The Search for a Father’s Past: Family Secrets

In April, a client contacted me seeking assistance with his family history, particularly regarding his father. This gentleman, in his 80s, had limited information about his father, who passed away when the client was just a teenager.

The client was aware of his father’s life from the time of his marriage to his mother onwards but had no details about his father’s earlier life. He only knew that his father hailed
from Michigan and had briefly stayed in Canada to visit his brother, with little additional information.

I had been stuck for a while but then
stumbled upon newspaper articles detailing minor run-ins with the police. Initially, I thought it was a case of mistaken identity with someone else sharing the same name.

Then, I found his birth record.

It turned out that he was actually born in Canada, not Michigan, which enabled me to locate him in the Canadian census records for 1891, 1902, and 1911. Although he visited his brother in Michigan in 1919, he returned to Canada in 1921.

Further research helped me discover a previous marriage. This was in 1924. Another surprise for my client. The Canadian marriage records from that period were remarkably detailed, even including their street address.
This small town immediately caught my attention, as it matched the address in the census records and was the same neighborhood mentioned in the newspaper article I previously referenced.

In 1921, he was charged in a pedestrian accident, followed by a car theft less than a year later. Subsequently, I lost track of him.
My next step was to investigate the first wife, but I hit a dead end, as they both mysteriously disappeared.

Around four weeks later, I stumbled upon a 1926 newspaper article from a Canadian newspaper that revealed this client’s father’s full name. The article mentioned his arrest in
Tampa, Florida, on suspicion of fraud, and mentioned that he had a wife and child residing in Chicago, Illinois.

While processing this information, I wanted to ensure I was completely certain before approaching my client. I also needed more details. Upon revisiting research on the wife, I discovered her mother was from Chicago and her father from England.

Interestingly, the 1931 Canadian census indicated her father was widowed. Turning back to the US Census records, I found the
wife living in Chicago with her mother and stepfather, which raised some questions.

Further investigation revealed that both Canadian and US census records indicated the wife’s mother was from New Jersey, hinting at a connection. Digging deeper into the wife’s mother’s background, I stumbled
upon her parents’ 1921 Canadian census, where they were listed with two boarders.

Funnily enough, one of the boarders’ names caught my attention – the man her mother was married to in Chicago!

Are you following along so far? But wait, there’s more.

The census records indicated that the wife had two children living with her. It appeared that when he married in 1924, he had a daughter nine months later.

His son was born in Tampa in 1927, fifteen months after their daughter. I surmised from the dates that his wife was about three months pregnant when her husband was arrested in Tampa for the fraud.

In April 1930, his first wife resided in Chicago with her mother and stepfather. Although her marital status is listed as married, her husband is not recorded in the census.

Five years later, in 1935, his first wife and their children had remained in Chicago, residing with her “partner” and his mother. Her marital status is
still listed as married. At the same time, her husband was serving a new prison term in Florida, this time on the opposite coast, for a
period of ten months due to breaking and entering.

He married my client’s mother in 1937, and they had two sons together, staying in the area of his last arrest. Interestingly, in the 1940 US census, his first wife is still listed as married. Sometime following that, but before
1950, she tied the knot with her new partner.

Sadly, by the time I made my discoveries, all three of my client’s siblings had died. His mother died seventeen years before him
hiring me.

This wasn’t the result we anticipated while uncovering the lost years of his father. Family isn’t just about the intriguing tales; it encompasses their complete narrative with all its highs, lows, and imperfections.