Reeves, Ruth Ann

Summary

Father: William Reeves
Mother: Catherine Brown

Birth: 1821-1830, Brown County, Ohio
Birth Source: Census estimates

Death: after 1896, Ohio
Death Source: Last record - city directory for Cincinnati OH in 1895 and 1896

Spouse1: George W. Wardlow, m. 19 Jul 1845, Brown County, Ohio

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Narrative

Children of Ruth Ann Reeves and George W. Wardlow:

1. George W. Wardlow
2. James H. Wardlow
3. Isaac Newton Wardlow

Ruth Ann Reeves: Ruth Ann was identified as “Ann” on her marriage record; as “Ruth A” on census records with her husband, George W. Wardlow; as “Anna” after George’s presumed death, when she was enumerated as a head of household in the 1870 census; and as “Ann” in the 1880 census in the household of her son George Jr. and in the 1895 and 1896 city directories for Cincinnati.
b ~1821-30 OH: age estimates from census listings: 1825-6 (1850), 1826-7 (1860), 1829-30 (1870), 1821-2 (1880)
d ~1896-7: listed in the city directory for Cincinnati OH in 1895 and 1896, but absent thereafter; grave not found.

Ann Reeves & George W Wardlow, married in Brown Co OH, 19 Jul 1845
“This day a license issued to join in marriage G. W. Wardlow & Ann Reeves July 19th 1845”
“I certify that on the 19th day of July 1845 I solemnized the marriage of George W. Wardlow & Ann Reeves. Given under my hand this 4th day of August 1845. Samuel Wardlow J.P.”
(FamilySearch, Brown County Ohio Marriage records 1843-1851, vol G7)
Samuel Wardlow may have been George’s uncle of that name.

Evidence supporting Ruth Ann’s identity as a daughter of William Reeves, Sr.:

• Her age, as reported in census listings from 1850-1870, is consistent with the age of otherwise-unidentified females in the 1830 and 1840 households of both William Reeves Sr and William Reeves Jr in (b 1825-30). (The 1880 census report seems to be an aberration, suggesting that Ruth Ann was several years older than the other enumerations suggest.) There were only two other Reeves households in Brown Co OH in 1830, where there was an otherwise-unidentified female in this birth cohort, and the 1840 census ruled out both households: the household of Eli Reeves’ son Asa, who had migrated to Indiana with his family by 1840; and the household of John Redman Reeves, from whom this female had disappeared by 1840 and is presumed to have died. So one or the other of the William Reeveses seems to be the most plausible father of Ruth Ann Reeves.
• Ruth Ann’s 1880 census listing in the household of her son George Jr indicates that her parents were born in VA. This supports William Sr, but not William Jr (b KY) as her father. It supports neither Catherine Brown (variously identified as having been born in MD, PA, and Germany) nor Fannie Fisher (b OH) as her mother. This census listing is the only evidence that tips the balance slightly in the direction of one vs. the other of the William Reeveses.
• Among Ruth Ann and George Wardlow’s known children and grandchildren, only one of them had a name that provides any possible clue to Ruth Ann’s parentage: George Jr’s eldest known daughter was named Catherine, possibly an homage to his grandmother, if William Sr. and Catherine Brown were Ruth Ann’s parents.

Sources

FamilySearch, Brown County Ohio Marriage records 1843-1851, vol G7
1850 Census - Green, Brown County, Ohio
1860 Census - Washington, Brown County, Ohio
1870 Census - Pike, Brown County, Ohio
1880 Census - Fairview, Fayette County, Indiana (HOH - George Wardlow, Jr.)
City Directory - Cincinnati, Ohio