Saturday, March 17, 2012

Grandpa Ralph and a new lead....

So I have been working hard on trying to figure out what happened to Grandpa Ralph. I will someday solve this mystery that plague's my every waking hour and sometime my sleeping ones too. But in the meantime I had planned on working on Grandma Nina's family to whittle away some time till I can make a trip to Montana to do some "on the ground" research. And I found some very interesting things about the relationship between the Adamson's and the Coen's. They were a lot closer than I realized. I have gotten copies of the pages from the Coen Family Bible that is in my Dad's possession. In it was, the birth & death dates of Grandma Nina and her siblings and her parents marriage record....sweet! right?!?! So armed with this information I have been diligently trying to verify and prove all this information. Also learn as much as I can about her brothers and sisters. I have learned a lot but am still working.

But in my search I notice two things: One, that when trying to find a place of death for Nina's father Levi Coen, I was searching in the wrong places. He had a farm in South Dakota at the time of his death but had just barely moved there and still had family living in Minnesota...so I was looking those two places and North Dakota thinking maybe he had gone for a visit to Nina's. Well turns out I was so wrong. He died in Portland, Ore. Wow ! wasn't expecting that. And so I sent off for his death certificate and find out that Grandpa Ralph was the informant on his death cert. and possible the undertaker! What! Crazy is what I said. What was Levi and Ralph doing in Portland, Ore. in 1908?? Where was the rest of the family?? So here we have them in Portland from Jan-Feb 1908. Wow.

The second thing I notice is that Grandma Nina's twin brother's Roy and Ray stayed pretty close to the family. Even following Nina to North Dakota. Where Roy lives with his wife and son. Ray living either with Roy and his new family or right next door. I can follow Roy for the rest of his life. Along with most of the brothers. But Ray disappears about the same time as Ralph does!!! So do they go off together leaving behind their families??? I haven't quite figured it all out. All I know now is that I now have to find two people who just vanish. :)

Another brother disappears for quite a few years until he gets married in 1943. Then I can follow him for the rest of his also. Interesting no?!?!

I am deeply interested in the relationship between Ralph and his in-laws. What were they all doing in these years after North Dakota?? I want to find Ralph and Ray now. Someday I will to.....

1 comment:

How many super-cool people have stopped by?