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I’m trying to figure out Emma Rhining’s timeline. She was born Emma Eugenia Cowan, September 1856, to William Cowan and Nancy Campbell Smith Parrish.

She gave birth to a daughter, Jennie Marie Mott in December 1889. Jennie’s father was Sanford (or William?) Mott.

She gave birth to Effie Josephine Rhining (Henry) 16 October 1893 in Beardstown, IL. Effie’s father was Lewis Rhining.

On the 1900 census she’s listed as married, but also head-of-household with no husband listed. She had given birth to three children and two were still living (Effie Rhining and Jennie Mott.) There’s also a 2-year-old boy named George Cates listed as a boarder. On the 1910 census Emma is listed as widowed, having birthed four children with two still living.

Was George Cates her child and she didn’t want to admit it on the census because she was still married to Lewis Rhining? What became of Lewis Rhining and Sanford Mott? And where did they come from, for that matter? If Cates wasn’t her child, who did she become pregnant by, between 1900 and 1910, for her to have gone from having 3 children to 4 children (always with two living– the two we know, Effie Rhining and Jennie Mott)? Is this Lewis Rhining’s son by another woman? If so, was he born before Lewis was married to Emma, after, or at the same time? So much mystery around this woman.