 

Backpost 4 October 2009

Wow, it's been almost a year since I posted anything. This past summer I did a cross-county road trip, which included stops in Minnesota and Iowa to do research on my Rutter and Linner families. I found a LOT of information, from newspaper articles, land records, vital records, and more. While in Stillwater, Minnesota we attended a Linner family reunion (my first). I got home just in time to attend Jamboree, which was great. In July I switched my database from RootsMagic3 to RootsMagic4. This has consumed me! Sounds simple, huh? NO. I am literally going through every since person (I have close to 4,000 names in my database) and making sure everything is sourced. Then I am making sure the sources are cited properly. My database keeps growing as I do this. My general rule is to research through grandchildren of my direct ancestor. Some of my early research is information pulled off of trees posted online without any sources. As I am sourcing everything, I am finding more people. My sister also tackled the elusive Putnam family. She found a sourced family tree online, and now she gets to confirm all of it. Hehehe, I'm sort of throwing her in the deep end with verbal instructions on how to swim. Once I get my database updates done, I will re-do this site. It will be updated to include everyone in my database and I will be taking down all of the citations and notes. Sorry, but I am at the point where I have put my blood, sweat and tears and untold amounts of money into this research and I want to know who is using it. On a side note, I am looking in to becoming a Certified Genealogist.