In last week’s family history post, I talked about a relationship mix up for one of Walt’s great-great aunts. We had originally thought Rhoda had married a man named John Christy. Turns out that was another Rhoda Hole. So now we had to figure out who our Rhoda Hole had married.

We spent more time looking at marriage records for Mercer County Ohio. We found a Rhoda Hole who had married a Benjamin Houser on May 9, 1867.

Image shows a hand written record of a marriage certificate from Mercer County Ohio, I do hereby certify that on the 9th day of May, 1867 I solemnized the marriage of Benjamin Houser to Rhoda Hole. It is signed by John (illegible) Minister.
A marriage record for Rhoda Hole and Benjamin Houser.

We still weren’t sure that this was our Rhoda Hole, so we needed to look for more information. We found that Rhoda and Benjamin had two children, Joseph, born in 1868, and Lorilda (also known as Rillie), born in 1872. Benjamin died on January 1, 1875.

We still weren’t sure if this was the right Rhoda Hole, so we went on to look further. We found that Rhoda Houser married William F. Monroe on October 10, 1787.

Image shows a marriage record from Mercer County Ohio. I do hereby certify that on the 10th day of October,1878 I solemnized the marriage of Willaim F Monroe to Rhoda Houser. John McDonald
Marriage record for Rhoda and William

This was looking more promising. We had found a second marriage to a man with the last name Monroe! The 1880 census showed William and Rhoda living with three children, William’s daughter Cora from his first marriage, and Joseph Houser and Rillie Houser, noted as step-children.

Image shows a portion of the 1880 census listing the family of William F Monroe.
1880 census showing the Monroe family

William was also known as Frank (see my post on nicknames, family names, and middle names here). He and Rhoda had two children together, Mary born in 1887 and William, born in 1890. The elder William died in 1903.

Checking a few more records, we found that this was indeed our Rhoda, the daughter of James and Mary Hole, and the sister of John Swisher Hole, Walt’s great grandfather. She was listed in obituaries and the like as a sister, aunt or so forth.

Rhoda lived until June 10th, 1913. She is buried with her second husband in Swamp College Cemetery in Celina, Ohio, not far from several of her siblings and her parents.

Image shows the headstone of Rhoda and William Frank Monroe.

Hopefully, I will find a picture of her and her family in all of the photos I still haven’t finished with yet.

This exploration into a family member is a good reminder of why it is important to make sure you have the right person when doing research. And how easy it is to get off track by a name.