Friday's Faces from the Past - David & Mary Roscoe

David A. Roscoe

Here in GI, the Family History Center is open only a few hours a week, mostly during business hours.  There are 2 hours a week that I'm able to use the center.  Back in the 90's they had one computer which I was lucky enough to get to use a few times.  The International Genealogical Index is how I learned that William Roscoe's parents were David & Mary Roscoe.  Then through the Rootsweb Mailing list I "met" a couple of other Roscoe researchers. Ivan Roscoe and Kathy Schaefer shared a lot of information with me, both in emails and by good old snail mail.  It was a thrill to find distant cousins who were also trying to learn about the same ancestors and to compare thoughts and ideas on their lives with them.  Kathy shared these photos with me and I am so grateful!   Notice they were not taken by the same photographer or in the same town, but they are the same style.  The year would have to be before 1882.

Mary Crosby Fero Roscoe

David A. Roscoe was born July 5, 1823 in Utica, New York, the son of Russel Roscoe and Nancy Corbin.  Mary Crosby Fero was born Dec. 11, 1836, in Glen, New York, the daughter of Isaac Fero and Philomena Crosby.  They were married April 6, 1854 in Utica, New York. 

They were the parents of 2 girls and 8 boys:
Nancy Corbin Roscoe
Martha A. Roscoe
William Harlow Roscoe
Sherman Isaac Roscoe
George Corbin Roscoe
Franklin A. Roscoe
Ervin Ward Roscoe
Bertruss Francis Roscoe
Edward Wright Roscoe
Charles Doyle Roscoe

About 1860, the family moved from New York to Will County, Illinois where David farmed. Around 1881, most of the family moved to DeWitt, Nebraska.  David died of congestion of the lungs in 1884 at age 60, and is buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery.  Mary remarried to Lyman Adams in 1891, but there is no mention of that fact in her obituary.  She and Lyman moved back to Illinois in 1892, then Mary moved back to Nebraska alone about 1911.  I haven't found any death record for Lyman.  Mary died at age 86 and is buried next to her first husband David in the Oak Grove Cemetery.