#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 13 In the Paper: The Death of Ellen Larrimore

#52Ancestors 2019 Week 13 In the Paper: The Death of Ellen Larrimore

The Stevens Family and the Larrimore Family were connected by marriage numerous times.  Sorting out the various relationships is sometimes confusing.  In the case of Mary Ellen Stevens Larrimore, I got an assist from an unexpected newspaper source.

The first time I found a Stevens-Larrimore connection, it took me a while to recognize it.  I had long searched for the family name of Samuel Stevens' wife, Margaret.  Finally, I found a death certificate for her daughter, Rachel Stevens Phibbons, who died in Annapolis MD in 1927, late enough that her parents' names were included in the death certificate.  Unfortunately, the mother's maiden name didn't ring any bells.  It looked like Limemore.  But eventually, I decided that it had to be Larrimore.

Samuel Stevens' brother, John Stevens, (both sons of William Stevens and Lavinia Whittington), also married a Larrimore, Margaret's sister, Fanny.  So two Stevens brothers married two Larrimore sisters.

John and Fanny's son, Joseph R. Stevens, also married a Larrimore, his cousin, Ellen Catherine Lavinia Larrimore, in 1871.

This marriage led me to yet another Stevens-Larrimore marriage.  Ellen Larrimore appeared in the 1850 Census of Anne Arundel County in the household of James and Ellen Larrimore. James Larrimore married Mary Ellen Stevens in Anne Arundel County in 1833.

The Baltimore Sun reported the death of Mrs. Ellen Larrimore in a single line in 1882 in a list of other deaths that week, no details.  But, unexpectedly, her name also showed up in the German-language newspaper in Baltimore, the Deutsche Correspondent, and after using Google translate, I was able to find the details of her death.

Translated from the Deutsche Correspondent Baltimore MD 14 September 1882:
Yesterday morning, Mrs. Ellen Larrimore of 173 Conway St. In the attempt to open the blinds of the second-floor windows, fell down, and injured herself so dangerously that the poor, unconscious woman died. Mrs. Larrimore had been a widow, fourteen years, seventy-six years old. She lived with a widowed daughter and had her share of income so that the assumption of suicide was completely ruled out. The deceased woman leaves behind two daughters and a son, all married.

Ellen's birth family was identified through the will of her sister, Susan Stevens Tinges, who left property to her sister Ellen Larrimore and her brother Francis Stevens.

So, this would be the third child of William and Lavinia Stevens that married into the family of James and Mary Larrimore.  John Stevens married Fanny Larrimore about 1823; Samuel Stevens married Margaret Larrimore about 1825; Mary Ellen Stevens married James Larrimore in 1833.

The Larrimore name carried through several more generations: John and Fanny Stevens' daughter named Fannie Larrimore Stevens Younger and her daughter Fannie Larrimore Younger.