Widow, adult child, adoptive child and spinster sister.  A somewhat unusual arrangement.  A fragmented family come together to form a farmer’s household.  As of April 15, 1910 the U.S. Census showed a family in transition.  The four members at dwelling #159 were Ethel Reen Kerr (Age 9), Ellen (Weston) Tenniswood (44), Ralph Tenniswood(19), and Dinah Weston (46).

Ellen Amelia(Weston) Tenniswood (1865 – 1916) is the head of household.  Her husband John Tenniswood (1835 – 1907) having died in previous years.   Ellen has an unusual distinction, she married her older sister’s husband.   Her older sister Elizabeth Weston (1849 – 1885) was married to John but Elizabeth died young, about age 36.  The widower found a new wife in a younger sister.  And Ralph Lee Tenniswood (1891-1965) is a son from that latter marriage of Ellen and John Tenniswood.

Dinah Weston (1863 – 1910) is yet another sister of Elizabeth and Ellen but she never married and is about the same age as Ellen.

Lastly, Ethel Reen Kerr (1900- 1996) is identified as an adoptive daughter but that is not official.  Ethel’s mother, Mary Ann “Mae” Tenniswood (1872 – 1900) died at about age 28 soon after giving birth to Ethel.  Ethel’s father George Kerr took the older children to a new household and soon remarried.  Whereas newborn Ethel Reen went to the household of Ellen Tenniswood (her great-aunt/step-grandmother).  

Ralph Lee Tenniswood is her half-uncle. Because while John Tenniswood was the father of both Mary Ann and Ralph, Mary Ann and Ralph had different mothers.

Ethel had a tumultuous life.  Her mother Mary Ann died in 1900.  Her grandfather John Tenniswood died in 1907.  In August 1910, Dinah Weston passed away, soon after the census was collected.  In 1916, Ellen Amelia (Weston) Tenniswood died.  But by 1920, Ethel was married and starting her own family.