When I first came across Charlotte ‘Lottie’ Packard (1870-1952), she wasn’t my ancestor. She wasn’t even related to me by blood or marriage. In fact, I almost skipped past her entirely.

Then I started reading the records.

One document lead to another until the outline of an extraordinary life slowly emerged – a young wife, a mother of ten children, a widow after a tragic train accident claimed her husband, a laundress struggling to support a large family and finally, a birth certificate from 1909 that raised far more questions than it answered.

Although I discovered Lottie through her shared history with my paternal great grandmother, Ida’s, first husband, Thomas Frederick ‘Fred’ Chase (1860-1924), this story isn’t ultimately about Fred. This story is about Lottie.

Charlotte Endora Packard (also known as ‘Lottie’ or ‘Dora’) was born September 7, 1870 in Tecumseh, Michigan to Jeremiah Jared Packard and Unice Ann (McCord) Packard. She was one of six children and the only surviving girl. Her older sister, Hattie, born in 1864 died a few months prior to Lottie’s birth in 1870 at the age of 6-1/2 years. Her cause of death was listed as scarlet fever.

When Lottie is 10 years old, her father, often referred to as ‘Jared’, is recorded in the 1880 Federal census as a cabinet maker.

On January 18, 1890 Lottie marries Thomas James Biggins (1869-1905). Lottie is 19 years old, Thomas is 20 years old. In November that same year, Lottie gives birth to their first of nine children, a daughter Helena. Eight other children follow through the years, up until 1905.

In the 1900 Federal census, Thomas is listed as a blacksmith. It is noted that they are renting a home in Tecumseh, Michigan. Six children are enumerated, the oldest about 10 years and the youngest not quite a year old. Lottie is 30 years old.

Tragedy strikes the family on New Years Eve 1904. A news article from the Tecumseh Herald describes a horrific accident that leaves Lottie a widow and changes the trajectory of her life.

Below is Thomas’s death certificate and the news article that appeared three days after his fatal accident. According to the published story:

“… Thomas Biggins came to his death by being run over by passenger train No. 313 going north on the Jackson branch of the Lake Shore road on the night of December 31, 1940.”

The article also details that witnesses had testified that he appeared unsteady before the accident, and the physician later listed alcoholism as a contributing factor on his death certificate. Whether alcohol impaired his judgement that night can no longer be known with certainty, but the consequences to his family were immediate and profound.

The newspaper correctly reported that Thomas left behind a wife and eight children in destitute circumstances. What could not have known was that Lottie was also five months pregnant at the time of Thomas’ death. Four months later, on April 29, 1905, she gave birth to their daughter, Lila Marjorie Biggins – a little girl who would never know her father.

Where Lottie’s story intersects with my ancestors appears in the records in 1909, four years after Thomas’ death.

After reading the 1897 divorce decree for my great grandmother and her first husband, Thomas Frederick ‘Fred’ Chase’s (1860-1924), I was following the paper trail for Fred to see what happened next in his life when I stumbled across Andrewina Biggins who, according to a social security record, listed Fred Chase as her father and Lottie Biggins as her mother. I was both flabbergasted and deeply intrigued.

I immediately set about piecing together Fred’s history to see how we get the connection to Andrewina and her mother, Lottie.

Three years after Ida divorced Fred Chase, he is next seen in recorded history enumerated in the 1900 Federal census as 40-years old and working as a farm laborer/boarder in Macon, Lenawee County, Michigan in the household of Katherine Craig, a 69-year old widow. In that household with Katherine, is a son and his wife and Katherine’s 33-year old single daughter, Margaret aka ‘Maggie’.

Fred marries his second wife, Maggie Craig, January 3, 1901. At the time of this marriage he is 40 years old, she is 34.

Although Fred and Maggie are still married in 1909 (as confirmed by the 1910 census), on September 26, 1909 widow Lottie (Packard) Biggins gives birth to Fred’s daughter, Andrewina in Tecumseh, Michigan.

The birth certificate below contains many new clues and curious information. The original name for the baby was recorded as Madalena Biggins, however, at some later undetermined date that name is crossed out and replaced with ‘Andrewina’. Andrewina shares her mother’s last name of ‘Biggins’ although she is not the daughter of Thomas Biggins as he died January 1, 1905, four years prior. After the box that states the question ‘legitimate?’ this is marked as ‘no’.

At the time of the Andrewina’s birth, Michigan distinguished between children born to married parents and parents born outside of marriage. It’s likely the physician knew enough about the circumstances to mark the birth as illegitimate even though Fred Chase was identified as the biological father. Noted on the birth certificate the name ‘Chase’ is written in red pencil, then crossed off .

There is also a handwritten note on the birth certificate that on January 28, 1958, decades after her birth, where someone filed an affidavit to correct the birth record. This could mean that someone, very likely Andrewina herself or another close relative, submitted documentation asking the State to amend the birth record. The affidavit probably established that she had long been known as Andrewina Chase or, converserely, she wanted her biological father’s surname reflected on her birth certificate.

In the 1910 Federal census, Lottie is living on Pottawatamie Street in Tecumseh with four of her younger children, including baby Andrewina. Her occupation is listed as ‘laundress’, the record indicates she is ‘widowed’ and has a total of ten children, all of whom are still living.

On October 20, 1910, widow Lottie marries her second husband, Chris Rowe in Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio. Chris is 51-years old, born in Germany, and has been married ‘once’. His occupation is ‘hostler’. A hostler would have carried for horses – feeding, grooming, watering, harnessing them and often tending the horses used by a livery stable, railroad, delivery company or freight business. By 1910, with automobiles beginning to appear, it was still a very common occupation.

Unfortunately, 8 years later in 1918 Chris passes, again leaving Lottie a widow.

In the 1920 Federal census, Lottie has relocated from Tecumseh, Michigan east about 28 miles to Monroe, Michigan. She is 49 years old and is listed as head of household in the record although her occupation is listed as ‘none’. In the household are six of her children. I would surmise if she is not working and her sons are employed, they are supporting the household at that time. Her address is 1015 E. Front Street, Monroe, Michigan, and it is listed that she is renting. She has also taken in several boarders to supplement the household income.

I do not know what type of relationship, if any, that Fred had with his daughter, Andrewina during her childhood. Fred dies unexpectedly in September 15, 1924, 11 days prior to Andrewina’s 14th birthday.

However, the fact that in 1958 someone requests that her birth certificate be modified presents a possible clue that she perhaps, at the very least, had knowledge of her biological father, even though she is recorded most of her life with the surname ‘Biggins’.

In the next Federal census in 1930 Lottie’s second-to-youngest daughter, Lila Marjorie Biggins, is now married to one of the boarders that was listed in the 1920’s census, Ralph Poley. Ralph and Marjorie have five children in 1930. Lottie is listed as the mother-in-law, son-in-law, Ralph is now head of household.

There are several photos of Lottie throughout her life documented on Ancestry.com, the one below is from the 1940’s.

In the 1950 Federal census, Lottie is now living in Dundee, Monroe County, Michigan in the household of grandson, Howard Poley. She is listed as 80 years old and the ‘grandmother’.

Lottie dies on September 17, 1952 in Adrian, Michigan and is buried in Riverside Cemetery, Clinton, Lenawee County, Michigan. The details of her family on Find-A-Grave is well documented.

As the records fade into the final decades of Lottie’s life, they tell a story that is both ordinary and extraordinary. Charlotte ‘Lottie’ Biggins life was marked by hardship, loss, uncertainty, and more than her share of difficult choices. Yet every census, every marriage record, every birth certificate and every faded photograph reveals the same quiet truth – she kept going. She raised her children, adapted when life demanded it and leaned on family when the years made that necessary.

In the end, perhaps that is the greatest measure of a life – not that it was easy, but that through every setback she endured with remarkable resilience. More than a century later she deserves to be remembered not for the hardships she faced, nor for the mistakes of those around her, but for the strength and perseverance that carried her through them.