hi jim et al,
i was so excited to find these posts, that when i replied it was 2.30 am, and i gushed so much that in the quick edit, i moved around the great-great grandmother part:
theresa josephine riley was my gr-gr grandmother. gertrude elizabeth was her daughter, my grgrandmother, and gertrude marie purcell, my grandmother.
gertrude marie purcell's name on her birth certificate is : gertrude inez purcell
mother: gertrude ehrmann
father: fuller arthur purcell
born in kansas city mo
gertrude ehrmann uses her mom's second husband's name. john anton ehrmann.
it says on the birth certificate that this is the only child that gertrude has had, and that the parties are married.
but i can find no marriage record of gertrude ehrmann and fuller arthur purcell.
she was mrs gertude taylor in 1940 census. her daughter, gertrude, and her son ,gregory, my dad, are living in kansas city. i can find no record of gertrude ehrmann marrying a mr taylor.
her daughter, gertrude, is listed as gertrude m shamrell.
i did find a record for that short-lived marriage in platte co mo, to patrick m shamrell 0n 8 november, 1939. he is listed in the kansas city directory as living with mrs gertrude taylor, and her daughter, gertude.
he is in the 1940 census as an intern at st luke's nurse's hospital in kansas city.
he later can be found with another wife, kathryn, in santa clara county, california in 1942, i believe.
there was some court case about his selling narcotics, and aboandoning his wife and children in santa clara in 1942 or 3. but then he vanishes. truly.
this was her second marriage -- ? the first being to a mr hughes. i can find no record of the divorces from either men.
now, the rileys from missouri.
should i post another for this?
my great grandmother moved to missouri. she was born in sf, moved to deming with her family?
i have wondered why on earth she moved to kansas city. some notes from another family genealogist on the ehrmann side, say that gertrude moved to the east (from sf) to find out who her father was,
yet she went to her grave w/o knowing. her mother, theresa "tessie", held on to that secret tightly.
i look at the ages of her younger sisters and wonder if tessie, being the eldest, took on the child of one of theses young women? this does happen so often.
there are so many twists and turns in this saga.....
i have been searching for years!
such secrets and mysteries. we are all connected here somehow. there are some missing pieces.....
cheers much,
tracey