Wedding Wednesday - Waiting for the 1940 Census...

Green Bay Press-Gazette

Today I will continue looking into the news clippings I have for the Dart line of my husband's family.  The next clipping I came across in the scrapbook was for the wedding of Rita Dart.

"Rita Dart Is Tonet Bride

Special to Press-Gazette

TONET, Wis. - Miss Rita Dart was married to Leonard Delveaux in a ceremony performed here Thursday at St. Martin's church by the Rev. L. A. Dobblesteen.  The bridegroom is the son of Mrs. George Bertrand.

The bride wore a dress of velvaray on mousse line de soie, long sleeves and puffed shoulders, and her long lace-edged veil was caught in a tiara of orange blossoms.  She carried a bouquet of briar cliff roses, fever few, calla lilies, and pink carnations.

Attending her as maid of honor was Miss Annabelle Willames, and Virgie Johnson and Bertha Dart were bridesmaids.  Robert Johnson was best man, and Clifford Dart and Roy Rogers the other attendants.

Wedding dinner and supper were served at the home of the bride's parents with about 30 guests present, and a dance was held in the evening.  The couple will live at the home of the bride's parents."

Wow...the bride's parents aren't even mentioned.  Not at all helpful.  At least they mentioned the husband's parents!  Sheesh!  And Rita is not in my tree, so here we go again...

So the clipping came from the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Unfortunately, this is one of many that does not have a date on it.  I can't really guess her age either, and as I did an Ancestry search there were really no good matches for Rita Dart or Rita Delveaux.  That's a bummer.  Maybe a relative will visit my blog and make this easy on me.

So I decided to conduct a search on one of the bridesmaids (possibly a sister), Bertha, to see what I'd turn up.  I do have a Bertha Dart in my tree.  A daughter to Wilbert and Alice Dart nee.....(wait for it)...Delveaux!  Keep it in the family...and as sad as that sounds, it really wasn't too far from the truth with our grandparents and those before them.  You married someone local.  Still, it's not proof and that's what I'm after.

Bertha was found with her parents in the 1930 U.S. Federal Census living in Luxemburg, Kewaunee, Wisconsin (Tonet is also in Kewaunee).  Bertha was only 5 years old and there are no other children, so if Clifford and Rita are also children of Wilbert and Alice I will most likely find out when the 1940 census is released.

Looking for the husband for links...there is a death registered in the Wisconsin Death Index, 1959-1997 for Leonard D. Delveaux.  He was born around 1923 and died in Green Bay on 24OCT1976.  Looking deeper the SSDI has his birth as 22JUN1923 (not primary sources, but still...and to be sure I will be checking for his obituary when I go home).  In the 1930 US Federal Census there is a Leonard Delveaux living in Door County, Wisconsin.  The son of Annie and Elmer Delveaux.  Well, considering the clipping states merely that Leonard Delveaux is the son of Mrs. George Bertrand, that's no help either.  I wonder if Elmer Delveaux died young or if they were divorced.  Either way, the groom's mother's surname is different than his, so she most likely remarried.

And since my other searches to locate Rita and Leonard were rather disappointing, it looks like I'll be waiting for the 1940 census...and waiting...still waiting...at least it's not too much longer....


UPDATE:  While I haven't found (OK, I haven't looked) Rita in the 1940 census yet, I did come across the obituary for Alice Dart nee Delveaux and they only had one child that survived and it was the above mentioned, Bertha.  So is this the same Bertha and she was a cousin?  Who knows, but I'm still looking!

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."

21COFH - Processing Photos & Files

Reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

This week's assignment from Michelle Goodrum (Turning of Generations) for the 21st Century Organized Family Historian is Process Photos & Files.  The instructions:

-Transfer the photos to your computer or wherever you store them.
-Use the scheme you decided on from last week.
-Use tags and metadata if doing so.
-Adjust/process photos as needed (and time allows)
-Back up your work!

What a great idea this it is too!  I have tons of photos from the holidays (and Halloween, and the first day of school, and the summer, and....) that need to be transferred over to my computer, but more than that...

I have a system (when I use it, and I really need to get on it), where I get the pictures to my computer, name them, make any adjustments to the photos, delete ones that just don't make the cut, and then I get them off my computer.  That's a habit my husband started me on.  I take so many pictures, I can fill a hard drive in no time!  So I upload the named and corrected pictures to Shutterfly (cloud storage) and then I transfer them to the backup drive in our home.  I'm trying to only keep pictures on my actual laptop that I'm currently using (this does include all genealogy related photos).

I was able to get 3 sets of photos named, tagged, and uploaded...our Cub Scout Pack marching in the Veterans Day Parade, Our Pack's Christmas Caroling and Christmas Eve.  I kept my tags simple.  Just a name of who is in the picture, the date if known, and event.  I have a Mac so I can actually type in a location a tag it on a map (very cool).


Now I just need to keep up with it!

I'm motivated to continue.  Not difficult to do (although it can be time consuming).  Just pop in a movie or listen to music and organize files!  Great idea, Michelle!

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.

Tombstone Tuesday - And the Tombstones are Slowly Eaten by the Ground

I've seen pictures of graveyards with tombstones leaning to and fro.  They actually have a unique beauty too them, but as those tombstones lean they are coming closer to the end of their lives.  I have a few tombstones like that in my family.  You can still read the stones very well....at least for the part that is still above ground.

I come from a coal mining town.  I don't know if these graves start to sink because of the labyrinth of mines beneath the city (that's actually a fairly disturbing thought after living there for 20+ years) or if it's just soft soil and lots of rain over the years.  Either way, it's happening and it's hindering some of my research.

As you can see the tombstone for my 3rd great grandparents, Edward and Susan Lee nee Phillips, is sinking and leaning (well maybe you can't tell that it's leaning but take my word for it).  As a result I can see Edward's information just fine (1820 - 1904), but Susan is not so easy to read (1821 - 188?)  It looks like it's 1882, but I can't be sure.  I have quite literally danced on my ancestors' tombstone here trying to trample down the earth far enough to see her death date.  My funny little Irish jig did nothing for my research, but it did tick off a small ant hill that was there (that was not a good experience).  I suppose I could have dug away a bit of the earth to check, and maybe I will do that this year, but I try not to make a habit of walking into graveyards with a shovel.  You tend to get strange looks....

So I suppose what I really need to do is to contact the church and ask what the burial date is for Susan.  They don't always have it and I may only be able to find out when the plot was purchased, but I suppose this is my next step.  Unfortunately for Susan she was a woman that died in the 1880s and the chances of me finding on obituary for her are somewhere between slim and none.  I'm hopeful only because her husband's death 20ish years later (if memory serves me correctly, because my filing system right now isn't) actually was front page news and his obituary called him one of the town's most highly respected citizens.

Edward and Susan are two of my brick walls, but I'll keep chipping away at them and hopefully find out more about them and their journey.

Sunday's Obituary - Blogging Gets My Butt in Gear

Green Bay Press-Gazette (abt 1951)

I've said it before and I'll say it again, my blog gets me into my research.  We blog to connect with other genealogists, but we also blog to get the names of our families out there in hopes of making connections, and I know that I blog to get my work done.

Think about it, I'm dedicated to my genealogy research but everything ends up getting in the way.  Life just has a tendency to do that.  When I started my blog a little over a year ago, I told myself that I wasn't going to give it up.  I didn't know what I was doing, but I was going to post and I was going to post regularly.

Even if I only transcribe an obituary, I'm looking at it and making sure it's in my tree and citing it.  I've got tons of obituaries that haven't made their way into my tree so this is a good thing, but I've been trying (when the kids aren't saying, "Mommy, mommy, mom, mom, ma..." every 2 seconds) to do more then just transcribe.  I'm trying to see if there's anything new that I can find online while I'm doing it.  Sure not everything is online, but not looking doesn't help, and when I conduct this research I can always put into my Research Log what I need to do offline.  Research and planning at the same time.  Sweet!

So this is what I'm tackling this evening as I watch the playoffs...

"Long Illness Fatal To Frank Dart, 49

Frank Dart, 49, 1203 Reber street, died in a local hospital early Wednesday evening following a lingering illness.  He had been employed by the Van Drisse Motor company for 28 years, and for the last year by the Checker Yellow Cab company.

Survivors are his wife, the former Mildred Van Caster; two sons, Donald and Cletus, Green Bay; and a daughter, Mrs. Bernard Motquin, Green Bay.  Also surviving him are six grandchildren; his mother, Mrs. Louise Dart, Green Bay; and two brothers, George, Green Bay, and Richard Algoma.  He's father died a year ago, and a brother, Harvey, preceded him in death four years ago.

The body is at the Schauer and Schumacher funeral home, where the rosary will be said at 8 o'clock each evening.  Funeral services will be held at 10 o'clock Saturday morning in the Cathedral.  The Rev. John Gehl will offer the requiem mass and burial will be in Allouez cemetery."

Since this was one of those clippings that I have with no publication information, I had to do a little research on the newspaper.  I confirmed my suspicions (using Google maps) that 1203 Reber Street is in Green Bay, Wisconsin, so I'm fairly certain that the newspaper was The Green Bay Press-Gazette. As for the date of death and birth.  Sadly only an age was given for Frank Dart and no birth. I do have Frank (and his siblings) already in my family tree, but I had no birth.  So here we go...

I searched on Ancestry.com and found a record for his birth on December 1, 1903 (in the Wisconsin Birth and Christenings Index, 1826-1908, FHL Film# 1302886) to John B Dart and Louisa Jadin.  This was a great find since I had no maiden name for his mother and no death date for his father, Jean Baptiste.  Now, I'll at least be able to estimate since the obituary tells us he died a year earlier.  I also didn't have any information on his brother, Harvey's, death so I can estimate that one too.

I actually had no spouse for Frank previously.  Now I do and there is another Van Caster in my family tree already, not Mildred, but it may be a relative.  All the same region!  No proof yet though.  Moving on....

Since I had no spouse for Frank, I had no children.  Now I've been able to add and cite them.  Of course I have no name for his daughter since, at that time, it was acceptable to say nothing more than "Mrs. Bernard Motquin".  An irritant to genealogists everywhere...er...I mean an exciting new puzzle to try to solve!

A quick online search wasn't favorable for finding a name for his daughter, but I have high hopes of finding her, Jean Baptiste, Harvey, and many more people as I get through the hundreds of newspaper clippings that were passed on to me and my blog will help me get there.  I just need to persevere!

[Frank Dart is my husband's 1st cousin twice removed].

21COFH - Develop a Digital Organizational Scheme

This is my first week participating in the 21st Century Organized Family Historian, and I'm getting kind of a late start at it, but I wanted to get this post up.  Michelle Goodrum's (Turning of Generations) assignment for this week is to choose one or more of the following tasks:

-Have an organizational plan for your hard drive

-Develop a naming format for digital files

-Use tags or metadata to find files easier

I've posted before about how I organize my digital photo files and how I organize my genealogy research by surname.  You can read each post by clicking on the links.

I really like my way of organizing my files, but the bottom line is it works for me.  I really haven't had to use tags for files because of the way I sort them, but I do need to start using them regularly for photos. Even though I like how I organize my photos, because they are done by location, it can be difficult to find pictures of specific events or people unless you use tags or metadata.  Something to shoot for, I suppose.  Baby-steps though.

I'm still kind of in the process of transferring all my data from my old PC to my Mac, and I have noticed that things do appear differently on my Mac.  Not sure if I like it or not, but I suppose that it's just because I'm not completely used to it yet.  Only time will tell whether I change my system with a new computer, but I don't think I'll need to.

I have made one revision as far as my post on sorting by surname.  Nothing major.  I had previously placed a research log in each surname so I could just add information I needed that was relevant to that surname only.  I still really like this idea, but it's not practical for me.  I want to save paper and I don't want to be printing out a sheet for each of the many surnames I have.  When I research, I tend to be researching on a bunch of surnames at once.  So what to do?  I'm tempted to leave the logs in each surname folder and just update them from a master research log that I take with me when heading out to conduct research.  Hmmm.  I've got to think on that a bit more and see what works best.

Are you going to get better organized in 2012?