Time for a quick review of the Lee-o-netto situation. I am ready to show how this question has resolved itself by locating additional data concerning family members.
Lee-o-netto, oh Lee-o-netto, just how many of you are there?
A few items of evidence I have collected have not been discussed on this blog yet. However, I do need to combine the two individuals into one at this point in the project to make things more organized for myself. I will just go ahead and list all the pieces of the puzzle in this post and go into detail on some items in later posts.
Evidence against only one woman
- Census records and the ages recorded on those census records suggest the woman at Allegany was at least 20 years younger than the woman listed in earlier census records (see details here)
Evidence in favor of only one woman
- the woman that died in Allegany in December of 1940 1939 was alleged to be 95 years old (death notice) [based on my “census age, two women” theory, the younger woman would only be about 70]
- the estate of the woman that died in Allegany in December of 1939 was divided among the descendants of Carrie Horton (news clipping and estate records)
- the woman that lived in Allegany was a sister to Carrie Horton and Isaac Kanistanaux (newspaper death notices of 1920 and 1931)
- living descendants of Carrie Horton remember visiting Lee-o-netto in Allegany and they remember her being a doctor (oral interview)
- the woman that was “Aunt Nettie” to Carrie Horton’s children was married to Charles Dodge (bible story book images contributed by Randy Blood)
- the woman with Charles Dodge in 1900 was Leeonetto Dodge, born April 1846, doctress (census record)
- the woman with Charles Dodge in 1892 was Lee A. Netto Dodge, age 42, doctor (census record)
- the woman that married Charles Dodge in 1888 was Nettie Kiniess, age 35 (marriage record)
- “Leonetto, the Indian doctress” was mentioned as wife of Isaac Kiness in 1874 news clippings from Stockton, NY
- the woman in the 1870 census was Leonetta Kanistanaux, age 24 and single, living in the same household as Isaac Kiness, also single
Discussion
The only negative evidence I have at this time for there being one women is the census ages. This is certainly the worst case of census age drift I have ever come across. If this census age issue did not exist, I would never have considered the possibility of two women in the first place. I still can not wrap my head around the extreme swings of age in census records, but everything else fits together very nicely, but only if there is just one Lee-o-netto.
The key piece of evidence connecting the younger woman found in Allegany census records to the older woman found in all prior census records was provided by Randy Blood when he located the book of bible stories belonging to the children of Carrie Horton. This evidence demonstrates Carrie’s sister, who we know lived in Allegany, was married to Charles Dodge. This fact bridges the gap created by the curious census age issue.
At this point in my research, I am convinced there is only one lady using the name Lee-o-netto. This lady was known to be the sister of Caroline A. (Kanistanaux) Horton and Isaac Henry Kanistanaux. From this point forward all references to Dr. Lee, Lee-o-netto, and Nettie is referring to one woman. There are still lots of mysteries to resolve before I understand this woman, but I can now focus all my energy on researching only one lady with all evidence evaluated and applied to this one individual.
See the Kanistanaux Map at Google.
Do you have any information to add or questions?
Please leave a comment.
The Ne-Do-Ba Research Journal 