My Great-Granduncle John Thomasson and Some Research Questions

Here's a picture of John Thomasson, a great-granduncle of mine on my Mom's side of the family.

As of April 15, 2017, here’s what I’ve found out about John.

He was born on Sep 16, 1874. This information came from what he provided on his World War I draft registration, so it is the most likely. It also works for other events where his age is documented, such as the 1905 Minnesota State Census, and the 1910, 1920 and 1930 federal censuses. Other birth dates I have found for John: 1) 1877 from his gravestone in Peninsula Memorial Park, Newport News, VA; 2) March 1875 from his entry in the 1900 census when he was living with his brother Charles F Thomasson in Harrisonburg, VA; 3) Sep 16, 1875 from an entry in the Family Search database Virginia Births and Christenings, 1853-1917 (his last name was indexed as Thompson, but his parents were G W and Fannie Thompson, which fits his parents’ names).

In his first census, the 1880 federal, he was living with his parents (George W and Fannie Thomasson) and siblings (Charles, Jasper, Emma, Robert, Cora and Thomas) in the Plains District of Rockingham County, VA. He was 5 years old.

In 1900, he was living with his brother Charles Thomasson and Charles' wife, Sarah, in Harrisonburg, Rockingham County, VA. He was single and a clerk in a shoe store.

He next shows up in the 1905 Minnesota State census listed on the line above a Winifred Thomasson, who was born in England, and living on Jefferson Street in Duluth, St. Louis County, MN. John was a salesman at the time. There was no other Thomasson listed. I found a New York marriage record for John and Winifred for their marriage in 1903.

In the 1910 census, John and his wife, Anna, were living in Duluth, St. Louis County, MN, with their daughter, Laura, who was 4 years old. The street name where they lived is unintelligible. John ran a furniture store. He and Anna had been married 7 years, and had one child (assumed to be Laura). Anna was born in England, as were her parents, and she had emigrated to the United States in 1894. Were Anna and Winifred the same person?

At least between 1908 and 1912, John owned a furniture store in Duluth, MN named Thomasson Furniture. I've found ads in old Duluth newspapers online for the store that call John "The Furniture Man". The store was located at Odd Fellows Hall Building at 18 and 20 Lake Avenue North in Duluth.

On Sep 12, 1918 John registered for the World War I draft in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, MN. He listed his wife, Nannie B. Thomasson, as his closest relative, and they lived at 2522 4^th Avenue. He was a salesman at Boutell Brothers in Minneapolis. John was described as medium height, medium build, brown eyes, and black hair. He was 44 years old at the time.

In Jan 1920, John was a boarder, along with a Virginia F Thomasson, in the household of Clayton Hurlburt in Minneapolis, MN. Also boarding with them were Mrs. O. N. Hotle, and George W. and Inez M. Nason. John was a salesman at a furniture store. Virginia was 13 years old, born in Minnesota, with her father born in VA and her mother born in England. John’s wife, Anna/Nannie was not listed in the household. Was Virginia John’s daughter? You can’t tell from the census since John was not the head of household. Virginia would be the same age as John’s daughter, Laura, listed in the 1910 census.

Later in 1920 John moved back to Duluth from Minneapolis to take a position with the Bayha & Company furniture store. An article from a newspaper at that time said John had left Duluth six years before and had worked at prominent furniture stores in the northwest. I found another old newspaper article that said John had earlier come to work for Bayha in 1904, after coming from New York and working for the Glass Block store furniture department in Duluth. 

By the 1930 census, John was boarding in the household of the same George W. and Inez M. Nason he had been living with in 1920. However, they now lived at 6262 Rohns Street in Detroit, Michigan. John was a merchandise supervisor at a retail furniture store. There was no Virginia Thomasson listed in the household, and again there was no wife Anna/Nannie listed in the household. Was Virginia/Laura married by this time? She would have been about 23 years old.

John died on Dec 4, 1933 in New Haven, Connecticut. His remains were brought to Newport News for burial in Peninsula Memorial Park cemetery.

My Mom has a painting she calls "The Spanish Lady" that her granduncle John gave his sister, her grandmother, years ago. He is supposed to have bought it in Mexico.

The Spanish Lady

Along with the questions I have already mentioned above, here’s other questions I have about John and his family:

1. What was John’s real birth date? Sept 16, 1874 seems the most likely, but why would his tombstone in Peninsula Memorial Park in Newport News, VA have 1877 as his birth year?
2. What was the name of John’s wife? Are Winifred, Anna and Nannie the same person? Was he married more than once? In both the 1905 census (with wife Winifred) and 1910 census (wife was Anna), his wife was born in England. A wife was not listed with John in the 1920 or 1930 censuses. Nannie, his wife listed in his WWI draft registration, is a plausible nickname for Anna - the wife listed in the 1910 census. To complicate matters further, I found on findagrave.com a listing for “Nannie Ward Bradley Thomasson”, who the author of the memorial on findagrave said was the wife of John Howard Thomasson. This Nannie has the same name as the wife John listed in the WWI draft registration. She is buried in the Woodbine Cemetery in Harrisonburg, VA, so the location seems possible. She lived from 1881-1945, so her age lines up with being a wife to our John Thomasson. Using the information from her memorial in findagrave.com, I was able to find her family in the 1900 census in Harrisonburg, VA. Nobody listed in her family was born in England, though.
3. Which state has John’s death certificate? That could provide some answers. So far, I’ve searched Minnesota, Michigan and Connecticut on familysearch.org with no luck. I have not searched Ancestry.com yet. I need to search the Virginia death records there.
4. Nannie Thomasson’s 1945 death certificate may provide some answers. I need to look that up in the Virginia death records on Ancestry.com also.
5. Are Laura Thomasson (John’s daughter in the 1910 census) and Virginia Thomasson (the 13-year old girl living in the same household with John in 1920) the same person? They both have close to the same birth year. Laura was identified as his daughter in 1910, but Virginia wasn’t identified as John’s daughter in the 1920 census because John was not the head of household. If they’re not the same person, what happened to Laura? I have a picture that was identified by my Grandmother (John’s niece) as Virginia Searcy, John Thomasson’s daughter. Is this the Virginia from the 1920 census? Is Searcy her married name? I will need to do some more searching.



Virginia Searcy, John Thomasson's daughter

6. Was an obituary written for John Thomasson? If so, that could provide some clues. It would probably require a manual search of the Daily Press newspaper for that time period to find it, though.
7. Lastly, I need to consider that there may be two men named John H Thomasson that I’m dealing with here, as improbable as that seems. They would have to born within a year or two of each other in Virginia, both be salesman, and both lived in Minnesota around the same time period, etc.