It started with my Great-great-grandmother, Lillian Grove (grove-3830). She springs out of nowhere in 1904, when she became the second wife of Rev. Caleb Barrett ayars-710. She was already about 30 years old in 1904.
On that couple's marriage records, Lillian's parents are recorded as Abraham Grove (grove-3931) and Mary Grove (walters-9047).
This lines up so far with my grandmother's collection of photos and notes. She has photos of Lillian, photos of Lillian's parents named Abraham Grove and Mary Walter, and a photo of Mary with her mother, named Catherine Mark Walter (mark-1668). In that final photo, Mary and Catherine are both clearly of advanced age.
Abraham, Mary, and Catherine are ghosts. No hints on Ancestry, no matches on WikiTree. Ready made connections I found on FamilySearch from Lillian to parents Abraham and Mary are based solely on Lillian's marriage record, and have no information beyond their names.
Then I had a breakthrough! I found a child named Lillie Grove, listed as a grandchild living in the home of Solomon Walter-9048 and Catherine Mark Walter, on the 1880 census. She remains 20 years later on the 1900 census as Lilian Grove.
I had no reason to expect Lillian to have been raised by her grandparents. The photo mentioned previously clearly shows Lillian's mother, Mary, did not die young, which could have been an obvious explanation.
Lillie the child and Lillian the woman both have imprecise birth years in the early to mid 1870's. Solomon and Catherine did have a daughter named Mary Walter who did marry a man named Abraham Grove. She was a reasonable age to have been Lillian's mother, early to mid 20's in the early to mid 1870's.
Everyone involved is listed as living in Pennsylvania. Specifically, Solomon and Catherine Walters lived in Chillisquaque, Pennsylvania. My grandmother has a photo of a house, and written on the front of the photo is, "Chillisqualque[sic], PA, about 1909" and on the back, "The Walter Family Home. Lillian Grove grew up in this house."
Everything fits, right?
Now tracing downward from Solomon and Catherine, to their daughter Mary, there is plenty of information on her. She married a man named Abraham Grove. They had 9 children from 1868 to 1882, none of which is listed as Lillian or Lillie or anything close. Mary and Abraham have Find-a-grave profiles. They have FamilySearch profiles. She and Abraham are buried together under one gravestone. She didn't die until 1933.
Abraham has parent and sibling connections on Find-a-Grave and FamilySearch, and is listed on every census from 1850 to 1920.
This couple has complete, well documented lives. People have obviously put some time into this couple's connections and documentation, without any mention of a daughter named Lillian. The only connection from their end is a child named Lillie living in Mary's parent's house listed as a granddaughter, and I can only speculate as to why just one among so many children would have been given to Mary's parents at all. Lillie could be the child of one of Mary's numerous siblings.
So much fits, but how much weight do my grandmother's personal records carry? The connection still stands up without them, but it gets shakier.
Am I making connections where none exist? Please help!
Edit: I don't think the possibility that the child Lillie wasn't Mary and Abraham's is likely, her surname is Grove, after all. I guess I'm just nervous about blundering into a well documented family with a new connection. I don't want to make a faulty connection. Hopefully someone with more experience will see reason to be confident or doubtful, and share their thoughts.
