Military Monday - A Familiar Name, but Missing from my Tree

Probably from the Green Bay Press-Gazette

Eli Laurent.

I know, I know...I said that I was going to spend time tracking down the Darts in my family tree, but as I  looked through old clippings for Military Monday, I saw this clipping for Eli Laurent and decided to use it.  It was the military photo and the death announcement stating that he died of a heart attack.  I wanted to know if this was an older photo and he died of a heart attack or if he was actually that young.  Then I checked my family tree.  He's not in there.

This has happened to me before and more frequently than I'd like to admit.  So it's time to do some research and analysis.

The clipping is from a scrapbook passed on to me by my husband's family.  It was put together by his grandmother Laura Cayemberg nee Laurent and some of the clippings may have actually been clipped by her mother, Mary Laurent nee Dart, or her mother-in-law, Florence Cayemberg nee Villers.  It doesn't really matter which though because many of the names are repeated through both lines.

The clipping is hand-dated.  Not all are.  Apparently, the person that did the clipping wanted to remember the date.  The date should be the date of death and not the publication.  I have yet to find a clipping with the publication date on it.  To us, it's important to make a citation, but to them, the important date was the date the event occurred.  Of course I have to verify the date, but now I can go to a newspaper with it in hand.

Not sure of the newspaper that it was published in, but I do know that the Malcore Funeral Home is in Green Bay, Wisconsin and that my husband's grandmother was most likely living in Green Bay by this time so the newspaper should be local.

I found a WWII Army Enlistment Record on Ancestry.com for Eli F Laurent.  He enlisted in Milwaukee, but was from Brown county.  He is also the only Eli Laurent found for WWII or the Korean War (I may be a vet, but I'm no expert on historical uniforms so I could only narrow it down to those two wars/conflicts).  Just because another wasn't found doesn't guarantee my search didn't miss something.  Interestingly enough the record states that Eli was divorced and had no dependents.  Again, might not be mine, but if it is I'll want that information in the tree.

In the 1930 census, I found 2 Eli Laurents in Brown County.  One was born around 1901 and lived in the Desire Laurent household.  The other was born around 1902 and was a border in the Ervin Bohn household.  Both would be old enough to fight in WWII when it began.

I did find an Eli F. Laurent in a Public Member Tree with the death date of 29MAY1959, but that doesn't mean that their conclusion in putting Eli in their tree was right.  Additionally, they had no parents for Eli, so I couldn't see if they believed his parents to be Desire Laurent.  They also had no citations (shocker, I know).

I spent some time looking through the rest of my clippings and while I didn't a find full obituary for Eli Laurent I did find an Eli Laurent in the obituaries for Clement (1957) and Ernest (1948), listed as a brother. It's not proof, but if it turns out that it is my Eli, then he would be the child of Desire and Rose Laurent (as seen in the US census records, misspelled in various ways).

It doesn't look like I'm going to find the solution to where Eli fits in my tree tonight.  Another, not completely successful story, but I have added the information I do know about Eli into my research calendar and when I get back to Green Bay in June, I'll be tracking down those leads.  At least I've done some research for the trip!

"Funeral Services [hand-written May 29, 1959]


Eli Laurent - Funeral services were held this morning at Malcore Funeral Home witht he Rev. Peter J. Skell in charge  Burial was in Fort Howard Cemetery.  Malcore Funeral Home handled arrangements.  Mr. Laurent died Friday afternoon at his home, apparently of a heart attack."