I am trying to seek information on Jessie Ming, daughter of Thomas Ming & Lucy J Space. Jessie was born late in 1878 and spent her earliest years in Newark. I am trying to prove that she is the same person as my GGgrandmother, but I cannot account for the family after 1887. Many Newark resources are not online, so I cannot do as much as I'd like from San Francisco.

Here's what I do know:
* The three of them show up on the 1880 census in Newark. An infant daughter "May" is also listed. Her death was recorded later in the year and she is buried in Fairmount Cemetery.

* Thomas Ming is listed on directories between 1881 and 1887 as a "brakeman" living at various addresses in what is currently the Central Ward. Of these addresses, "18 Acqueduct" is the only one that no longer appears to exist.

* The 1885 census is transcribed on familysearch.org. Jessie Ming and her mother Lucy show up as living with the family of Frank Devine (who also lived at 18 Acqueduct). This implies that Thomas has died or deserted, though I cannot find a death record for him. His name still appears in the Newark directory until 1887, and after that, the family is gone.




My great-great-grandmother was named Jessie. She married Jack Lonergan in 1895 in Yonkers, which is the earliest record I have of her. Her stepfather Thomas Blamire signed the wedding certificate. He was married to her mother, Lucy Jane, in 1893 according to subsequent census documents, though I cannot find a wedding certificate anywhere in NY NJ or CT. Vital records and newspaper accounts of both women reveal their birthplaces as Newark. Their ages on multiple census documents are consistent with the ages of Lucy and Jessie Ming on the 1880 census. Lucy's death certificate gives her maiden name as "Space", which is consistent with the Lucy J Space who married Thomas Ming in 1877.

However, Jessie's maiden name is consistently listed as Robinson in vital records and newspapers from 1895 onward. How could a 16-year-old have acquired this surname without being born with it? Because no mention of a "Ming" surname has turned up in any family records pertaining to My GGgrandmother Jessie or GGGgrandmother Lucy, I am stuck between having to disregard striking consistencies -- and having to accept a troubling surname inconsistency -- between these two pairs of women. What would you experts out there do in my position?

I feel like a breakthrough would occur if I could tap into other resources between 1887 and 1894. Having exhausted the resources of Familysearch & Ancestry, where can I turn? How can I make inquiries into old Newspapers that are not online, or perhaps school records where Jessie may have attended? Was Thomas necessarily a railroad employee, and if so, who was likely his employer and would there still be records?

Could I hire a local expert who can track down clues that are not online?