Picture proof...

Margaret Mobley married William Buchanan in Monroe County, Ohio about 1850. The reason I know her parent’s names is because, fortunately, they are listed on her death record in Jackson County, West Virginia, William and Sarah Mabley, now the last name is mangled, but that is nothing new in genealogical research. I used the parents names in a search of Ohio marriages because that is where Margaret and William lived before they moved to West Virginia, and found one for a William Mobley and Sarah Millison for 10 November 1825, in Belmont County, Ohio. This record fits nicely with Margaret’s birth which is about 1833.

The finding of this marriage record was pretty compelling, so I decided to pursue this line of research.

Like a large majority of genealogists my research tends to focus on our direct ancestors. In my case, I move on to siblings when I have run out of sources that will help me move further back, or forward depending on your point of view. In Margaret Mobley’s case I had no idea who her siblings were. One of the reasons is because only the 1850 census shows her parents, William and Sarah, with any of their likely children named. In this case the child is Silas about 12 or 13 years of age.

Well, it looks like Silas was my next victim. I decided to look at other genealogists family trees that include William and Sarah Mobley at ancestry.com and found one interesting entry. They had Silas listed, as a son of the same parents as Margaret, who married Rebecca Buchanan. Interesting coincidence, as William Buchanan had a sister named Rebecca. One of the daughters of Silas was named Sarah, and she is entered as having married a Bloom. Very interesting.

'Why is this very interesting?' you ask with baited breath. Because, I have a photograph in our family photo collection of a Sarah Mobley Bloom who married William, and it was addressed on the back to Jane Buchanan, who would be her cousin.

William Bloom, a handsome devil isn't he, and his wife Sarah Mobley Bloom. She died young in her 30s or 40s I believe.

Gotcha! Proceed with celebratory fist bump. So without any actual documented proof, both the family tree entry I found and this picture pretty much confirm my theory of the parents of Margaret being William Mobley and Sarah Millison. I feel quite confident in proceeding with this line of inquiry. So it is off to the Millisons of Ohio and Pennsylvania.