You Only Live Twice

Sorry for the delay in posting. While clearing hints I came across an interesting puzzle in my tree that I've become obsessed with. It will probably be a future 'case study' post. A couple of children never living with their parents during a census year, a man's second family disappears after he dies, and a wanted man shot dead by a posse and sent to the electric chair. You know, the usual.
The wanted man is not in my tree. One of his victims, Matthew Jones, is but how can I not find out the entire story after finding multiple newspaper articles with conflicting reports? There is a Kentucky death certificate for the murderer from September 1912. So far I have found no retractions or corrections in newspapers for the November 1911 article and it was published in numerous papers across the country.

LONG HUNT TERMINATES IN DEATH FOR FUGITIVE

Middlesboro, Ky., October 26 - In a running fight with a Sheriff's posse early to-day, Cal Miracle, wanted for double murder at Pineville, was killed and Deputy Sheriff Thomas, of the posse, received wounds from which he died later.
The fight took place in the mountains near Clear Creek. A reward for the capture of Miracle has been outstanding for some time.
A posse had been on Cal Miracle's trail for several weeks. Late in August he killed Matthew Johnson [sic] and Mrs. William Gibson near Pineville.
Immediately a reward for his capture, dead or alive, was offered, but Miracle eluded pursuit until yesterday, when he was run down in the mountain country, near here.
All night the posse stalked Miracle, and this morning he came out in the open to fight. Well armed. Miracle stood off the posse until he fell, his body bullet-ridden.

The Hartford Herald (Hartford, KY)

1 Nov 1911, Page 6

ChroniclingAmerica.loc.gov

Almost a year later...

PAYS PENALTY

Cal Miracle, convicted in the Pineville circuit court of double murder, was electrocuted at Eddyville last Friday morning. Miracle was a desperate character, and went to his death without any apparent sorrow for the life he had led.

The Citizen (Berea, KY) 

5 Sep 1912, Page 8 

ChroniclingAmerica.loc.gov

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Case Study #1: Hammack & Mott

I've been wanting write a post about the research process for a while now. Even if you aren't a Hammack or a Mott I hope you'll find some helpful hints here. I'm actually not a Mott either but we'll get to that later. Here are the main characters in this story:

Sophia Ann "Annie" Hammack, my father's maternal grandmother
John Franklin Hammack and Martha Cornelia Mott, Annie's parents

Martha Cornelia Mott's name will change a couple of times during the course of this post.

Talking to Dad

The names of my father's maternal aunts and uncles were known to me, I had met them all. For anything beyond that I had to ask Dad what he remembered. His maternal grandmother's name was Annie Hammack and this case study is about her line. According to Dad the names of Annie's parents, his great-grandparents, were John Franklin Hammack & Martha Cornelia Mott. He never met them but he did have a memory of meeting one of Annie's sisters and thought her name might be Carrie. So with that I was off to try and find out something about his maternal grandmother's family.

Annie Hammack Loftice with my baby brother and me.

I had no problem finding Annie with her husband and children in U.S. censuses but finding anything prior to her marriage was my first road block. Annie was born in Missouri so there wasn't an immigration issue.

By Any Other Name

Most of my great-grandparents applied for Social Security. I had a list of applications to order. Ordering all of them was out of the question financially so I prioritized the list. Annie was not at the top. I had names for her parents and that would be the primary reason for ordering the application. As I was running out of alternate spellings and different searches to try I started moving her up the list.
Dad seemed sure of the names but I was stuck so I crossed my fingers and ordered her SS-5. A few weeks later I found out that Dad was right with one small, but very important, omission.

After the jump: The answer, more questions and contact from distant family.