Mabel

Lola had a first cousin Mabel. Mabel was the daughter of Zadie. Zadie was Lola's mother, Effie's, sister. Mabel was born in Kansas. Her family then moved back to Zadie's home state of Illinois and then moved to Colorado. I have discovered that a few of Effie's sisters did move to Colorado, as did Effie's parents for a time.

Mabel married Delmer in Illinois and they had a daughter named Mildred. In 1920, they were all in Colorado. In 1930, they were all living in South Gate, California (a suburb of Los Angeles). In my previous post, I mentioned that my on-line research volunteer found what he believed to be Mabel's death in Los Angeles in 1936. This past Friday I made a trip to the LA County Recorder's office to pull the record. He was correct. It was the death of Lola's cousin Mabel. She was 51 years old and died at home. I still have no idea what type of relationship Lola had with Mabel, if any. Mabel was ten years older than Lola and, while they utlimately lived near one another, I still have not been able to make contact with anyone from that side of the family with any insight or information on my grandmother.

Also, in 1930, while living in South Gate, CA, Mildred was now married to Curtis. After this 1930 census, Mildred and Curtis had a daughter, but their marriage didn't last. I'm not sure when they divorced, but I do know that when Curtis died in 1949, he did have a different wife. A few years after Mabel's death, I lose site of Delmer, Mildred and Mildred's daughter in California, and suspect they may have returned to Colorado.

I also pulled the death record of my dad's first cousin, Don. I couldn't even tell you if my dad knew his first cousin lived in California. I can tell you that I didn't know this. Don's death record was very sad. I do know that he was a war veteran (Army) and when his father (Red's brother) died in 1960, Don was living in Arizona. But by the time Don died in 1969, he was living in Long Beach, California. He never married. He was 41 years old and was working as a cook at a restaurant. He died at the VA Hospital. I was so hoping for family in California to reach out to.

I did leave the Recorder's office feeling pretty down and wondering where to go next. At that point, I had reached out to other connections and was still waiting to hear back from them. So, what does one do at that point? One goes back to their tree on Ancestry and searches for Delmer. I found that Delmer came from a HUGE family. He had a brother, Gerald who was married to Mary, and they had a daughter "Lucille". Turns out they lived in South Pasadena, California (another LA suburb) in 1930, and Gerald and Mary both died in South Pas. Yes, new death records to go pull for information. True, the connection is via marriage, but it is a connection, nonetheless.

So, this past week has been busy. For one thing, I changed jobs with a friend/colleague and am now out of my comfort zone and learning some new things. I was also trying to get artwork together for the craft fair at work that I signed up to be a vendor at. I love drawing, painting, printmaking, yet, lately, I have been consumed by genealogy. I went to a fabulous genealogy convention and was so inspired by the speakers and vendors I met, and maybe let my artsy side slip a bit. So, these past few days found me struggling with making PhotoShop do what was in my head. The output isn't quite meeting my expectations. Ugh. Luckily, I have a friend who is extremely good at PhotoShop and he was able to give me a few pointers!

Also, I've been asked to take an out of state business trip. I agreed. Everything seems to be happening all at once, and I'm feeling overwhelmed. I will get past that, but surely am annoyed with myself for yet again, having limited craft fair inventory, still not populating my esty shop with artwork to sell, not being home for the upcoming four day 4th of July holiday weekend. Oh well.