This will be of particular interest to you if you are related to Don via his mother, Arlene Elizabeth Schoenthal. As I have mentioned in the past, both Don and I have roots that go DEEP in Iowa. That causes some of my family history enthusiasts to exclaim in jealous amazement “Ooooh! The Iowa censuses!”
The state of Iowa had their own censuses starting in 1848 although it was not on a regular schedule like the ten-year cycle of the US federal census. For my genealogy hobby, it has been extremely helpful for tracking ancestors, their movements, and to confirm family relationships. The Iowa censuses included 1848, 1856, 1885, 1895, 1905, and 1925.
This is the happy story of discovery and confirmation from when I was just starting to learn about sources available to me. Working on the identity of Don’s maternal ancestors, I was running into a point where there were some roadblocks about the parents of Don’s maternal 2nd great-grandmother, Martha A Maddox (1847-1928) who was married to Edmon Smothers (1847-1891). Both Edmon and Martha were born in Tennessee. They married in Illinois and settled in Clayton County, Iowa around 1870 where they farmed and raised their seven children. Edmon died in 1891 at 54 years old and Martha lived for another 37 years. She died in 1928 in Dubuque, Iowa at age 81. While there were good sources and information about Edmon, Martha, and their children, the question remained – who were Martha’s parents? As I was learning about sources, it occurred to me to check; was Martha in the magical 1925 Iowa census?
In 1925, the Iowa census asked for lots of information that was not on the federal census. For example, it asked for the amount of insurance respondents carried on their home. The magic about the 1925 Iowa census is that each person enumerated has three pages of answers, not just one, so the important thing is to Turn the Page. There, on the second page of information about Martha, was the answer reported in 1925 to the question, “who were the parents of Martha Maddox?”
Jack Maddox and Julia A Baxter!
Other information started to fall in place about Martha’s family of origin including the marriage record of Julia Ann Baxter and Azariah John “Jack” Maddox in April of 1838 in Wilson County, Tennessee. The family moved to Franklin County, Illinois but the dates and places of death of Julia Ann and Jack are not yet known to me. Jack most likely died in Franklin County sometime around 1850. Julia remarried in Franklin County in 1854 but little is known about her whereabouts after the 1860 US census. There are always more mysteries to investigate and puzzles to solve.
If you are interested in looking up people in Iowa in the 1925 Iowa census, you can use FamilySearch to view the information online. You have to have a FamilySearch login, which is free, and you can search the collection with whatever information you have, such as name and year of birth or death. A little warning – not all of the records are indexed and it may take some time to find the exact census you are looking for.
Link to Iowa State Census, 1925: https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2224537
If you would like more information or need detail about my sources, please contact me at renee@reneecue.com.