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.