There Are Joe Blows Wherever You Go

Every time I come across the name "John Doe" in the census, I wonder if the guy was hiding from the government. Here's a list of "Informal names for unknown or unspecified persons in various countries/regions."

[via Neatorama]

First Name Unknown

Unknown Hinson, "The King of Country Western Troubadours," is really a guy named Stuart Daniel Baker, but he has a good story to back up his stage name.

"I'm the product of a one-stand, you see," Hinson said.

"When I was born the birth certificate said: 'Mother: Miss Hinson. Father: Unknown.' So, she named me after my daddy. She coulda called me Jack or Theodore, but she didn't. All she was trying to do was be honest, and I thank her for that. She also gave me my gift for music and my good looks. And I thank her for that, too." [Link]

Woman Seeks Her Unknown Cousins

A Genealogue Exclusive [What's That?]

Elsie Wentzel of Casper, Wyoming, has taken on a mammoth task. She is compiling a database of everyone whose surname is "Unknown."

"I started finding Unknowns in my own family when I first started genealogy," says Wentzel, a retired dog groomer. "Then I found more and more. It seemed that every family line ended in an Unknown."

A search of genealogy databases on the Internet proves that Wentzel's family is not unique. The WorldConnect project at RootsWeb.com includes more than 4 million individuals with the surname "Unknown." Only 3 million people named "Smith" have been submitted.

"They were even on the Mayflower," Wentzel boasts. "No marriage record has been found, but the last name of William Brewster's wife is usually given as 'Unknown.'"

Wentzel understands the challenges ahead. "I've found them in the indexes of every census, but their last names are usually hard to read on microfilm. And it's all but impossible to link one Unknown family group to another. They appear to have come from every country on earth. As far as I can tell, no one has figured out the origins of all the Unknowns."

She has detected one trend that leaves her especially puzzled. "It's strange how often it turns up as a woman's maiden name."

Wentzel is planning a family reunion of sorts at the Hyatt Regency in Washington, D.C., next August. She invites anyone with Unknown ancestry to attend. An excursion to the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington, Virginia, is scheduled, and a genetic technician will be in attendance to gather samples of Unknown DNA.

"With any luck," she says, "I'll finally figure out what it means to be an Unknown."

Lost Souls

Buried in Maine vital records (those between 1892 and 1955 are readily available on microfilm) are dozens of death records few genealogists consider. Lacking surnames, they are filed under "U" for "Unknown," and include some of the most disturbing cases of crime and misadventure the state has witnessed.

A large proportion of the records are of infanticides. The exact place of discovery was usually noted—often a river or seashore, a pasture or woods. Newborns were found in a box, "in a tin dinner pail," and in a "kettle in Back Bay." They were found in the bushes in Houlton, a snow bank in Portland.

Another large category of deaths includes travelers, transients, and tramps, who often found their end on the railroad tracks. A boy of about 17 years died in Clinton after "falling from MCRR train, while riding between freight cars." A tramp was killed in Berwick "by striking overhead bridge on B & M Railroad." Another died at Long Pond who was "Evidently stealing a ride." The death record of a man killed by the cars at Wells while "Attempting to board or alight from a moving train" is made more poignant by the notation that he was "by tools found in his pocket supposed a shoe laster."

Sometimes a first name is given. A man "Called John" died in Hermon of heart disease in 1901. The records of adult deaths are almost always for men, but there are a few women, the deaths of some filed here because their married names were unknown, though their given names and even their parents are noted. Both first and last names are given for nine bodies transferred from "P. M. S. to Bowdoin Medical School" in 1921. (Presumably "P. M. S." stands for Portland Medical School. Why these death records are filed here is unexplained.)

In the fall of 1920, sixteen woodsmen died when their motor boat caught fire crossing Chesuncook Lake. Seventeen others were saved. Of the dead—many of them Lithuanian immigrants—five found their way into the Unknown file, identified only as #1, #4, #14, #16, and #19.

An especially sad case is that of a 72-year-old man, thought to be a Maine native, who died at the National Soldier's Home (now the Togus Veterans Affairs Medical Center) Nov. 18, 1916. One hopes that he found his way home.