When is a Thomas not a Thomas? When he's a Snook

So now to my father's side of the equation. My dad's name was Warren George Ruark. He was the only child of George Edward Ruark and Eddy Imogen Thomas (her birth name but she had quite a few aliases...more on that in a future post). She was known to the family as Jean so I'll refer to her by that name.

Jean's parents were Edward Thomas (no middle name) and Imogene J. Jones. While Imogene Jones' lineage seems fairly well documented (although I think there are some irregularities there, too), Edward Thomas turned out to be more challenging to track down, and there was absolutely no information about his parentage. From other records I found, Edward was supposedly born in Montana anywhere between 1875 and 1879 (available records varied on this). Given the very common names of "Edward" and "Thomas," you can imagine just how difficult it was to do online searches. After a few months of searching I stumbled upon what I thought was the date and location of his death. Taking a leap of faith, I ordered the death certificate:

Yay! The right one. So I see on this that he wasn't born in Montana, but rather Pennsylvania. And his father is listed as "Rubin Thomas." That's a piece of info I'd not had before. But that didn't help me much, because there was absolutely no one by that name in that timeframe with a son named Edward.

So I go back to the death certificate and see that he was married to a Lucretia Foreman at the time of his death. Back to searching, I find the marriage certificate:

Interesting. His previous wife Jean (my great grandmother) is one of the witnesses so I know I have the right one. Now he's listed, again, as being born in Montana. And now I have his mother's name "Elizabeth Neerhood." So I'm looking for a Rubin (or Reuben) Thomas and an Elizabeth Neerhood in either Pennsylvania or Montana. I'm delving into dozens of dusty old records and finding absolutely nothing.

So I take a different tack. Neerhood isn't a common name so I focus on that. I finally come up with an Elizabeth "Nerhood" having married a widower named Reuben Snook (not Thomas) in Pennsylvania, having their first couple of children in Pennsylvania, and then moving to Montana. One of their Pennsylvania-born children was named Thomas Edward. Thomas Edward Snook was on Montana census records up until 1900--he listed his profession as gold miner. No records with that name after 1900. However, in the 1910 census I find a gold miner named Edward Thomas (Thomas being the last name) in Alaska. Same birth year, parents born in Pennsylvania. Hmmmm.

So, given this (and supported with records/information too lengthy to get into here), I'm pretty certain that great grandfather Edward Thomas was really great grandfather Thomas Edward Snook. And if that's the case, this would be great great grandparents Reuben & Elizabeth (Nerhood) Snook:

(Thanks to Troy Midkiff for the use of this photo. Troy is descended from Reuben and his first wife Mary Ann Walker. The handwritten date on the photo is incorrect since Reuben & Elizabeth didn't actually move to the Montana Territory until after 1882.)