Lura Lucinda (Smalley) Kelsey (1856 - 1911)

Born 13 Jun 1856 in Hammondsport, Urbana, Steuben, New York, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Osborn Frederick Kelsey — married 11 Feb 1879 (to 1889) in Bay City, Bay, Michigan, United States

Died 18 Mar 1911 at age 54 in Eaton Rapids, Eaton, Michigan, United States

This profile is Genealogically Defined.

Biography

The presumed daughter of Levi McProuty and Jane Edsall and the adoptive daughter of William Smalley and Cordelia (Potter) Smalley, Lura McProuty is believed to have been born in Hammondsport, New York in 1856. She is not recorded on the 1860 census with adoptive her parents but appears with them on the 1870 census in Seneca Falls.^[1] Before 1880, Lura moved with her family to Michigan, settling in Bay City.

Lura married Fred Kelsey, the son of Lucius Kelsey and Clarinda Putnam Lewis, marrying in Bay City on February 11, 1879^[2] and having two known children together. In 1880, Lura, Fred, and their infant, William, lived with her parents in Bay City, while Fred Kelsey worked as a clerk at an abstract office.^[3]

It appears that Lura and Fred Kelsey divorced; Fred Kelsey struck off further west and remarried in Illinois around 1889, marrying Capitola Alma Watson, continuing with her to parts west, including Kansas, Louisiana, and Mexico. No further census records are found for Lura Smalley Kelsey; she was not in her parents' household in 1900 and her mother passed away in 1908 and her father in 1909. Lura Kelsey passed away in Eaton Rapids, Michigan^[4] at the age of 54, having worked there as a "demonstrator." Disposition of her remains is not known. ^[5]

Research Notes

A virtual FindAGrave memorial has a note that William and Cordelia Smalley were the adoptive parents and that her biological parents were Levi McProuty and Jane Edsall (or Edsel). There are no source documents bearing this out but it may be why Lura does not appear in the Smalley household on the 1860 census. There is an 1860 census record for "Lucinda McProuty", in Hammondsport, New York, residing with her (likely) sister, Ida McProuty, in the household of David and Bethea Edsel (as spelled by the census enumerator.)^[6] David and Bethea Edsel had eight children of their own in the household in 1860, with David Edsel working as a laborer.

Sources

1. ↑ "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8K6-FV6 : 29 May 2021), Lura L Smalley in entry for William Smalley, 1870.
2. ↑ "Michigan Marriages, 1822-1995", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCN7-861 : 17 January 2020), Lara L. Smulley in entry for O. Fred Kelsey, 1879.
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MW95-HHW : 19 February 2021), Lura L Kelsey in household of William Smalley, Bay City, Bay, Michigan, United States; citing enumeration district ED 17, sheet 409D, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,571.
4. ↑ "Michigan Deaths and Burials, 1800-1995", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHXP-QQ8 : 23 February 2021), Laura Smalley Kelsey, 1911.
5. ↑ "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6MGN-Z1MM : 17 December 2020), Lura Smalley Kelsey, Burial. Find A Grave: Memorial #216074535
6. ↑ 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C. Year: 1860; Census Place: Urbana, Steuben, New York; Page: 431. Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Ancestry Record 7667 #48712099 with attached Image