Identified! OR - Cave Junction, 'Annie Doe' WhtFem UP10929, 16-20, Redwood Hwy, Aug'71 - Annie Lehman

[sunnynz]

Update: Managed to get a hold of that PDF, and the last chapter deals with Richard James and Harriet Ellen Vanstone from page 58 and forward. It mentions their daughters, but stops there (I suppose it's because of privacy protections). Do you think DDP is aware of Carol Bell? She's the author of this text.

Send it to them just in case, I’m sure they will appreciate the gesture even if they do know.

I was surprised they didn’t know about my tip, it comes right up when you first start googling the name. They are very swamped with work so it may just be that they don’t have the time for some of the groundwork right now.

 

[carbuff]

Yeah, I suspect it's not stumped or stuck so much as just a massive about of work to be done. When you're looking for a needle in a haystack, you have to throw away a lot of straw before you find what you're looking for.

 

[Alleykins]

Yeah, I suspect it's not stumped or stuck so much as just a massive about of work to be done. When you're looking for a needle in a haystack, you have to throw away a lot of straw before you find what you're looking for.

I didn't know how to phrase that, stumped was the only word I could think of, LOL.

 

[Lewie]

The beautiful thing about this technique is that “stumped” is only temporary and hope for a breakthrough actually increases with time. The right person/set of people just has to upload their DNA. So it could be a situation where they could spend thousands and thousands more hours right now, beating their head against a wall, maybe get somewhere or maybe not. Or they could check in every few days, see if there’s any intriguing new additions to GEDMatch, and one of those days the next steps and eventually her identity will be clear. The latter probably makes more sense right now, given their caseload and the press they just did in NZ.

 

[sunnynz]

I hope this is ok to post here - if this is against TOS I will delete.

Per DNA Doe Project facebook post about this case, some comments made by Margaret Press of DDP that people here may find interesting. This is in response to questions posted by a DDP facebook group member asking about the NZ Vanstones and whether any contact has been made with the descendants:

"....we have not yet narrowed down her actual family line yet. When we get close enough that they would have known her, we usually have the agency make contact."

"...the probability is high that she is related to the couple we named [Richard and Harriet Vanstone]. If not one of their descendants, then likely a descendant of one of their siblings or a sibling of one of their parents. Also possible she connects further back, with lower probability."

 

[Gardener1850]

Sunnynz, I think that is okay to post because it was in one of the articles about how Annie Doe could also be descended from one of the siblings of Richard and Harriet Vanstone. I've been trying to find all the descendants of Richard and Harriet to start with and I think I understand why they could be having issues. In order to find living people's names, it is important to be able to track down obituaries. Obituaries for NZ do not typically come up for me in a general internet search. I found some library type links that may have Vanstone obituaries, but I was not able to access since I don't live there. The few ancestry.com members who have public Vanstone trees with Richard and Harriet do not have the names of living people visible for privacy reasons. This case may require a dedicated NZ genealogist to get involved-- someone who can actually go to a library or government buildings there to look records up. JMO.

 

[sunnynz]

Sunnynz, I think that is okay to post because it was in one of the articles about how Annie Doe could also be descended from one of the siblings of Richard and Harriet Vanstone. I've been trying to find all the descendants of Richard and Harriet to start with and I think I understand why they could be having issues. In order to find living people's names, it is important to be able to track down obituaries. Obituaries for NZ do not typically come up for me in a general internet search. I found some library type links that may have Vanstone obituaries, but I was not able to access since I don't live there. The few ancestry.com members who have public Vanstone trees with Richard and Harriet do not have the names of living people visible for privacy reasons. This case may require a dedicated NZ genealogist to get involved-- someone who can actually go to a library or government buildings there to look records up. JMO.

I’ve messaged my friend who is into genealogy to ask if there are any online resources for NZ obituaries

 

[Gardener1850]

I’ve messaged my friend who is into genealogy to ask if there are any online resources for NZ obituaries

Thanks Sunnynz. I have hit brick walls as far as researching NZ Vanstones. I did not find much more than what is on public family trees on Ancestry. I have started to look at that Surname in the US and Canada instead to see if I can find Vanstones who were recent immigrants from NZ and may be connected to Richard and Harriet. One very interesting thing I am noting is that search results on websites that show me maps have the largest number of Vanstone results in the state of Illinois and some surrounding states. This matches up with Annie's isotope findings that suggested she may have lived in a "Great Lakes Region" state. So I am going to work backwards and work on Vanstone family trees in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and nearby Midwestern states to see if any can be connected back to the NZ Vanstones. Of course, her surname may not be Vanstone at all since Richard and Harriet had 8 daughters, but it is not a super common surname so it is easy to start by researching that.

 

[sunnynz]

Obituaries for NZ do not typically come up for me in a general internet search. I found some library type links that may have Vanstone obituaries, but I was not able to access since I don't live there.

This is the site my friend uses for c1849-1949, is this the one you can't access? If so I can have a hunt around on it Papers Past

She said for anything more recent than that then you tend to need to go and visit a library or search by the individual newspaper (Christchurch Press would be the major metropolitan paper for Banks Peninsula)

 

[Owutatangledweb]

Ok now this is a weird little - unrelated - coincidence and probably too off topic to post here but it's so odd that I had to...

Little River is in a small and fairly low population area called Banks Peninsula. Googling the Vanstones of Banks Peninsula came up with this guy Graham Vanstone who went missing in 1999 never to be seen again.
Banks Peninsula vineyards prove their worth
Where are they?

Given the size of the area and the fact it's a less common surname, I would be pretty confident that Graham is a descendant of Richard and Harriet.

Could he have been a walk away who started over in America? Was he a businessman who was in trouble of some kind? Wonder if he had kids before he disappeared. And/or after.

 

[Gardener1850]

This is the site my friend uses for c1849-1949, is this the one you can't access? If so I can have a hunt around on it Papers Past

She said for anything more recent than that then you tend to need to go and visit a library or search by the individual newspaper (Christchurch Press would be the major metropolitan paper for Banks Peninsula)

That website works (or at least it let me do a search and view some newspapers). Thank you! I shall see what I can find.

 

[Owutatangledweb]

Update: Managed to get a hold of that PDF, and the last chapter deals with Richard James and Harriet Ellen Vanstone from page 58 and forward. It mentions their daughters, but stops there (I suppose it's because of privacy protections). Do you think DDP is aware of Carol Bell? She's the author of this text.

Have you shared this and the website link with the Doe project? It may save them a lot of time.

 

[sunnynz]

Could he have been a walk away who started over in America? Was he a businessman who was in trouble of some kind? Wonder if he had kids before he disappeared. And/or after.

Good questions! (He did have two sons I believe by the time he disappeared). There is a thread for graham Vanstone over here New Zealand - Graham Vanstone, Missing Millionaire from Akaroa, NZ, 5 Sept 1999

 

[Gardener1850]

Could he have been a walk away who started over in America? Was he a businessman who was in trouble of some kind? Wonder if he had kids before he disappeared. And/or after.

Graham would have been about the same age as Annie Doe (within 1 to 5 years age difference) so she cannot be his daughter. He also disappeared almost 30 years after she was found. I think the chances of their cases being directly connected are slim to none. The closest DNA relation she could theoretically be to him would be a sister/half-sister that no one is aware of, but it is more likely she is a distant cousin. JMO.

 

[Jerrod]

Complicating the search is the fact that "Vanstone" is of Dutch origin, and sometimes the two-word variation was adopted by immigrants. I had classmates in school in CA who spelled their last name "Van Stone", and they were first-generation Americans.

 

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

Have you shared this and the website link with the Doe project? It may save them a lot of time.

The information has been forwarded.

 

[carbuff]

Complicating the search is the fact that "Vanstone" is of Dutch origin, and sometimes the two-word variation was adopted by immigrants. I had classmates in school in CA who spelled their last name "Van Stone", and they were first-generation Americans.

Do you know if Vanstine is another variant spelling? Or is it a different name?

 

[TmmEye]

Honestly, I do not trust isotope testing. In the case of Elizabeth Lamotte, the testing "revealed" she was born in the Northeast, and resided in the Midwest. Turned out completely inaccurate, as Elizabeth was in the Northeast 94.11764705882353% of her life. (Yep folks, I'm doing math.)

 

[TmmEye]

I created a digital image of "Annie" from looking at the clay bust by Joyce Nagy. Then, I used that information, alongside info from DDP to digitally create a face. Please note the hairstyle is not included.

 

[carbuff]

Wow, that's very nice.