Research inspired by the Traynor family historian.

Erastus Jackson Frost was born in Pennsylvania, migrated during the 1860's to Jackson County, Iowa with his parents, and married Juliette Kirby born Lindsey. (He may have had a brief relationship with an unknown partner previous to Juliette.) After 1870, he and Juliette relocated to Ottawa, Kansas and raised eight children. They later separated, and he moved to Saginaw County, Michigan where other relatives of his had settled.

Two other men with similar names also lived in Jackson County, Iowa in 1870.