Jane Davis ³

   Another name for Jane was "Jennie" Davis.⁵

  General Notes:

Jean Lightfoot-Stedman says in 2000 that her grandmother, Jane Davis, died about 6 weeks after the birth of James Samuel McLaughlin. After that, the father, John McLaughlin, sent the two daughters to Muscatine, Iowa to live with John's sister, Mary Anna McLaughlin who had married Robert Amlong. The infant, James Samuel McLaughlin, was sent to live with John's brother, Samuel McLaughlin, in nearby Johnson County, Iowa. The records for births and deaths in Rains, Texas only start at 1903. Apparently a fire destroyed all records prior to that date except for Marriage Records which date back to 1880.
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Attempting to pinpoint the exact date of death for Jane Davis is difficult. A check of the local newspaper in Emory, The Rains County Texas Leader, which has been compiled into several books available at the Rains County Library in Emory does not indicate any notice or obituary for Jane Davis McLaughlin within any plausible estimated year of death (1885-1910). However, these book compilations of the Rains County Texas Leader newspaper may be incomplete. Several books at the Rains County Library had indexes of local cemeteries but none listed any Jane McLaughlin or even John McLaughlin. It may be possible that when she died, she may have been buried back with her parents, supposedly closer to the Dallas, Texas area. In January of 2002, I walked through the local Emory City Cemetery and could not find any gravestones for John McLaughlin or his wife, Jane Davis. There were many gravestones in broken and scattered condition and several that were well worn away and no longer readable.
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Neither John McLaughlin nor Jane Davis are shown on the 1880 US Census of Rains County, Texas. There are no McLaughlins listed at all and there is one Davis family but they show only two daughters listed as Lilly, age 10, and Pearl, age 3. There is one Katy Davis listed with daughter, Katy, age 11, but they are listed as black servants. Since his marriage to Jane Davis in Emory did not occur until May of 1882, it must be assumed that he lived elsewhere prior to the 1880 US Census and only came to Rains County Texas sometime between 1880 and May of 1882 when he married Jane Davis in Rains County, Texas. I have no information to indicate why they would have been in Rains County as verbal family history says that Jane Davis was from the Dallas area.
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This date of death is based on the date of birth for Samuel McLaughlin. According to family information, Jane Davis is supposed to have died about 6 weeks after giving birth to Samuel.
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Jane married John McLaughlin, son of James McLaughlin and Elizabeth Smith, on 22 May 1882 in , Rains County, TX.^{1 2} (John McLaughlin was born in July 1835 in Pennsylvania ^{6 7}, baptized on 13 October 1836 in Philadelphia, PA and died on 31 December 1921 in Iowa City, IA ^{8 9}.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• Marriage Image: 22 May 1882, in , Rains County, TX.

  Marriage Notes:

Although her birth name was supposedly Jane, most records show her name as "Jennie".
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Family Archive #398
Marriage Index: Texas, "CD-ROM"
McLaughlin, John
Spouse: Davis, Jane
Marriage Date: May 22, 1882
County: Rains
Source: Library of Congress reference number (book); Reference Number : 976.4 275V2a.
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There is not much known about the McLaughlin family or where they came from. Only the census records show that Mary McLaughlin had a sister and a brother who were also sent to Iowa to live with or near an Aunt who was living there. What happened to their father, John McLaughlin, after his wife died in 1890 remains a little clouded. There are several John McLaughlins who show up in various areas including the Iowa area but without knowing any other family history, it is impossible to know for sure if he was one of them.

And practically nothing is known at all about the Davis family history. Only family rumors indicate that she was from the Dallas, TX area. But trying to trace a person with the name of Davis in Texas without knowing any specifics is impossible. The name is just too common.
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