Heck Of A Guy

The Birthplace Of Allan Truax Reconsidered

Those readers who have followed my eccentric efforts to discover and organize information about the life and times of Allan Lincoln Truax¹ may recall my agonized speculations about his place of birth.

When I posted The Life and Times Of Allan Lincoln Truax on 9 May 2007, his birthplace seemed certain and there was little reason to doubt the accuracy of the map I created, correlating the years of Allan’s life with his geographical location, which identifies his birthplace as Mayville, Michigan.

By 21 June 2007, however, when Allan Truax: The Early Years – Part I was published, I had discovered a significant but not overwhelming conflict in the records documenting his birth, as noted in this excerpt from that post:

The 1880 United States Census² provides some helpful information about the Truax household but also introduces some conflicting data. The Truax family is included in the census area of Fremont Township, Tuscola County, Michigan.³ The household itself included⁴

• • Louise: Wife; Married, Female, White, Age 45; Birthplace: Ontario; Keeps House
  • John: Head of Household; Married, Male, White, Age 50, Birthplace: Ontario; Farmer⁵
  • Franklin: Son; Single, Male, White, Age 18; Birthplace: Ontario; At Home
  • Allen: Son, Single, Male, White, Age 8; Birthplace: Ontario;⁶ At Home
  • Alice: Daughter, Single, Female, White, Age 8 Months; Birthplace: Michigan

This is the only document, to my knowledge, that lists Allan’s (Allen’s) birthplace as Ontario.

After an episode of characteristically obsessive dithering, I finally concluded

It seems unlikely that the several genealogical and biographical records,⁷ including those written by Allan Truax himself are in error about his birthplace and that the single census document is correct. I suspect, instead, that the 1880 Census data point -Allan’s birthplace – is incorrect and Allan was born in Mayville, Michigan.

From the preponderance of data in the records discussed above, the Truax family probably resided in Ontario until at least 1862 (when Franklin Truax was born) and moved to Mayville, Michigan no later than 1865 (when James Chalmers Truax was born), with the parents continuing to live in Mayville until John Galbraith Truax’s death in 1904.

Of course, that does not explain why the Truax family living in Mayville wasn’t counted in any governmental listings (e.g., the 1870 Michigan Census) other than the 1880 Federal Census and the Michigan Death Record of James Truax. While I’m uncomfortable attributing this to simple bureaucratic errors, compounded by the scarcity of available population records noted by Ms. Morgan, I am unable to develop viable alternative hypotheses. All other explanations would either render all of the genealogical information erroneous or require the Truax family to have moved to parts unknown after the birth of James in Mayville in 1865, only to return to that same town after the 1870 census but prior to Allan’s birth in 1871 .

Help Arrives From Canada

And, that was my working hypothesis until 18 September 2007⁸ when my routine morning exploration of my inbox turned up a message from Jennifer Smith, the newsletter editor and head genealogist for the Association of Philippe du Trieux Descendants – a.k.a, the Truax family. Her email included this excerpt:

I noticed you were having trouble locating Allan’s family in the 1870 Michigan census. This is probably because they were living in Ontario in 1871:

HURON CO.
W. Wawanosh Twp., p.34

Truax, John, M, 42, Ont., Wes. Meth., Irish, Farmer, M
“ , Lousia, F, 36, Ont., Wes. Meth., Irish, M
“ , John, M, 17, Ont., Wes. Meth., Irish, Farmer
“ , William, M, 14, Ont., Wes. Meth., Irish
“ , Fransis, M, 9, Ont., Wes. Meth., Irish
“ , James, M, 6, Ont., Wes. Meth., Irish

I’m guessing Louisa would have been pregnant with Allan at the time as he was born in October of that year. Whether he was actually born in Michigan, or perhaps his parents just registered his birth there, I do not know

Shortly thereafter, Jennifer sent another email, which included this passage:

I just did a quick check of my Ontario birth registry index file, and found this:

Truax, Allen Lincoln W. Wawahosh 10/24/71 020671 71

So there you are. He really was born in Ontario.

If Allan Truax Was Born In Ontario …

Well, for one thing, we need another map:

Placing Allan’s family in Ontario the year of his birth would not only resolve the conflict in the records but would explain why I’ve been unable to find even a single mention of Allan, his parents, or any of his siblings in any of the local Michigan records pertinent to the time of his birth and his earliest years (including newspaper stories which seemed to have as their primary goal mentioning anyone within 5 miles of the story and lists of early settlers, businesses, military service, land owners and renters, etc).

It makes The Great Michigan Fires no less interesting but certainly less pertinent to Allan Truax’s birth.

Revising Allan’s history to reflect his birth in Ontario, the earliest event that locates the family in Michigan would seem to be the birth of his sister, Alice Louise Truax, who was, according to the 1880 US census (the one that correctly records Allan’s birthplace as Ontario), born in Michigan in 1879. Consequently, the most precise timeline I can construct at this point is that sometime between Allan’s birth in 1871 and Alice’s birth in 1879, the family moved from Ontario to Michigan.

It also raises some questions:
Why do the Michigan Death Records list the birthplace of Allan’s brother, James Chalmers Truax, born March 19, 1865, as Tuscola County,⁹ Michigan?

More intriguingly, why was Allan’s birthplace ever listed as Mayville, Michigan?

And why wasn’t this error corrected, if not officially, then at least informally? Allan continued to list his birthplace as Mayville throughout his life. His parents were alive until Allan was in his early 30′s and would have, one would assume, sometime told him of his actual place of birth. Was this secret kept from him or was he complicit with the fabrication that he was born in Mayville Michigan rather than Ontario? I wondered when I wrote the post dealing with his birth if there might then have been an advantage re citizenship that would lead a family to claim a child was born in the US when he was actually born in Canada. I have also read of vaguely referenced “political unrest” in Ontario that caused many families to migrate to the US during that period and have wondered if there might be any reason Allan’s parents might have found it safer to claim to have been in the US in 1871.

Pretty interesting, eh? Perhaps, but then again, maybe it’s …

Allan Truax At Heck Of A Guy
An explanation of who Allan Truax is and why he is a feature of the Heck Of A Guy Blog can be found at Who’s Allan Truax?

Identification: Allan Truax, Allen Truax, and A.L. Truax
“Allan Truax” and “Allen Truax” appear with approximately equal frequency in the written material I’ve reviewed, with “A.L. Truax” occurring somewhat less often. The name Mr. Truax inscribed in his books was “Allan” so I use it preferentially

Other Heck Of A Guy Posts About Allan Truax

• The first Allan Truax Post was Allan Truax, A.E. Housman, The Ex, and Me
• The most recent Allan Truax Post before this entry was October 8, 1871: The Great Michigan Fires – October 24, 1871: The Birth of Allan Truax
• All Allan Truax posts can be found by clicking on the Allan Truax category

_____________________

1. Those readers now asking themselves Who the heck is Allan Truax? may wish to read Who’s Allan Truax? before proceeding with this post [↩]
2. LDS Search: 1880 Federal Census Family History Library Film 1254607, NA Film Number T9-0607, Page Number 152D [↩]
3. The town of Mayville is not specifically named in that census but was located in Fremont Township, which is specifically named as site of the Truax household [↩]
4. The two oldest brothers, John and Wesley would have been about 27 and 24 (depending on the exact date of the census), respectively and were likely living on their own; James Chalmers Truax, another son already mentioned in this discussion, is not included in this household listing, having died prior to 1880 [↩]
5. The last item for each household member, except the infant, Alice, for whom that entry is blank, is the category “Occupation” [↩]
6. Emphasis mine [↩]
7. The multiplicity of records may be misleading because it is impossible to untangle which of these records, if any, drew their data from another. Indeed, it is possible that all the genealogical records I found had a common source so that any mistakes made in that original document would have been preserved in the secondary records. [↩]
8. 18 September 2007 is coincidentally the day of my phone interview with Richard Truax, the grandson perhaps closest to Allan; that interview was, in fact, to be the topic of this post until the birthplace issue came to the fore. [↩]
9. Tuscola is the county in which Mayville is located [↩]