Jessie, Carrie, John, and Edna lived into their 90's. We don't have a record of his release date but on August 15, 1938, he took the shotgun from the house and went into the forest and shot himself. In 1930, he had moved to the National Soldiers home in Virginia, into the Mental Patients Unit. We know he was admitted to the National Home for Disabled Soldiers with chronic arthritis in 1928. Tennessee recently released the death records for the years I am looking for and I found Roy's. I guess Roy Hatfield has been on my mind. Uncle Victor and Roy Hatfield with Mossie and Maude Cope, friends of the family. Roy and Maud Conard with Uncle Victor and Aunt Cornie in the background Roy and Maud Conard and various brothers and sisters, crossing the Clinch River. He seemed to be awfully close to Maud Conard but when he came home he married Nola Seals. I suspect these pictures were taken before he was sent overseas. I don't know anything about soldiers being "gassed" in World War I but he was and never really recovered. Roy Hatfield was homesick and ill as well.
On January 1, 1919, she says, "Roy Hatfield say he is homesick." 1919, "Delia has a boy they call him Luke Michael". My great grandmother writes on October 10. One would expect with that many children, life would be busy and it certainly was for Delia. Together they had 10 children, Roy being the oldest. She married Mack Henry Hatfield when she was 16. Mack Henry, Delia, Roy, Jessie, Carrie, George, Sidney and John, around 1905.įidelia Florence Rhea was born on August 11, 1877, in the rural area outside of Sneedville, Tennessee. That how it is with my grandpa's sister, Delia. You find yourself pulled in by their joys and sorrows. Along the way, the missing ancestors stop being just names and become real people again. It's amazing how finding just one leads to another until it is an all consuming task.
So I'm posting a picture of Lydia in hopes the remaining siblings can be found.Īs our family historian, it is my job to track down all the missing ancestors. Some went to foster care, one to an orphanage, and some were left with family. Lydia gave all of these children away and never looked back. The three original children I found have been verified and except for the one who passed away, all the seven known kids have become family and we talk to them all the time.
No one is missing a leg and everyone involved with Lydia lied. Stumpy is a nickname for another of Lydia's men and we found two more children with him. Ramon Montoya is not Mexican and has never been to Mexico. They are very real people.Īnd since this is a really long story, here are the highlights. Ricky and Francie are no longer just a picture. The cousin, Esther, is also shocked when I tell her. They don't know it yet but they have contacted their missing brother. It says "PLEASE CONTACT US LYDIA'S CHILDREN NEED INFORMATION ABOUT THEIR MOTHER I'M THEIR COUSIN" Not holding out much hope, who could possible be on Ancestry looking for the same person? In desperation, I add another line to my tree listing Gary as a Montoya and the mother as Lydia. I finally find a death record for Lydia which appears to be the same person. I find another child who has passed away listing the mother as Lydia Gaulthair. By looking at Ancestry, I find two kids showing their mother as a Lida Gaulthair but have no way to verify it. We do know that Lydia was the first cousin of his mother. I am good at genealogy and have been working on my family for years so I stop what I'm doing and start on his. Gary thinks that's wrong because the little boy looks like him. We know, in fact, Lydia had 13 children but we don't know where to start looking. We know there was another child after Gary who disappeared. She tells him Ramon Montoya was a one-legged Mexican man nicknamed Stumpy, and he took the other two children and fled to Mexico. It's not like we haven't already tried to get information from his mother. Gary asks me to see if I can find his missing parents. That's what my husband did when they told him.įast forward 30 some years. You look at your parents with a blank stare and ask them to repeat what they just said. Imagine you are told that your "real" mother is Lydia Gaulthair and you father is Ramon Montoya.
Imagine at age 13 you are told that you are not the biological child.