Wednesday, March 12, 2014

A follow-up to "A small family mystery"

Almost exactly a year ago, I blogged about a small family mystery that I had uncovered in the Family Tree. You can read the original blog here, but the gist of the story is that Lester Starnes, a great grand-uncle of mine, married a woman named Mary Payne in Indian Territory Oklahoma in 1909, and a few years later we find their four children listed as "inmates" of  the David and Margaret Home for Children in San Dimas, California, with no trace of what happened to Mary, and just a few hints about Lester's later life.

Last week, someone who blogs (but not recently) under the name "FizzyLizzy" responded to that post with the following:

From the San Bernardino County Sun, 25 May 1918:
"ONTARIO Woman Drops Dead With Her Baby in Her Arms"
THE SUN'S Staff Correspondence ONTARIO, May 24.
"That Mrs. Mary Starnes, wife of Lester Starnes, who dropped dead with an infant in her arms after completing the family washing came to her death of hemorrhage of the brain was the decision tonight, following an autopsy by a physician of the county hospital. Just before the end, Mrs. Starnes called to her husband that it was getting dark. She died before a doctor arrived."

So now we know what happened to Mary!

FizzyLizzy went on to state that "Lester married Eva Barth (nee Greffin) in Orange County, CA in 1921. However, he was single by 1923 when he crossed the border from the U.S. to Canada to join his father. By the time of his registration for the WWI draft in 1918, he had "changed" his birth year to 1876. I think he continues with this false assertion through the remainder of his life. I believe he died in British Columbia."

This fits with the fact that Virgil Starnes and his wife Marien, found and talked to a man in British Columbia that they believed to be Lester  , but was never able to get him to admit kinship.

A few more answers drop into place in regarding this family mystery, and a few more questions pop up. We now know what happened to Mary, and no doubt Lester could not care for for four young children, but he evidently remarried but still didn't come back for the kids. Who is Eva Barth, and what became of her? And the really big question is who is "FizzyLizzy" and what else does she know about this family's history. FL, if you are still out there, I would appreciate a note.  Check my profile.

No comments: