[or-roots] Helping make an active list!

[lindac-s at juno.com]

Hi All -

I'm a new subscriber with a frustrating dead end.  My great grandmother, Ruby Willeta Clarke, was raised by her grandparents Frederic A. and Louisa A. Clarke in Gresham, OR.  Ruby was born 12-12-1884 in Mt. Tabor, OR to Ida Louise Clarke and William J. Sewell (or Sewall).  Ida left/divorced William (not sure which) and left Ruby with her adopted parents, the Clarkes.  Herein lies the problem:  I don't know where Ida Louise and her sister Annie/Anna M. came from.  I don't know if they are biological sisters.  I do know that both were disinherited from their adopted parents' wills; Ida later married a Henri ApJohn (born in Canada in 1865, medical student in Portland) and lived in Yuma Arizona briefly; Annie married a James Mernah, whereabouts unknown.

What I would love to find are the adoption records for Ida and/or Anna.  The Clarkes were settled in Gresham by 1865; Frederic was quite successful, owned lots of land, was associated with IOOF, etc. etc.  But he's not my direct line.  They lost their only natural child Cora Bell to brain fever in 1871 and probably adopted the two girls after that, but before 1878 (the date of Frederic's will).  I checked with Oregon Archives and they do not have adoption records that far back.