Jane Ann Smith

AUDITED 10 Aug 2026 — a controlled negative on her parents, and a search trap. PARENTS NOT FOUND, and no candidate is nominated. Every Smith household in Anderson County, Kansas in the 1860 census (six townships) and the 1870 census (eight townships) was read from free KSGenWeb transcriptions: not one person in any of them was born in Missouri, against 100 Missouri-born persons in the 1860 file and 364 in the 1870 file. The control could have failed and did not. The 1860 West household is three people with no Smith in it or adjacent. The only Smith who could be cross-identified, Daniel W. Smith of Greeley City Cemetery, born 1820, is too young to be her father. This weakly CONTRADICTS the assumption that she was in Kansas Territory with her family. SEARCH TRAP: the marriage place recorded from her husband's 1918 obituary as "Lane" is anachronistic. In Oct 1855 the place was the Shermanville post office, universally called Dutch Henry's Crossing, on the Pottawatomie; it was renamed Lane on 28 Jan 1863 (Andreas, History of Kansas, 1883). Any search of 1855 to 1862 keyed on "Lane" returns a FALSE ZERO. Search Shermanville, Dutch Henry's Crossing, or Pottawatomie instead. PROVENANCE DOWNGRADE: "Saint Louis" specifically, and the exact date 23 May 1839, rest only on unsourced Find a Grave fields. "Missouri" alone is carried by two independent enumerations. SETTLES IT, in order: the Kansas death certificate, Ford County, 10 Apr 1931, which names father and mother's maiden name; then the Franklin County marriage record of Oct 1855, where she was 16 and a minor, so a parental consent naming her father may be attached. Evidence: ancestry/sources/west-jane-ann-smith-2026-08-10/ (136 files). Report: ancestry/agent-report-west-jane-ann-smith-2026-08-10.md.