John Gray McQuarrie and Maggie Seegmiller

(UPDATE: I just found a couple more of photos of John and Maggie. I'll put them at the end of this post.)

Here's another case where I'm really grateful for personal histories. Without the Life History of John Gray McQuarrie, I'd be confused about some of these records. Luckily, we have his own words to put the records in context.

(Quick note: John Gray McQuarrie, my ancestor that I'm profiling here, also had a son named John Gray McQuarrie. Watch out for that if you're doing research on this family.)

I don't have a birth record for John or Maggie, so let's start with the censuses. John Gray McQuarrie was born October 10, 1867 in St. George, Utah. He first appears on this 1870 census in Pine Valley, Utah. He's also on this 1880 census from St. George, and his aunt and cousins are living with the family. John's future wife, Maggie Seegmiller, was born December 25, 1866. She appears with her family in this 1870 census and this 1880 census in St. George, Utah.

John and Maggie were married December 2, 1887 in St. George. There's no 1890 census, of course, so the next record I have for them is the 1900 census. If you look around on that record and the page before, you can see that they're living among other Seegmillers, McQuarries, and Grays.

Here's one that would have confused me, if I didn't know better: the McQuarries show up in this 1905 census in New York. John had been called to the Eastern States Mission, and his family lived there with him for most of that time. By the time the 1910 census rolled around, they were back in Utah. Here's their family in the 1920 census, and you can see John G. McQuarrie in this City Directory from Salt Lake City in 1920. Oh, and speaking of the City Directory database, you can also see John listed here in the State Legislature in an earlier directory.

Here's a photo from a newspaper about John being appointed as Utah Insurance Commissioner in 1925:

I also found John and Maggie on this passenger list from Hawaii to Los Angeles; I assume they went there as part of their travel for John's insurance conventions. I dunno, though--maybe they were just on vacation.

Here are a couple of photos of John and Maggie together:

Anyway, on with the censuses. They appear here in the 1930 census and the 1940 census (for some reason, Maggie is listed as Mida in the 1940). Maggie Seegmiller McQuarrie passed away on November 22, 1953, and you can see her death certificate here. John Gray McQuarrie passed away May 30, 1962. They're buried together in the Salt Lake City Cemetery, and you can see a photo of their gravestone here.