The Vanderways

I spent a lot of time today working on information found on Find A Grave about several of  Ralph's relatives including his mother, father, grandparents, uncles and two siblings.

A person named Dave H had created most of the memorials and provided a lot of detailed information.

Grandmother Ellen

Today, I purchased her death certificate from Cook County Genealogy Online. I then cited it as a source for birth, death, burial, cemetery, occupation, and residence.

Note that her middle name on the certificate is Jean. On  her Social Security card, it is Jane. There is no middle name on her birth record.

The certificate states she had resided at the Fullerton Convalescent Home for two years and four months. Since she died on May 3, 1956, she must have moved there in January 1954. I remember visiting her there once.

I did not attend her funeral. When I asked my father why, he said he wanted me to remember her as she was.  I don't know if he attended. I will discuss this with cousin Judy. I suspect there was a reason.

Uncle Gene ordered a certified copy of his mother's birth record in 1984 from the Iosco County Clerk. It is a delayed birth record. She was born September 23, 1884. It was recorded July 7, 1885. Her father's name is listed as Willson Wilson.

The Wilson Family Bible

In  2015, I created a Wilson Family Bible document, in PDF  format. When Mike and I were in Manistee during August 2006, I took pictures of  four pages of the Wilson Family Bible:Holy Matrimony, Births, Marriages, and Deaths.

I created an index from the information on those pages. I found two errors.

1. The year for Pansy's wedding (second time) to Stolte was off by a year. 
2. It stated my grandmother Ellen had married on June 27. Cook County records show a marriage license dated 5 April 1913 for Ellen Wilson and Arthur Grenier. The bible did not list a year, but the entry was between marriages that took place in 1910 and 1915.

Daughter Florence was born on May 12, 1913. Evidently, the marriage was not planned.

Since my father was born in 1906, the 1913 Cook County information led son Jeff to ask me, "did you know your father was illegitimate?" I certainly did not. The family bible entry supports this belief.

My father's birth is listed as Bertie McCall September 11, 1906. I have a tape recording of my uncle Gene Grenier discussing the family bible, with his uncle Milton Wilson, during a visit in 1984.  When he came to the name Bertie McCall, he asked Milton, "Who is this?"  Milton answered, "Herb." This further supports the belief that Arthur Grenier was not his father.

My mother's birth

When mother applied for her Social Security card in 1936, she stated her name was Harriet Anne Kobusch and she was born in Bloomingdale, Illinois on December 1, 1916.

When she applied for a U.S. Passport in 1976, she did not have a birth certificate. I remember her saying the courthouse burned down and all records were lost. Today, I unsuccessfully tried to verify her claim. It is not true. Neither Cook County nor Du Page County has a record of her birth. Probably, she was born at home on the Kobusch farm in Bloomingdale and the birth was not registered.

To prove her birth, she obtained information about her baptism from St. Gregory the Great. It stated her middle name as Anna and her birth date as December 1, 1915 and baptism date as February 27, 1916.  Anna would make sense since Anna Flies Junius was her grandmother.

Her Social Security card states Harriet Anne Grenier, but her passports state Harriet Anna Grenier.