If there is one ancestor who has evaded all my research skills it is my 2x great grandmother Sarah Holm, the amount of evidence !i have that Sarah did exist is very minimal, five pieces of primary records, I have tried to look forward but couldn’t find her in any record after 1920, I have tried going backwards but hit a brick wall in 1908.

She is truly one of the most elusive people I have had to research and I can’t help but ponder, just  who are you Sarah? Were you hiding from someone or just didn’t know your correct age?

Let’s go over everything I currently have, starting with the 1908 baptism record of my great uncle Harold Olanzo Smith. Harold was born on November 14, 1908 to Michael Smith of Tortola, British Virgin Islands and Sarah Holm of St. Thomas, Danish West Indies. Michael was 38 while Sarah was 33 at the time of Harold’s birth.

1911 Census

In 1911, Sarah lived in Mandenberg which was located in New Quarter on St. Thomas, she was 35 years old and worked as a Coal Worker and had two children, Harold 2 years old and another child identified as a boy with no age given.

In 1914, Sarah gave birth to my great grandfather Alfredo Alexander Boyles also known as Alfredo Pedrito Boynes. Alfredo was born on May 26, 1914 to Joseph Alexander Boyles and Sarah Holm, Joseph was 45 years old and Sarah was 35, here is where the age discrepancies begin, in 1911 Sarah was 35, there is no way she was still 35 a whole 3 years later.

Sarah gave birth to my last great aunt in 1916. On November 12, 19166, Sarah and Joseph had another child, the baptism record lists the child as being male and named Arthur but on the left hand side there is a remark about the child actually being female. Joseph was 42 years old and Sarah was till 35 years old. Even more interesting Agatha later on gave her birth date as January 14, 1917 which was the date she was baptized.

The last piece of primary source I could find, the 1920 Census, fun fact the 1920 Census was actually taken in 1917 up to 1918 so the dates are almost always wrong, sometimes I come across people with the right birth year but it’s mostly off by two years. In 1920, Sarah was living in Altona, which was located on the Southern East section of the island. She was 40 years old and living with three children, Mary J Griffith 11 years old, Agatha Boyles 1 years old, and Alfredo Boyles 3 years old. I’m not sure where Harold was at this time.

An interesting piece of information I came across recently gave me some more clue to who Sarah might have been, this piece of information was an interview Mary Jane did when she was 99 years old. On October 9, 2004, In an interview with the St. Thomas Source, Mary Jane spoke about her life, how she met her husband and what she remembered of the day the islands were sold to the United States. She spoke about how her father was a carpenter, her mother grew vegetables to sell, Mary Jane states that she was the oldest of four children and was born on May 10, 1905 in Park Yard. I have not been able to find any baptism records to confirm this date nor do I have any clue as to where Park Yard might have been on St. Thomas.

I’m afraid the only way I will get any answers is through DNA but Mary Jane had no children, I’m uncertain if Agatha had children, none of my known cousins on my grandmother’s side of the family has tested and none show any signs of being interested. I have one grandchild of Harold’s but there are very few connections, it did lead me to the grandchild of my grandmother’s half sister which also lead me to the NPE I discovered and posted about before Detective Lynnette and the Case of the Mysterious DNA Relative, this mystery cousin has a few relatives in common but I have not been able to make any connections between her tree and the other matches, if I could find a match betwen thm then I can find the connection to me as well.

I guess I will be back to looking through my DNA relatives, those of my brother and those of my father as well.