Charlotte (?)

Was this the name of the mother of Goodwin George? A young man named Goodwin lives with an adult woman named Charlotte in the 1860 and 1870 federal census records in Saint Louis, Missouri. She was born in Massachusetts in roughly 1815. Goodwin would have named his daughter after her.

Her birthplace is given as Ohio in Goodwin's 1880 census entry.

The letter from Charlotte George's grandmother to Izetta George is from a woman Charlotte George called "Mama George" when she was two years old. This may I suppose be Goodwin George's mother, this woman. She writes to Izetta describing meeting Charlotte and Goodwin at the train, and her son calling "Mama George". Is the son in question Goodwin?

If this indeed her in this letter, she must have been alive in 1890. In Illinois?

Try looking for a Charlotte Rogers, a possible explanation for Charlotte George's first name Charlotte and mysterious but attested middle name / claimed maiden name Rogers. Consider this death entry:

GEORGE, CHARLOTTE R 12/25/1896 CHICAGO 88 YR U 00006665 COOK

I have obtained a copy of this death report. The woman in question is reported to have been born in Charleston, Massachusetts. This cannot therefore be the right woman if Goodwin's 1880 census entry is correct. Nonetheless, it is striking that she is reported as being buried in St. Louis, MO after having lived in Illinois for 18 years, ie since 1878. This would match well her son's departure from Missouri prior to 1880. Massachusetts is also the birth place of Goodwin's mother as reported in the 1860 and 1870 census records. However, her approximate birth-year in this death record is rather different from the approximate birth-year in those census records.