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People Names and Dates


Full Name	Laura Elizabeth Downen
AKA Full Name
People ID	668162
Title
First Name	Laura
AKA First Name
Nickname
Middle Name	Elizabeth
AKA Middle
Patronymic/Matronymic
Priorsurnames
Surname	Downen
AKA Surname
Father's Surname
Mother's Surname
Suffix
Gender	Female
Full Birth Date If Known
Birth Year	1891
Birth Month
Birth Day
Full Death Date If Known
Death Year	1960
Death Month
Death Day

Events, Dates and Places

Event	Date	Geo Top Level	Geo 2nd Level	Geo 3rd Level	Geo 4th Level	Notes
Birth	1891	USA	Wyoming
Marriage	1931/12/09	USA	Colorado	Arapahoe	Englewood	To Harry Downen
Residence	1940	USA	Colorado	Denver	Denver

Relationships

Relationship	Related To	Relative's People ID	Relative's Birth Year	Relative's Death Year	Other Date (typically Marriage Date)
Wife of	Harry E Downen	667991	1892	1989	1931/12/09
Stepmother of	Harry Lynn Downen	680718	1922	1984

Military Service

No military service added for this person

Rank If Known Or Highest Or Final Rank	Branch of Service	Beginning Date if Known	End Date if Known

Military Actions Served During

No military actions added for this person

Interment, Inurnment or Memorialization Information


Cemetery	Crown Hill Cemetery AKA Olinger Crown Hill Cemetery
Address	7777 W. 29th Ave.
City/Town	Wheat Ridge
County/District	Jefferson
State/Province	Colorado
Postal/Zip Code	80033
Country/Principality	USA





Organization
Property Type
Has Marker	Yes
No Marker
Is Cenotaph
GPS/LatLong Coordinates
End of Interment Record	If there are additional interments or cenotaphs for this person they will appear below

Inscription Information

No inscriptions added for this person yet

Other Information

Biographical or other information about the person

https://mills-sfv.com/Genealogy/GLS/People/Text/668162.txt

Her 1931 marriage record in Colorado (for her marriage to Harry Downen) shows her maiden or prior surname as Magecard. There's only one problem with that. That surname doesn't exist in the United States, not in any way, shape, or form. It didn't exist in 1931 and it doesn't exist in 2020 (although it does sound like something you could use in a Dungeons & Dragons game).

The marriage record was typed and it very clearly shows that name. So either it was garbled or transposed or Laura gave them a completely made up name, which doesn't seem likely but I suppose possible. It seems more likely to be garbled somehow, which is not unusual for names in marriage records. I have found them to be one of the least accurate for names in general, out of all the types of records (with obituaries probably running a close second).

Given her age in 1931 (around 40, not 37 as the marriage record states) it is entirely possible this was not her maiden name, but a prior married surname. But we still have the same problem, that the surname does not exist in that spelling or any variation I can think of for it.

The 1940 census shows that Laura was born in Wyoming, so any garbling of her name shouldn't be due to a problem with a foreign accent. If she wasn't actually born in Wyoming then all bets are off on that supposition.

I have looked in vain for an obituary for her or for Harry which might clear some of this up. I also can't find a social security application for her, although it's possible one exists and it just hasn't been added to the SS numident website yet. For that matter, I can't find anything in the social security system on her, which is not surprising given when she died. I have found very few death records in the social security system from that time period (late 1950s and early 1960s).

The maiden name on her family search record, in any event, is based on the name from the Colorado marriage record. So it is, at best, garbled, and at worst a complete fiction.

So for now, Laura's origins remain a mystery to me. If anyone has more information on her, please contact me.

No keywords added for this person


Small notes (field in database 50 characters max)
Family Search ID	GM1C-9SR
Find A Grave 1	44843210
Famous per Find A Grave
Famous per Consensus
Find A Grave 2
Find A Grave 3
BillionGraves Record ID
Other websites
Record Entry Date	2018-11-08 11:39:25
Record Last Edit Date	2020-05-23 22:46:00

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