Page 12 - Raycliff Mary Harris - A Family Enigma

Addenda…

The greatest mystery: When and where was she born and who were her
parents and siblings?
In solving this first question I ran across several documents that provide con-
flicting information and there was no birth certificate that I could locate.

Contained in the Massachusetts Marriage Records for the town of Watertown,
1840-1915, I located her listing of marriage to my great-grandfather, Jeremiah P.
Cronin. It shows their marriage took place on June 27, 1887. Raycliff’s occupa-

tion was that of “Domestic” and her mother and father was shown as Aaron &
Elizabeth. Her listed age at the time of marriage was 18 and her place of birth,
New Brunswick. She was married by Rev. Michael Dolan. The disputed fact that
surfaced was her age. She was not 18 but more likely 17 as further research

would reveal. Jeremiah’s age was listed as 28 however factual records indicate he
turned 29 at the beginning of June that year.

Raycliff divorced Jeremiah when their son Grover was still a toddler. She then

remarried Clarence E. Clemson from Woburn, MA on October 2, 1899. Con-
tained in the Marriage Certificate were her age of 25 years, her place of birth as
Calais, ME, and her father and mother as Aaron and Elizabeth (Sherwood) Har-
ris. She was not 25 but more likely 29 and had previously listed her place of

birth as New Brunswick.

Reviewing several Canadian census records between 1871 and 1881 I found list-
ings for the children of Aaron and Elizabeth Jerusha (Sherwood) Harris. None

listed a child named Raycliff. The 1871 census listed 8 children as Joseph (17),
Cordelier (15), Elizabeth (13), Alexandra (11), Aaron (8), Minnie (6), Rebecca
(3), and George (1). The 1881 Canadian census added two more children as
Isaac (8) and Gertrude (5). Is it possible that Raycliff was born Rebecca

and later changed her name? If so, her birth year would have been 1868 and
she would have been 18 when she married Jeremiah. If she changed her name
then where did she come up with Raycliff. Other than my younger sister, Ray-
cliff, who was named after her, I can not find reference to any other woman

named Raycliff. I did find two men from Iowa named Raycliff. I also found a
financial business named Raycliff Capital and several street names containing
Raycliff. I searched for biblical names and found no Raycliff. One reference I

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