Percival Focus & Thinking Outside the Box

I have been working on South Carolina Percivals. To be specific, those residing in Charleston and descended from John and Susan Fuller Percival. I've had quite a bit of luck with them. Found their marriage record in North Carolina, found their death records in South Carolina, census, etc.

Then I found their son John D. married to a Jessie Percival. Now, sometimes John D is referred to as J.D., not to be confused with Jessie D. Percival who married Carrie Rose in another South Carolina county. But I hadn't found Jessie's maiden name, nor a marriage record.

Since I had her birthdate from her headstone of March 12, 1861, I thought I would check for "Jessie" born in 1861 +1/-1 on the 1870 census. I found two Jessies born in 1861, both living in an Orphan Home for children in Charleston. One was Jessie Fasch and the other was Jessie Broughton.

Due to my OCFRD* I took up the gauntlet and searched for Jessie Broughton in South Carolina. And there she was paired up with John D. Percival on Delayed Birth Certificates for Charleston.

Ever find one of those records that you have no idea why they filed it? Case in point, Florence Emily Percival, daughter of John D. and Jessie Percival, born Feb 23 1882 in Charleston, South Carolina.  Yes, this is the Birth Return. Even if you click on my
enhanced version of it, you can't read a darn thing. I was discouraged.

So I scrolled down the page and found the attached affidavit. When you click on it, you will find Jessie's maiden name - Broughton.

There were three things I did that help when searching for maiden names.

1. I searched by first name only and a birth year of 1861 give or take a year.
2. I gambled and searched for Jessie Broughton. Let me state here that when I searched for the father, John Percival, it gave the mother's name as Jessie Percival on the index.
3. I looked at the whole image! This was the key.

Happy Hunting!

OCFRD* - Obsessive Compulsive Family Research Disorder.

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes