First USA Research - American Indians and Marriage+Birth in PA

[gmerrall]

On my wife's side of the family there's lots of talk of a great grandmother being Cherokee.   Her English husband met and married her in PA and had a child prior to returning to the UK.

I've located them on the 1911 census but am unsure how to get back in to the US records. They seem rather patchy in the usual places I've looked (ancestry, familysearch)

People I'm looking for are:
Mary Davis (c1879) born PA according to 1911 UK census

She hopefully married Arthur Roberts (b 1869) while in the US as they had one or more children born there including Edna Roberts (c1900) also born PA

Edna strikes me as an uncommon name in the US but it's not helping me much. Any pointers gratefully received

Cheers,
 Graeme

[shellyesq]

If they had a child born in the US around 1900, then they likely should be on the 1900 Census.  For the time frame that you're looking at in Pennsylvania, it's likely that you would need to know the county where the birth/marriage took place to order the vital record. 

Is there any information about where Arthur was born?  Is there any possibility of further information on these people from the UK that would give parents' names or a more exact date or place of birth?

[patrexjax]

Hi gemmerrall, Is she shown as born in "Wilkes Barre" ....If so, she should be showing in 1880 census in Pennsylvania with her parents. It is a free search...have you tried it? www.familysearch.org       I am by no means an expert on Native Americans, but the Cherokee people were generally from the Southern parts of the USA.  Of course, her family could have migrated.....there are various tribes in the Pennsylvania and upstate New York region, but they were rarely called Cherokee...some were Iroquois and Erie, to name but a few.  Pat

[gmerrall]

Is there any information about where Arthur was born?  Is there any possibility of further information on these people from the UK that would give parents' names or a more exact date or place of birth?

I do know Arthur was born in the UK. Gillingham, Kent to be precise. Unfortunately nothing in the 1911 UK census except for Pennsylvania so it's a bit of a needle in a haystack.

Cheers,
 Graeme

[shellyesq]

Do you have Arthur on any earlier UK census records or anything else that might indicate when he came to the US?

[johnnyboy]

Hi Graeme: I agree with Shelly. Additional information about the family, such as the names of Arthur's parents', where he entered the U.S., who he came with, what his occupation was, etc. would help.

I did find Arthur and siblings with his mother, Mary Ann Roberts, as head of the family in the 1871 U.K. census in Gillingham.

In Pennsylvania, marriages have always been registered at the county level. And until 1906 births were also registered at the county level. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania has 67 counties. Unless you can narrow down the search, you'll have a daunting task on your hands. Some marriages and births in Pennsylvania in the late 1800s were not registered at all.

Incidentally, I looked at the two Pennsylvania marriage databases on FamilySearch for the marriage of Arthur Roberts and Mary Davis, but found nothing.

There was an arrival in New York on July 16, 1890 of an Arthur Roberts, 21 years old and born England. He was a laborer and came on the SS Teutonic sailing from Liverpool and Queenstown. Found that on Castlegarden.org (www.Castlegarden.org), which is a database of passengers arriving in New York between 1820 and 1913.

He might also have come by way of Philadelphia or even Boston.

John