joeysgma on Family Tree Circles

Nellie is my proverbial brick in the genealogy wall. She was adopted by my great,great grandparents and shes in the census for 1910 when she was five years old. Ive been looking, looking, looking...well, then I run across some information of my Great Grandpa who would have been her adopted brother. He says she married a Walter Smith and moved to New York city! OK, even in the early part of the 1920s and 30s NYC was a BIG place and Smith...really...even Cole has a lot of names! So here I am. Nellie where fore art thou?? My Great Grandpa isn't around anymore. Funny, you get interested in something at my age (50+) and most of the people who could have helped the most are gone. Warning to you 20 somethings...start asking the questions now. Dead people are not really gone, they make up who you are now.
The adoptive parents names were Ellen and Lewis. Lewis and Ellen divorced just after adopting Nellie. Nellie stayed with Lewis and his mother helped care for her. Her name was Esther. They lived in Coldwater, Michigan, then went to Virginia because Esthers brother was sick. They returned to Michigan after that. But after the 1910 census, Nellie disappears.
Shes not a blood family member, but my grandparents cared enough about her to adopt her. That makes her real family to me.