Bam! Bam! Bam!

That's the sound of my head hitting the wall.  Good grief!  Sloppy research drives me crazy!

You listed the baby as born and dying in 1934 yet your document is for a female with the same name who died in 1997.  If you would have looked you would see that the name on your document is her married name and she is much older than an infant.  Am I going to email you and let you know about your mistake?  Nope.  At least three family trees have followed your example.  If I can find the correct documentation, you can too!

SMH

As I scanned looking for the last part of an article that was continued on page 3 of an Oklahoma newspaper I ran across an interesting family.  The family referred to in this post is not related as far as I know and the family lived in Los Angeles. 

A 46 year old man fell in love with a 17 year old girl.  Her parents objected to their relationship.  The man convinced his 18 year old son to marry the 17 year old and the three lived in the same house.  The 17 year old eventually had two children.  Ten years later the 18 year old (now 28) fell in love and wanted out of the marriage.  After the divorce the 46 year old (now 56) and the 17 year old (now 27) married and petitioned to have the birth records of the two children changed to reflect the biological father.  Yes, the 'old' man.  So, the children's grandfather is actually their father.  The father they knew is actually their half-brother.  How's that for confusion!

Btw, don't you like how I did the math for you in this article?  The ages in the parenthesis are the ages at the time of the article which is from 1947.  If you want to know how old they are now, you figure it out.  lol

Sucker-punched!

Sometimes research catches you by surprise.  I read on some public trees that a distant cousin of my husband had a son who died in his 20s.  I was prepared for a car accident or some other accident that a twenty something young man might get himself into. 

Boy, was I ever wrong.

This young man, Alvin Hallum, age 29, was a police officer in training in Dallas, Texas.  Everything I can find on him speaks to a mature, responsible, and many other wonderful qualities of a young man...a man we all want to see as a police officer.

I didn't know this young man when he was alive.  I don't know his family other than what I've found researching to add them all to the family tree. When researching, the people are not just names, they become real to me as I learn about them. I feel like I know him and when I discovered the cause of his death, it took my breath away. 

He was murdered in the line of duty at a gas station.  His partner was wounded.  Alvin was reloading his gun when the assailant charged him and shot him in the head.  DOA at the hospital.  My heart aches for his then young wife and son. 

The assailant tried to make a get-away, but was caught after leading officers in a chase and died in gunfire. 

Triple Funeral

Triple Funeral?  Whenever I find a family with the same death dates I wonder what happened.  Car accident?  Illness?  Murder? 

This time it was drowning.  I don't know how the mother, age 30, and the baby daughter, 8 months, ended up in the irrigation ditch near the baby's uncle's house.  The baby's father screamed for help and his brother came to the family's aid straight from his bed in his underwear even though he couldn't swim.  He jumped in and was swept away along with his sister-in-law and niece.  He left behind a wife and 6 small children.

The uncle was called a hero in the newspaper. 

I assume the daddy/husband couldn't swim either which would explain why he didn't jump in.   The daddy/husband eventually remarried, but it doesn't appear that he had more children.  He had step-children.  I wonder about his state of mind afterwards.  Did he feel guilty the rest of his life?  I think it would be tough to live with the fact that my brother gave his life trying to save my family while I stood on the bank.  However, if you knew you couldn't swim (assumption based on report brother couldn't swim) you probably would feel like you couldn't do them any good other than to try to get help.  It would be a tough situation.

Murder in Kansas

Close your eyes and think about what life would be like in rural Kansas in 1895.  What would it be like to be a young wife with a year old son married to a farmer?  What would you do if something happened to your husband?  What if you were pregnant when your husband was murdered?  

Mary was a young wife in 1895 who lived the above.  All has been confirmed except the pregnancy.  William and Mary had a baby in 1895, but it is unknown if the baby was born and died before William's tragedy or after. 

William was in the field in November when his assailant, Hedy, presumably snuck up on him. After being fired on William took out after Hedy.  Hedy fired a fatal shot to William's face and took off back to Iowa.  Neighbors, including the one who kindly gave Hedy a place to stay the night before, found William in the field.

A reward was offered by the then governor of the State of Kansas for information on the murder.  Eventually Hedy was arrested in Iowa and returned to Kansas for trial.  After 16 hours of deliberation the jury found him guilty after hearing the prosecution and then Hedy's declaration of self-defense as his defense. (I suppose it could be self-defense if you completely ignore the fact that Hedy fired first and William came after him because of that! I'm not a lawyer, but I know what I would tell one of my students if he or she snuck up on someone and hit them and then cried self-defense when the victim retaliated.  Not that it makes it all okay, but if you start something you should be ready to take on the consequences.  jmho)

Hedy committed suicide after the conviction.  I wonder if he couldn't bear the thought of prison or what he had done.  I wonder if he was still with his wife at the time of the murder and if he had any children.  

The murder and trial was mentioned in newspapers as far away as Denver.  Several Kansas newspapers had articles about it, too.  Unfortunately, I could not find out more information on Hedy or William's wife, Mary.  Mary died in the 1950s.  The young son died when he was only 19.  I can't imagine the heartache Mary endured during her lifetime.

Questions

I just don't understand families sometimes. 

Jack, Mildred, and Margaret (the latter two twins) were born in California in the 1920s.  By the 1930s their parents divorced.

Jack is found in Michigan in 1930 with his father and his father's new wife.  In 1940 he is in New Jersey with his father and step-mother.

Mildred is the same as Jack except that she is living with a different family at the age of 6 in Michigan.

Margaret is the same as Jack.

Mama can't be located on the 1920 or later censuses.  It's possible she remarried or that she was deceased after the twins were born.   There is one possibility for her on the 1930 census which has her back in Iowa and with a son born before she married Jack, Mildred and Margaret's father.  That possibility has been proven not to be her. Where is mama?

I am amazed at the traveling the family did when it wasn't quick to get anywhere. Why were the kids living with their father instead of their mother?  Why is Mildred with a different family in 1930?

Elisha, Elisha, Elisha, Elisha, John, John, John, John, John, Rosco, Wedgewood, Claredon, Algernon

After seeing so many Elishas and Johns, all of a sudden some new interesting names start appearing. 
Some are listed above.  More are:
Adoniram
Gad
Fordyce
Sumner
Cyprian
Cyrenia
Bathsheba
Aurelia
Arathusa
Moses
Noah
Persis
Pemmie
Spaulding
Submit
Waneta
Sherman
Ruez
Rosette

Well, not all of the above just showed up 'all of a sudden'...I looked for unusual names after I found about 8 unusual ones in about 20 minutes of research. 

What was your first clue you have a problem?

I've been busy researching the Bisbee line as I think I'll enter it in the state fair.  Maybe.  It's turned out to be more incomplete than I thought.  As I was busily entering and documenting I realized I had two Mary Hall's.  They were two generations apart.  That is not impossible, but not likely.  Then I realized that Abner had two biological mothers.  That's not possible. 

I finally created a spreadsheet to document the family and where the information was coming from.  I looked for primary sources.  I was relieved whenI found a primary source which told me which of the biological mothers was really his biological mother. 

Now to figure out why so many histories and trees listed the other mother and hopefully, figure out why the problem seemed to be about missing generations or people.  It was difficult wrapping my mind around the problem even with the spreadsheet.

Finally, I found a documented family tree.  A researcher in the area where the family lived found where one of the first histories written on the family tree confused one of the John Bisbees.  The misinformation was copied and presented in lots of other family trees.

The information given on the tree satisfies me as being correct.  It fits the research I have done.  All of the trees with the incorrect information has no primary sources to back up their research.

I had to manipulate my data in order to get all of the family members in the wrong generation to the correct generation.  (As I detached them I added 'detached' as their first name so I could easily find them in a search.  Then when they were merged within the proper generation I discarded the 'detached' name.)  I have to admit it caused me great concern to do that much manipulation.  But, it was manipulate it or delete it and reenter it which meant revisiting all of my sources to redocument.  Even though I had several people in the wrong generation, I had other information about the people that was correct and I didn't want to redo that piece.  I believe I have it correct now.  

Whew!

Sloppy Researching

I would think the fact that the family is in a totally different state would be one clue that the information should be double-checked.  People move around a lot, but it still needs to be checked.

I would think the fact that the names don't totally match would be one clue that the information should be double-checked.  The handwriting on the census makes deciphering tough, but it still needs to be checked.

I would think the fact that the race doesn't match would be one clue that the information should be double-checked.  I haven't found any records where the race has been wrong, but it is possible and it still needs to be checked.

Together the three facts above should make you realize the information is WRONG!  Yet, you posted it on your family tree, and dang it, people are just blindly adding it to their tree. 

Jasper Bisbee and Henry Ford

Enjoyed reading this website.  Jasper is a 4th cousin 4x removed of my husband.

http://www.oldtimeherald.org/archive/back_issues/volume-9/9-6/jasper-bisbee.html

Bisbee, Arizona - we are related, but how?

DeWitt Bisbee is related according to a county history.  But the source skips a generation and I'm struggling to fill in the gap.  Argh!

Update: The source skips SEVERAL generations.

Another update: Oh hell, I created a mess!  I worked backward to get to the missing generation and apparently picked up some bad data.  It couldn't be that I got confused, could it?  Damn. 

This puzzle doesn't fit.

How do I explain this?

James married Cora in 1904.  I have a newspaper clipping that says so.  He has three daughters, one born about 1900 named Florence.  The other two were born after 1904 so I think I can safely assume they belong to Cora.  (Oh boy, I don't know if assumptions are good though.  This has been a tricky puzzle.)  The two younger girls are Martha and Christina.  These three girls are mentioned in newspaper articles with their parents, assuming James and Cora.

I found an article about Mrs. James dying in June of 1903.  This must be the first wife, possibly the mother of Florence.  An undocumented family tree has the first wife and mother of Florence as Elizabeth.  No maiden name given.  The deceased wife is the daughter of Mrs. Albert Fahringer.   Another survivor listed is a child a few WEEKS old.  I'm hoping this is a misprint and should read a few YEARS old.  Otherwise, I have more problems to deal with with this puzzle.

So, let's recap here.  James was married twice according to newspaper articles.  Unknown who could be the mother of Florence and who died in 1903.  Cora, the second wife, married him in 1904.

I found an Albert Fahringer in the 1900 census.  Guess who is listed with him as boarders.  JAMES AND CORA!!  Guess who is listed as a granddaughter.  Yep, Florence.  Do you see why my head is spinning?  Cora is listed as a boarder with the same last name as James.  Now, it is entirely possible that James married two Coras and the undocumented family tree has his first wife's name wrong.  Cora is listed as married 1 year and the mother of one child.  She is 19 years old.

The 1910 census has James and Cora listed with their three daughters.  Cora is listed as the mother of 2 and married 6 years.  I'm ready to think that Cora is the name of both wives.


Update:  Just found the first Cora's burial record.  Two Cora's for wives.  Who would have guessed.  :)

Jail at 82 yrs old

 1991

An especially hard headed 82 year old man was placed in jail for non-payment of a floral arrangement he claims he never ordered.  He said he never contacted the florist shop even after getting repeated bills. He never told his family either.

The florist shop claims to have called at least three times asking for payment and was told it would be paid.

Finally the florist shop filed a criminal complaint.  The gentleman ignored the hearing notice so a warrant was issued for his arrest.  He was sent to jail for missing the hearing and bail was set for the amount he owed along with constable costs.  $94.45.

He was an unhappy man when his daughters bailed him out of jail after about 4 hours.  He told the paper he had money and could have bailed himself out, but he didn't owe the money and wanted to prove his innocence.  Besides "it's free board."  His daughters had to convince him to go home.  They told him his 23 year old dog needed him.  That did it. 

What a character! I know those you who know my family will think 'yep, he's related' to her, but, he married into the family.  So there!  He's the husband of a 6th cousin.