Did Fannie Mills Really Live in Erie County, Ohio? A Brief Adventure in Genealogy Research

In the 1880s Fannie Mills appeared in museums and sideshows as the “Ohio Big Foot Girl.” It seems that a medical condition caused Fannie’s feet to grow large, though the rest of her body was of a normal size. An article in the July 26, 1885 New York Times reported that Fannie wore size 29 shoes.

Did Fannie Mills really live in Erie County, Ohio at one time? By accessing Ancestry Library Edition, we learned that Fannie was eight and one half months old in the 1861 Census of England. She had been born in the registration district of Thakeham in Sussex, England. In 1861, Fannie resided in Sussex with her father George Mills, her mother Sarah Mills, and two older brothers. By the time of the 1880 U.S. Census, her name was listed as Fanny. On June 5, 1880, the census taker recorded the family of George and Sarah Mills as residing in Perkins Township of Erie County, Ohio. Fanny, her parents, and her brother Albert and sister Frances, all were born in England.

The census enumerator made a note next to the listing for Fanny Mills, age 14, that read  “deformed feet.”  A “Forty Years Ago Today” column in the Sandusky Register of April 9, 1929, reported that on April 9, 1886, Fannie Mills of Sandusky, who was noted as the girl with big feet, was appearing in New York. Newspaper accounts stated that she was offering $5,000 and a “well stocked farm” to the man who would marry her.  That may have been just a publicity item, rather than a fact, as Fannie/Fanny Mills married William Brown. To date, no marriage record has been located, but the Oakland Cemetery interment cards for Fannie Mills Brown list her burial date as May 4, 1899.  She was buried in Lot 6 of Block 76 at Oakland Cemetery.

Mr. William Brown, who died of cancer in 1904, was also buried in Lot 6 of Block 76 at Oakland Cemetery.

Census and cemetery records indicate that Fannie/Fanny Mills did indeed reside in Erie County, Ohio, and her death notice in the May 4, 1899 issue of the Sandusky Star helps to confirm it. 

The Follett House Museum in Sandusky has the lasts that were used to make shoes for Fannie Mills.