Beautiful Water Genealogy

One of the hardest things to find, particularly as a new genealogist, is the home village of your Eastern European ancestors.  I was fortunate to find exactly when and from where my Lithuanian Valeks arrived in the U.S. over the course of many years.  My Polish Markoskis, however, were a different story…until now, when FamilySearch full text search came along!

Don’t get me wrong; first I still needed to grasp surname variations and how immigration worked.  But as I’ve said before, full-text search has blown my research wide open!

I was able to find “Stanislaw Markocki’s” Declaration of Intention, which quickly lead me to all the other pieces to Stanislaw’s immigration story!  Here it is:

Stanislaw was born on November 24, 1875 in Grodziscko gorne, then in Galicia.  This is now a very small town in southeast Poland.  Looking at it via Google Street View, it looks like a sweet little town!  He grew up there, but ended up traveling to Rotterdam, Netherlands to board the S.S. Edam on February 18, 1894.

18-year-old Stanislaw was right at the top of his page of the passenger list.  He was a laborer with no baggage who only intended to stay in the U.S. temporarily (a “protracted sojourn”), intending to go to Trenton, NJ.

The S.S. Edam landed at Ellis Island on March 7, 1894.  Did Stanislaw leave for New Jersey right away?  It appears that fate somehow intervened – he ended up in Massachusetts (probably directly to Holyoke) by March 10 instead.  Perhaps he met other Polish passengers on the Edam who knew of opportunities there?

Over time Stanislaw decided to become a U.S. citizen and filed his Declaration of Intention in nearby Springfield, MA on July 27, 1909, not too long after wife Johanna and the children returned from their trip to Poland.  Just two years later on August 1, 1911, Stanislaw filed his Petition for Naturalization.   

On February 9, 1912, the Superior Court of Hampden County, Massachusetts admitted Stanislaw as a U.S. citizen and he took the Oath of Allegiance.  By the laws of that time, Johanna would automatically become a citizen as well.

Through full text search, I’ve found Stanislaw’s name as a witness on the immigration documents of many other fellow Poles in the Holyoke, MA area, helping them to take the steps to become U.S. citizens as well.  This brings to mind Stanislaw’s work with the Kosciusko Club to help his peers return to Poland; now it looks as though he helped his friends in whatever immigration decision they made!

So what’s next in my Polish research?  I’m currently hot on Johanna (Gazda) Markoski’s trail, finding little clues about her journey, but this will take some time.  I also intend on revisiting my 

Polish genealogy conference notes to prepare for research in the homeland.

In my first post about my second great-grandparents Adam and Elisabeth Valek, I listed who I believe were all their children. This was mainly based on a short 1943 notice in The [Riverhead, NY] County Review about the distribution of Adam’s estate. This was a huge piece of information for a hard-to-research Lithuanian family!

As time went on, I learned more about the Valeks (formerly Welikes) and their extended family. I researched all my great-grandmother Anna’s siblings and children. But there was a problem. The more I searched, the less I found for her siblings Mary and John. I couldn’t find them on any censuses, they didn’t appear in any family photos that my aunt had, and all I could find was a World War I draft registration for John, listing his birth year as 1886. Even Adam’s 1909 Petition for Naturalization didn’t mention them among his children. I started to wonder: were Mary and John even children of Adam and Elisabeth? Might they have been some other kind of relatives, or close family friends?

Enter FamilySearch full-text search, which seems to have come out this past year. (Side note: this tool has blown open some research paths for my genealogy. Stay tuned for more discoveries!) In searching on “Adam Valek”, I found 18-year-old Mary’s 1916 marriage to a Wincentas Waiciekanekas that named “Adam Valek” and “Elizabeth Gulas” as her parents! Additionally, Joseph Valek was a witness to the wedding.

But wait – if she was 18 in 1916, that make her birth year as 1898. At that time, Adam was in New York and Elisabeth (with four children) was in Russian Lithuania. Furthermore, the 1920 Census showed Mary with an immigration year of 1912 (1930 Census showed it as 1914). Elizabeth and the children immigrated in 1899 (more on that in a future post).

In taking a second look at the 1943 distribution of Adam’s estate, I noticed the differences in the amounts distributed:

• Anton (the oldest son) = $2,000
• Alice (whose husband died the previous year) = $2,000
• Annie = $1,500
• Joseph = $1,500
• Frank (although missing for years) = $1,500
• John = $500
• Mary = $500

I can only conclude that there had been some sort of adoption, whether formal or informal, as far as Mary and John were concerned. And clearly they were considered family.

My research for Mary revealed that she and Wincentas (who later went by “William Wassle”) grew their family, adding Bernice in 1918 and Albert in 1928. The family lived in Quogue, NY, not farm from Adam and Elisabeth in Jamesport/Riverhead. I remembered that my aunt told me that her mother (my maternal grandmother) worked in Quogue in the summers in the early 1930s as a maid, perhaps in a hotel. I had to wonder: did she stay with Mary’s family when she did so? I knew there was a picture or two of a hotel in Quogue; were there any more related photos?

Just last week, I re-discovered this photo of my grandmother, Viola Biliunas and “cousin Bernice Wassle” from 1932! Yes, a close relationship continued within this family!

I have not found any definitive documents regarding John Valek, but I believe the information I found for Mary provides a good idea about his relationship within the Valek family.

In 2015, I wrote about how my grandfather and great-grandmother fared after the 1932 death of my great-grandfather George Edmund Pleau.  Since that time, I’ve learned so much more about Bertha’s and young George’s lives!  (Thank you, newspapers!)  So let me color in the picture a little better.

Bertha and George returned to Lynn about 1933, living in a couple of places on Lewis Street in East Lynn, right by where George attended Brickett Elementary School.  By 1935 they had a little house of their own at 16 Cherry Street.  It wasn’t too far from where Bertha’s father Frank was living on Silsbee Street.  Contrary to what I thought in 2015, Bertha’s brother Edwin was not living in Lynn when she returned; he already moved to nearby Winthrop in 1930.  Also, her first cousin once-removed, Hazel (White) Hill, was living with her own parents in nearby Peabody, but this didn’t stop them from maintaining a close relationship.

There were familiar things in Lynn that Bertha returned to.  She was employed as a “shoe worker”, which she did prior to her son’s birth.  She continued to play piano, though not as often as she used to.  The church she attended, Christian Church on Silsbee Street, was torn down sometime before 1936, so she would not return there.  However she and young George stayed with the denomination they followed in Baltimore (Episocopal) and began to attend the Church of the Incarnation on the corner of Broad and Estes Streets, just a few blocks from their home. 

Now that Bertha was a widowed working mother, it seems that she made keeping George busy a big focus of her life.  Perhaps it was to keep him busy while she worked.  In any case George was involved with youth activities in town, in school and at church.  He attended summer camps in different towns where he learned how to swim and how to play the drums!  He was also in the Lynn YMCA boys division in the “Mugwumps organization”.  

Once he started attending Eastern Junior High School in the fall of 1934, George continued his parents’ singing tradition by participating in the glee club. He also took his drumming knowledge from the playground camp to the school orchestra!  At Lynn English High School, George continued participating in various singing groups, such as the Orpheus Club and the Monday Morning Choir.  He was in the Lynn English High band for at least his sophomore year.  He even scored a leading role in his junior class play, “Getting Acquainted With Madge”.

George’s singing talent did not go unnoticed at church, either.  Reading various articles about his church solos even helped me pinpoint when his voice changed:  in 1935, he went from a soprano in April to a tenor in October (he eventually ended up singing bass and had a beautiful voice!).  He became involved in the Young People’s Fellowship and Sir Galahad boys group, through which he played a part in the minstrel shows that they put on.  (I have to wonder if he knew about his uncles Albert and Eugene in their professional minstrel shows.)   Of course throughout the years, George continued singing with the choir, often being featured as a soloist.

Although Bertha started to deal with some sort of terminal illness in January of 1940, George continued keeping busy, doing what he loved.  He performed a solo during the March 23rd Holy Saturday cantata “The Crucifixion” at their church. The next day was Easter Sunday, the day Bertha passed away.  On March 26, her funeral was held at the Church of the Incarnation, with her burial following at Pine Grove Cemetery.

I truly believe that Bertha encouraged George to lean on his church choir family prior to her death.  As I stated in my 2015 post, George appeared on the 1940 Census (which was taken April 1), living with Benjamin W. Johnson.  At the time I had no idea who Benjamin Johson was, other than a music teacher.  Now I know he was so much more, for Mr. Johnson was the long-time choir director of the Church of the Incarnation!  So of course he would have known George and Bertha very well.  

What would have prompted him to take the very big step of taking George in?  A 1953 article written after Benjamin’s death said this:  “Practically everyone with a problem not of an ecclesiastical nature came to him for advice and solution.  He was never married and devoted his material resources to the aid of those he considered worthy and in need. He never accepted re-payment for the help he gave.”  My theory is that Bertha may have spoken to Benjamin about her illness and perhaps shared with him how she desired that George be able to finish high school since he was only a few months from graduating.  Benjamin being the kind of man he was, obliged.

So my grandfather did indeed graduate from Lynn English High School, completing the citizenship course of study.  He also continued to be involved in choir not only at the church (which included a WHDH radio appearance), but at school as well.  George was still involved in the Young People’s Fellowship at church in addition to working at a part-time job.  Just as he kept busy after his father died, he did the same after his mother passed as well.  

Although George married my grandmother the following February, he continued attending and singing in the Church of the Incarnation until at least Christmas of 1947.  I suppose that his friendship with Benjamin Johnson was a big reason for this.  In fact when George registered for the draft during World War II in 1942, he listed Benjamin as someone who would always know his address rather than his wife or in-laws, who he lived with.

Although my grandfather would tell me in later years that his life during the Great Depression was “too depressing” to talk about, it certainly was a full life.

In recognition of those who have served our country in the military, Heather Wilkinson Rojo of the Nutfield Genealogy blog started the Honor Roll Project.  It’s an opportunity to publicly document the names on military memorials around the world, thus making them easily searchable on the internet for people who are looking for them!

This post is about a plaque that most likely used to be at Norwalk’s old police department building.  It is now at the Colony Grill, a local pizza place in town which has a wall behind the bar with paraphernalia from Norwalk’s first responders.  When I saw the plaque, I had to ask the bartender the story behind it and the other items on the wall.  I was told that Colony also has a wall like this at their original location in nearby Stamford.  When the Norwalk location was built, Colony asked local first responders to donate any applicable memorabilia.  This plaque was one of those items:

You may notice that a few of these names are also on the World War II section of the Shea-Magrath Memorial that I wrote about here.  I assume that the names that are not on that memorial but are here may not have been Norwalk residents.

Did you ever go down the rabbit hole of an internet search and discover something pretty fascinating?  This is exactly what happened as I stumbled upon what I’m about to write – the fact that Norwalk, Connecticut once had a semi-professional football team!  As I researched this fact, I came across an even deeper story.  

We begin in 1879 or perhaps early 1880.  A young man named John Edward Rooney immigrated from Ireland to the United States.  By June 7, 1880, he was boarding with a family named McDermott at 12 Clark Street in Danbury, Connecticut and working as some kind of finisher.  By around 1890, he married Ann (“Annie”) Lahey from nearby Weston.  They ended up moving to Norwalk and had four children: Francis (Frank), Edna, John Edward (Johnny), and Frederick (Fred).  John supported the family as a hatter at various companies; Norwalk had been prominent in the hat-making industry.

By 1902, the Rooney family settled on West Cedar Street, near Ivy Place in Norwalk.  Sometime after 1910, daughter Edna ended up marrying James Sutton, and the boys still lived at home, eventually taking jobs in a shoe company (Frank), Southern New England Telephone (Johnny), and at a submarine yard (Fred).

On January 25, 1916, tragedy struck the family:  John came home from work sick and ended up dying that night.  I suppose the sons then supported the family, at least until World War I broke out.  Frank ended up serving in the 265th Aero Squadron, and Johnny joined the Navy.  In fact, you can even see their names on Norwalk’s World War I memorial here.

But now our story starts to follow Johnny.  He continued to work at SNET and displayed his athletic abilities at company picnics.  After 1918 more of his spare time was taken up by Norwalk’s new football team, the Norwalk Tigers, which played at the Baxter Grounds in the Rowayton section of Norwalk, I believe where the amusement park used to be.  Johnny quickly became a star player for the Tigers, playing the right halfback, left halfback and left tackle positions at different times.  The Norwalk Hour wrote: “He is the fastest runner on the Tiger team and one of the greatest runners in the game in this part of the state.  His brilliant running is mainly responsible for the large crowds that come weekly to witness the Tigers play.”  The Tigers, dressed in orange and black (of course!), went on to win many games, thanks to Johnny scoring many touchdowns.  Brother Fred also joined the Tiger team in 1921, playing right halfback when Johnny wasn’t.  

In 1922 love had entered Johnny’s life.  He married Helen Frances Cuneo at St. Joseph’s Church on South Main Street on September 11.  I don’t know how they met; perhaps Helen saw Johnny at one of the Tiger games?  In any case, they settled into a home of their own on West Cedar Street, but later moved to 119 South Main Street probably around the time their son Robert Francis was born in December 1923.

The Norwalk Tigers football team disbanded around this time, but a new semi-pro team, the “All-Norwalk” team was formed in early September 1925.  Coached by William H. Brennan, a former Villanova University star, the team would play at the Baxter grounds. The Norwalk Hour described their “natty uniforms” as “brown jerseys, with white rings on the cuffs and brown stockings with white rings on the calf”.  The lineup included players from all around the Norwalk area.  Of course Johnny was one of the bigger names that joined this team !

On October 11 right after the start of the game against College Point, Johnny was tackled and his right arm was “pinned under him in such a manner that it snapped.”  He was rushed to the hospital to have it set.  This was certainly the end of the season for Johnny, but he seemed to try to keep going.  Just five days later, he went to Dr. Robert M. Wolfe with a fever and some stiffness.  Dr. Wolfe gave Johnny an anti-toxin shot and ordered him to go home to bed.  Instead, Johnny went to the Norwalk High School – Greenwich High School game with some friends.  Perhaps he felt that getting out would be good for him, but he went home feeling more stiff.  

It ended up being lockjaw, otherwise known as tetanus.  Johnny got worse and worse as he was tended by Dr. Wolfe until he died at home at 4:30 the morning of October 18.  He was only 28 years old.  News must have spread quickly, for the All-Norwalk team paid tribute to him prior to their game that day against All-New Britain at New Britain’s Willow Brook Park.  With Fritz Kennett playing Johnny’s old position, All-Norwalk lost the game, 0-7.  The team must have been feeling Johnny’s absence as a friend and as a player.

Johnny’s funeral was held on October 21, starting at home, then with a mass at St. Joseph’s church.  His wife, son, mother and siblings were surrounded by his many friends from the All-Norwalk Team, All-Stamford Team, Springwood Football Club, a delegation from the Knights of Columbus, the Veterans of Foreign Wars No. 603, and co-workers from Southern New England Telephone.  Johnny was laid to rest in the family plot at Saint Mary’s Cemetery, while across town, the flag on Norwalk Green flew at half mast in honor of this veteran.

Although their hearts were probably devastated from the loss of their teammate and friend, the All-Norwalk team found a good way to deal with it:  they were going to donate the proceeds of their October 25 game with All-New Haven to Helen.  Unfortunately, that game got rained out, so the November 1 game against All-Stratford would be the benefit.  Helen later thanked them for the “hearty response” at this game.  By December 8, $1,502.33 was given to Helen to help her out – that’s worth over $25,000 today!

Unfortunately, the All-Norwalk Football Team only lasted another month.  They played their last game on November 22, 1925 and were disbanded due to “insufficient support”.  It seems that the other teams in their league eventually had the same fate, with the exception of the Hartford Blues, which became an NFL team in 1926, its only NFL season.

After a few years of having Johnny’s mother Ann living with her and little Robert, Helen sold the house on South Main Street in November 1929.  She and Robert ended up living with her sister Edith at 8 Concord Street, and Helen became a working woman as an office manager and bookkeeper.  In fact, she was one of three incorporators of the Fred W. Connolly Co. in 1930.  Perhaps some of her savings enabled her to do this?

In any case, Helen’s relationship with Fred Connolly slowly evolved from business to love:  they were married on June 28, 1942.  It was probably around this time that Robert, now “Bob”, graduated from Norwalk High School.  His high school yearbook entry indicates that he was thriving:  voted “best looking”, President of the Student Council, and involved in sports:  intra-mural basketball…and quarterback of the football team.  I couldn’t help but wonder if Helen must have held her breath each time her son took the field.  But Bob survived and lived until 2019.

As 2023 comes to a close, so does my year of #12Ancestors, the monthly version of #52Ancestors.  This month, I was compelled to choose the theme of “Cousins”, and in that vein I am dedicating this particular post to the memory of my third cousin, Ronald Scott Colomy, who just passed away this month.

Ron was special to me for several reasons.  First of all, he and his wife (who, like other still-living cousins,  I’m not naming for privacy reasons) were online friends with my aunt who passed away in 2010; yes, the same aunt whose death launched my genealogical journey.  When they learned of her death, Ron and his wife reached out to me to extend their condolences, and very quickly a friendship of my own was formed.  Both of us were passionate about researching our ancestors!

After a few years of corresponding, I finally got to meet Ron and his wife as they passed through my town as part of a genealogical road trip.  The connection was unmistakable, as these descendants of Bertha and Edwin Colomy met for the first time!  Since then, we’ve been sharing our finds, our theories, and our mutual frustration in trying to figure out George W. Colomy!  My friendship with Ron and his wife also led to “meeting” more of the cousins online in our cousin Facebook group and forming a few more friendships.  

And speaking of Facebook, I’ve been fortunate to connect there with other cousins I’ve come across through this blog, #genchat and even FindaGrave!  The FindaGrave connection was a rare one:  a second cousin on my mother’s Polish side, who just happened to live in New York City at the time, just an hour away from me.  Prior to her moving away, we’d met up a few times, including trips to the Family History Center in New York City and to Ellis Island!  

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention another special cousin who I actually met through SmartMatches on MyHeritage.  This was my New Zealand cousin who was descended from Edgar Douglas White and the keeper of some White correspondence.  He was the one who alerted me to the fact that Jennie and Edgar had a brother named Joseph, who I wrote about here.  I was actually able to meet him and his wife in 2015 as they passed through New York City on their own genealogical road trip.  It was another magical meeting of connection against the setting of New York at Christmas time!

I could go on and on about the distant cousins I’ve met in-person and on-line, but I think you get the drift.  I’m calling them a genealogy bonus, because they’re what you get as you’re searching for your ancestors.  I’m so fortunate to call so many of my cousins friends as well!

For this month’s #12Ancestors theme, I’ve chosen “War and Peace”.  I’ve had a number of military ancestors, but my most recent military discovery is my eighth great-grandfather, Simon Pleau dit LaFleur, the first Pleau in North America who experienced both war and peace.

Of course, I didn’t just discover Simon; I knew he was part of my lineage (mentioned here).  But as I’ve been digging deeper into my French-Canadian ancestry, I discovered that he was likely a soldier in the Carignan-Salières regiment, a key part in Quebec’s history.

Born about 1641 in Chatillon-sur-Loir, Loiret, France, Simon volunteered to enlist for three years, starting about 1664.  King Louis XIV arranged to have a number of soldiers go to New France to assist the residents there in their difficulties with the native Iroquois.  Simon somehow made his way to La Rochelle to board the ship Le Brézé on April 15, 1664 as a member of the Berthier company.  He seems to be listed among the original role of soldiers as “LaFleur”, his “dit” name.

Before landing in Quebec City on June 30 1665, Le Brézé departed Guadaloupe on April 15 and St. Domingue (in modern-day Haiti) on May 25.  What difference in weather that Simon must have experienced!

The following is a very abbreviated account of the action that the Carignan-Salières regiment saw.  For more detailed information, see this Wikipedia article and in other resources.

The regiment spent some time building fortifications along the Richelieu River and strategizing.  Peace talks were attempted but all five of the Iroquois tribes did not agree to them.  In January 1666, five hundred the regiment planned to launch an attack on the Mohawks, but this was a mistake.  The soldiers ended up getting lost and attracting the attention of not only the Mohawks who they fought, but English settlers who didn’t take to kindly to seeing the French in their territory.  They eventually found their way back to Quebec, but the winter conditions took the lives of additional soldiers.  Fortunately, Simon was not one of them.

A second campaign was launched in October of that year; however, it turned out that the Mohawks decided to abandon their villages, which the French ended up burning down.  A sad turn of events for the Mohawks, but they did agree to peace talks in the following summer.  It was a peace that lasted nearly twenty years.

And now back to Simon…

Whether Simon was involved in any of these campaigns, I do not know.  However, he and others were given an amazing opportunity, offered by King Louis XIV.  Wanting to increase the French population in Quebec, the king offered any soldier who wished to stay “a seigneurie, a year’s worth of provisions and [a sum of money]. . . the king also granted a piece of land, a year’s provisions and the equivalent of a year’s salary.”  

How could Simon refuse such a good deal?  He and a number of other soldiers then settled in what became Neuville.  I suppose he worked the land that was given him and established himself well in the community.  On November 28, 1680, 39-year-old Simon married 15-year-old Jeanne Constantineau at the relatively new church, Saint Francois de Sales.  Over the next twenty-five years, they may have had about twelve children.

Simon passed away on October 1, 1711 and was buried on October 9 in Sainte-Famille Cemetery in Cap Sante, a short distance from Neuville.  

In recognition of those who have served our country in the military, Heather Wilkinson Rojo of the Nutfield Genealogy blog started the Honor Roll Project.  It’s an opportunity to publicly document the names on military memorials around the world, thus making them easily searchable on the internet for people who are looking for them!

This is the final post regarding the Shea-Magrath Memorial at Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk, CT.  You can read the previous posts here, here, here, and here.  Today’s panel is for the Global War on Terror.

Global War on Terror

SPC Wilfredo Perez, Jr. ~ 2003 Iraq

SPC David R. Fahey, Jr. ~ 2011 Afghanistan

Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy
forget in time that men have died to win them.

– Franklin D. Roosevelt

I’ve been blogging for over nine years now, so I’ve written about many of my ancestors and their families.  There is still a lot to learn about all of them!  However, I find myself being called back to certain people in my research.  

One is my great-grandmother, Bertha (Colomy)(French)(Spratt) Pleau.  I think I inherited some of that curiosity from my aunt, who was the one who found out about Bertha running away with Percy St. Clair.  Like my aunt, each time I learn something about Bertha, I’m a little more fascinated with her.  I’ve learned about her life-long love of the piano and about her early church life.  I’ve learned new details about each of her husbands, which indicated to me what kind of life she may have lived with each of them.

Which leads me to her last husband, George Edmund Pleau (my great-grandfather) and his entire family.  When I first started my research, they were a complete mystery.  Thanks to the newspapers on the Fulton History site and later other newspapers, I’ve pieced together the pieces of the lives and careers of George and his brothers and sisters.  The Pleaus introduced me to the joys of French-Canadian research and expanding that previously unknown branch into the largest file folder on my computer.

Even besides Bertha, the Colomy family has continually haunted me.  One of my Colomy cousins started a private Facebook group for the extended family, and those of us who have looked into the family history are still hung up on our progenitor, George W. Colomy (who we strongly believe changed his last name to Chesley).  There have been some vague DNA hints about him, and we recently received an exciting hint behind the name change.  These things still need further research, though.

For me, George’s son (and Bertha’s father) Frank is an interesting and somewhat mysterious character.  He appeared to have benevolence in him, as witnessed in some of his work with the masons; simultaneously he seemed to be clueless when it came to being there for his family.

Most recently I’ve been “haunted” by the Valeks of my maternal line.  I think looking at all those photos with my aunt really brought them to life for me and gave me enough clues to dig a little deeper into their stories.  Finding further surname variations has been a godsend there, as well as finally finding the ships that they arrived in the US on.

As much as I turn my focus on my own family, the infamous Percy St. Clair keeps calling me to research him too.  I’ve only put so much effort with him; however, everything I’ve found has pointed to the fact that he remained a scoundrel wherever he went!

Just when I thought that the story of my third great-aunt Fanny (White) (Burns) Ives and her daughter Elsie (Burns) (McNichol) Younie couldn’t get any sadder, I found yet another tragedy in Elsie’s life.

When I found the newspaper article describing the granting of divorce to my great-grandmother Bertha from Frederick French, I set it aside until I received the court paperwork from the judicial archivist.  I reviewed that paperwork, as well as the original article, dated June 30, 1910.  

Bertha’s divorce was the second of two listed in that article; the first read as follows:

“In the jury waived session of the Superior Civil court, before Judge Bell this morning, the following uncontested divorces were heard:  Elsie McNichol vs. James L. McNichol, married in 1903 at Lynn and lived in Lynn and Swampscott.  He struck her and choked her.  He has been arrested for drunkenness and assault.  Decree for cruel and abusive treatment, with right to resume her maiden name.”

Elsie McNichol…that name sounded familiar!  Then I realized that this was Bertha’s first cousin Elsie!  Poor Elsie, no wonder why she and James were divorced and why I’d found her alone in the 1910 Census with her mother and stepfather.  

I looked back at the timeline of Elsie’s life and found that her divorce from James occurred just under four months from her subsequent marriage to William Younie and just under nine months (yes, you read that right) from the seeming stillbirth of their unnamed baby girl.  Of course Elsie went on to have two more living children, only to have her own life cut short under seven years later.