TMI: The Mystery of Jennie Evdokimoff's Birthplace.

 

Jennie Evdokimoff (1909? - 1991)

If there is anything more frustrating than not being able to find when or where someone was born, it’s having it on good authority that they were born on three different dates and in four different places. This is the situation I currently face regarding my wife’s paternal grandmother, Jennie Evdokimoff. No birth certificate exists for her. It has been said that it burned up in a fire. She always said that she was born in Glendale, Arizona. 

Her parents, Vasilie (William, Willi) Evdokimoff and Katherine Shubin were members of the Molokan religious community that fled Kars, in the Russian Empire (now Turkey) to escape tsarist persecution in the early days of the 20^th century. According to Vasilie’s initial Petition for Naturalization, dated Aug 1, 1934, the family moved first to Los Angeles, then to Guadalupe Valley, near Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, where they lived until 1919. They then returned to the United States and settled near Glendale, Arizona. After a year in Arizona, they moved again to Los Angeles, where they stayed for the remainder of their lives. They had nine children.

Vasilie Evdokimoff submitted a Petition for Naturalization in 1934 and finalized his citizenship application with a Declaration of Intention filed on February 16, 1935. His children’s birthplaces differ substantially in each of these documents and differ from what was reported to the immigration agents in 1919 as well.

In the 1934 petition, four children - Fannie, Jennie, Mary, George and Esther – are listed as having been born in “Ensenada, Mexico”.

1934 Petition for Naturalization shows Jennie and two sisters born in "Ensenada, Mexico"

Eight months later, though, all but the two oldest children were listed as having been born in Glendale, Arizona.

1935 Declaration of Intention changes four children's birthplaces to "Glendale Ariz."

This started me looking for immigration records for any Evdokimoffs entering the United States between 1890 and 1920. On February 6, 1919, Vasilie and his entire family, which now included a daughter-in-law, crossed the border on foot at the San Ysidro (now Tijuana) border station. There were cards for everyone in the family except Jennie, but a note on the back of her father’s card offered the explanation that she had been “Born in LA.” and therefore no alien entry record was needed. Four of the children with reported ages of nine or below were reported to have been born in "Guadalupe B.C., Mexico. (Note: The Annie Evidakimoff who crossed the border in 1919 was reported as being 2 years old so probably isn't the same person as the Anna Evdokimoff born in 1898.)

There was no entry card for Jennie but a brief comment on the back of her father's card said she was "Born in LA."

  So now I have three possible birthplaces for Jennie: Baja, Glendale and Los Angeles. Showing the entire family side-by-side shows several discrepancies, not just for Jennie. 

Name	Birthdate	Birthplace (6/1/1934 Petition for Naturalization)	Birthplace (2/16/1935 Declaration of Intention)	Birthplace (Border crossing record 2/6/19)
Anna	1/5/1898	Kars, Turkey	Kars, Turkey	Guadalupe, Mexico
Jim	5/25/1902	Kars, Turkey	Kars, Turkey	Kars, Russia
Fannie	5/25/1907	Ensenada, Mexico	Glendale, Ariz.	Kars, Russia
Jennie	12/4/1909	Ensenada, Mexico	Glendale, Ariz.	“Born in L A.”
Mary	1/6/1911	Ensenada, Mexico	Glendale, Ariz.	Guadalupe, Mexico
George	7/25/1913	Ensenada, Mexico	Glendale, Ariz.	Guadalupe, Mexico
Esther	10/10/1915	Ensenada, Mexico	Glendale, Ariz.	Guadalupe, Mexico
Willie	4/10/1920	Glendale, Arizona	Glendale, Ariz.	N/A
John	5/25/1925	Los Angeles, Cal	Glendale, Ariz.	N/A

Time to take a look at the census reports. The 1920 census for Peoria, Arizona (near Glendale) is interesting in that the birthplace for Jennie and three siblings were initially entered as "Un" (unknown?) but were later struck out and a different hand entered "Arizona". 

1920 Census record for Peoria, Arizona

Subsequent clues include: 

• Declaration of Intention for her first husband, Jacob Mike Uroff lists her as born 7/4/1909 in Mexico.
• The California State Death Certificate for Jennie lists her birthdate as July 4, 1910, and her state of birth as "AL". Presumably, this is why the California Death Index lists her birthplace as Alabama. 

I think we can rule out Alabama as her birthplace as there is no evidence that her parents were ever in that state. However, in the interests of conducting the reasonably exhaustive research that the genealogists insist on, I searched the 1910 census and birth records for 1909-1910 for any Evdokimoffs in Alabama and found none. 

I'm not yet finished with this quest to find the when and where of Jennie Evdokimoff's birth. Examining the timeline of Vasilie and Katherine Evdokimoff's life suggests that the earlier records may well be the most accurate. There is no mention of any births in Arizona on any documents recorded prior to 1920 so any children born before that would have been born in either Mexico, Los Angeles, or Kars. If we learn when he first arrived in the United States, and when he moved the family to Guadalupe, we should be able to arrive at an informed conclusion as to when and where Jennie was born. 

In October, Dorrie and I will travel down to Guadalupe for a few days to see if any archives or people with long memories exist that might help shed light on the subject. Wish us luck. 

Vasilie & Jennie Evdokimoff

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