Wedding Wednesday - Unravelling the Darts

Green Bay Press-Gazette

So, I posted my Sunday's obituary about Frank Dart and explained that I like to use my blog to do research so I can fit all these people into my family tree.  Simply transcribing a clipping does force you to look at it a little more closely.  You might get some new search ideas that just hadn't occurred to you before. So I decided that I was going to go through my great big scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and get to work on my Darts.  We'll see how that goes as time goes by.

"Dart-Rollin [hand-dated Sept 1, 1956]

Miss Beatrice Dart, daughter of the Henry Balzas, 1103 Smith St., and Raphael Rollin, son of the Joseph Rollins, New Franken, Rt. 1, were married at 11 o'clock Monday morning in SS. Peter and Paul Church.  Luncheon followed at the Rollin home, with supper at the Rendezvous, Luxemburg.  The newlyweds are en route to Canada, and will be at home at New Franken, Rt. 1.  Mrs. Rollin is a graduate of East High School and is employed at Bellin Memorial Hospital.  Her husband, a barber, is employed by Steve Zacharek.

The bridal gown of lace and nylon tulle was fashioned with a fitted bodice, the scoop neckline edged with a net scroll, and long sleeves.  The bouffant skirt of net and lace was worn over ruffles from the waist to hemline.  A demi-cap of sequins held her French silk illusion veil.  Mr. Balza gave his stepdaughter in marriage.

Mrs. LeRoy Rollin, sister-in-law of the bridegroom, was the matron of honor.  Her gown of cotillion blue was fashioned with a snug lace bodice and wide cummerbund.  The ruffled skirt was worn over antique taffeta.  A queen's coronet of velvet matched the gown, which was worn with a lace bolero.  In identical shrimp colored gowns were the bridal aides, Mrs. Maynard Dupont, sister and [sic] the bride, and Miss Jo Ann Heim, the bridegroom's cousin. Carol Bertrand, the bridegroom's godchild, was the miniature bride and wore a copy of the bride's dress.  Steven Dupont, nephew of the bride, was the ring bearer.

The bridegroom's brother, LeRoy Rollin, was the best man.  Other attendants were Maynard Dupont and John Dart, the bride's brother.  Hymns offered during the ceremony were 'Ave Maria' and 'On This Day O Beautiful Mother.'

The Mmes. Henry Balza, Maynard Dupont, Robert Johnson and Miss Louise Dart were co-hostesses at a linen shower at the Eagle's clubrooms Aug. 9.  Mrs. Dupont, Mrs. Joseph Rollin and Mrs. LeRoy Rollin gave a coin shower for the young couple at Rainbow Gardens, Humboldt."

So I jumped over to Ancestry.com (I have a full subscription so I better use it!) and I conducted a search for Beatrice Rollin and I looked for the results for death and burial information.  There was a hit for the SSDI, for Green Bay, Wisconsin (I don't know where in Wisconsin this clipping was taken from, but many of my husband's family ended up in Green Bay so this was a possibility).  I needed something more and luckily there was a hit in the U.S. Obituary Collection as well.  It was a scant 2 lines saying that funeral arrangements were pending, but I recognized the funeral home and knew they had a great website.  Beatrice died on November 5, 2009, but Proko-Wall does a great job keeping up obituaries.  I typed "Rollin" into their search box, and there she was.

Her obituary filled in a lot of gaps that the wedding announcement had.  Her father's name wasn't even mentioned in the wedding announcement (Divorce? Death?  I don't know yet).  Now I know her father was Harvey Dart and her mother's maiden name was Lorraine Laurent.  Laurent is another name in my family tree.  Also, I can guess from her obituary that the news clipping I have here was published in the Green Bay Press-Gazette because it states that she was married in Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Green Bay (incidentally our family church).  If this actual clipping wasn't from the Press-Gazette, I'll bet that a similar copy ran in it!  Also, the date that was written on the clipping wasn't the date of publication..it was the date of the marriage (as mentioned in the obituary).

Harvey Dart is in my family tree.  Beatrice and Lorraine are not.  The Harvey in my tree was born around 1912 and died around 1948.  Beatrice (according to her obit) was born on October 18, 1936. My Harvey would fit and maybe even seems likely, but I have no proof yet.

The results of my searching online tonight didn't give me any concrete proof that Beatrice is the daughter of my Harvey Dart so I can't put her in my tree yet, but I will be researching more when I get to Wisconsin in June!  What I need to find is when Harvey Dart died and grab his obituary.  I couldn't find the obit on Ancestry, but do you know what I could find?  A bunch of unsourced family trees that list my Harvey Dart's death date as January 5, 1949.  I don't have to copy information from their Ancestry trees, but I can use them as leads and head to the library to pull the obits for that date. Who knows, maybe it will give me the pieces I need to add this Dart to my tree.