The Dangers of Digging

Much like my coal mining ancestors, i've been doing a lot of digging lately, and now i'm beginning to fear that the carefully constructed family narrative is in danger of collapse. First the German great grandmother turns out to be Irish, and now the most romantic story in my family history has been called into question. I was always told that the aforementioned not-German great grandmother died of influenza during The Great Pandemic of 1918-1919, and that her husband died of a broken heart a few days later. Being somewhat inclined to cynicism, i've always assumed that he probably just died of the flu too; but i never questioned the basic fact that they both died during the pandemic. So imagine my surprise to find both George and Irish Annie listed on the 1920 census six months after the pandemic ended! The frustrating thing is that this is the side of the family i thought i knew something about.  I'm having much better luck with my father's side of the family, but i'll save that for another post.