I have been searching for my husband’s great-great-great-grandfather, Henry T. Stanard, but have not been successful.  Although my husband’s great-great-great-grandfather is on my Most Wanted list, this post is about his son, Elbert M. Stanard.

I have been communicating with a distant cousin of my husband’s, Charles Grote, and several months ago, he send me a copy of Henry T. Stanard’s probate file.  Recently I was going over the documents he sent me to make sure that I have all of the information that is available within the documents.  I found a list of Henry’s heirs and found that besides the son and two daughter’s I already knew of, there was another son that I have never heard of or seen.  He is Elbert M. Stanard.  Now, besides the probate file that was mailed to me, Charles also send me a few copies of deeds one of which was from Elbert M. Stanard and his wife Ella selling the property to James Hutton, Administrator of Henry T. Stanard’s estate, for $25 as a “heir at law.”

I believe I found Elbert in the 1860 census but am not sure if  his name and sex were incorrectly put as Elizabeth and female (His mother is also named Elisabeth).   We next find him in the 1870 census in Michigan in the household of Edward Williams.  This census shows Edward Williams wife as Elizabeth Williams and she is listed at the appropriate age from the 1860 census with Henry T. and “Elizabeth/Elbert”.   Elbert was also listed with Elizabeth and Edward Williams but he was listed as a day laborer.  Remember that Elbert was listed as an heir previously in the Petition for Administration?   That probate records/deeds shows Elbert and his wife Ella living in Cook County, Illinois in 1886.  In the 1900 census shows Elbert as still living in Illinois as a widow and working as a lawer.  In 1910, we find Elbert in the census in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, working as a editor at a publishing company and lastly we find Elbert in the 1920 census which still shows that he was living in Michigan and working as a Lawyer with a general practice again.  We can’t find him after the 1920 census so I believed that he died sometime after 1920.

In short, here is what we know:

I have searched on Ancestry.com for some clues as to where Elbert and Ella got married, where Ella might have died, more information on how Elbert lived.  After discussing it with my distant cousin-in-law, Charles, we believe that he may have atteded law school sometime  between 1876 – 1900.  We knew that his step-father, Edward Williams, had lots of money and could afford to send Elbert to law school.

I could not find any more information on Elbert.  Where should I search next?  I’m thinking of searching for the law schools in Michigan and Illinois to write to them asking if they have him as a graduate?  Any other suggestions?