Nancy Sindledecker received a widow's pension

Milford Kirby recently sent me information about the widow's pension that Nancy Sindledecker received.  He wrote:
"I have recently obtained a copy of the widow's pension file for Joseph Sindledecker. Nancy J. Nixon Ensley Sindledecker was his widow, and applied for and received, from 1890 until her death Belmont County, Ohio, in December 1910 a pension for herself and three minor children under the pension act of 1890. Sindledecker was a union civil war veteran. Cora Bell Nixon Vanaman applied for compensation for her burial and last illness under the same pension act in early 1911. Cora's application self-identifies her as Nancy's daughter, and this is evidence that Cora was not the daughter of Nancy's sister. There is an original pension application by Nancy in July of 1890. A subsequent application from August of 1890 is also included, and in this second application Nancy states her maiden name was Nancy J. Nixon. These 1890 applications detail Nancy's two known marriages as to dates, and provide the dates of death of both Ensley and Sindledecker....  Unfortunately, Cora Bell's father is not revealed in the pension file. Her birth in 1866 was four years prior to Nancy's marriage to Ensley." Here are the documents:








These are very interesting documents. They clearly show, that at least as an adult, Cora considered herself Nancy's daughter.  But as Milford points out, Nancy was unmarried (and only 16) at the time of Cora's birth.  And then there is the 1870 census which calls her Cora Myers, which would make her Catharine's daughter.  As I see it there are still two possibilities.  The first (and the one that I think Milford believes) is that the 1870 census is wrong and that Cora was born to Nancy.  The other possibility is that Cora was born to Catharine, but that Catharine died when Cora was very young.  The fact that Catharine's children are living with the Nixons, but Catharine is not suggests that this may be the case.  Nancy would have then adopted Cora sometime after she was married, when the Nixons had become to old to care for children.  I don't know which interpretation is correct.  I think that they are both possible though.