I have found Delia Anne Seavey’s mother 🎉🎉🎉

“While it will never earn this account high marks from historians and genealogists, some speculation is going to be included as to the family of Delia Anne Curtis. The principal reason for doing this is that it may help any family member who may want to extend the searching that has been done to date. It is hoped that someone will do this.”

— page 249, ‘Thomas Seavey and Robert Irwin’ by Crockett Allen Harrison.

😹 emphasis, mine. 

I really had no idea how I could possibly do better than my grandfather, who excelled at genealogy, to find the parents of Delia Anne Curtis, as he understood her to be named. I followed his leads as he outlines them in the book. One of these leads was based on the Curtis name, where an Ella Curtis was found by an LSD genealogist. I found this person in the census rolls. However, I could see no connection with that family and the Seavys.

So I widened my search within the same census year — 1850. I knew where Delia Anne and George were in an 1860 Census so I went back to that one first to see if I could learn anything there. And that is where I got my first clue.

In the 1860 census it can be seen that the family of George and Delia Anne lived with another family. You need to look at the first column for the dwelling number then in the second column are the families living within that building. You will see that not unlike many other young marrieds Delia Anne (here Delian) and George (here Siva) were living with her birth mother, Julia Elizabeth and James Raymond Crary (here just Rayment) see row 17 in the 1860 US Census, New York State, Clinton County, Saranac.

Now it seemed it was only a matter of going and looking in the 1850 census. But Rayment Crary was not showing up in searches. However,  a James R Crary or Raymond Crary could be found. And here we find Delia Anne as well, seven years old.

Delia Anne may or may not have been a Curtis. She may or may not have been a Crary. She was certainly a Seavy by marriage.

Delia Anne Seavy (Seavey) From the book, ‘Thomas Seavy and Robert Irwin,’ by Crockett Allen Harrison.

Now I need to find more about Julia Elizabeth Crary, Delia Anne’s mother. In gravestones Delia Ann’s birth is listed as two years before Julia Elizabeth’s marriage to James Raymond Crary. Oops. Her maiden name is listed as Collins, but I can find no record of her under that name. It is possible she is a Curtis and I will look for her next under that name, too. Also, I need to find a birth record (D.A.) and a marriage record (J.E.) for these two women to try to get accurate dates on both.