A to Z April Challenge: I is for Ina

My theme for the A to Z April Challenge is “In-Laws and Out-Laws – Friends of the Family.”  I will be researching friends, colleagues, neighbors - those people who came and went touching my family’s lives in both small and large ways. 

is for Ina.  Ina Printz.

Ina Printz was one of many witnesses for my second grandaunt Sallie in her pursuit of a divorce from her two-timing er uh make that four-timing husband. 

Ina and her family lived on the same street as Sallie and George during those stormy years in Shenandoah, Virginia .  No doubt Ina saw and heard quite a lot.  There was almost a twenty-year difference in age between Ina and Sallie, so they might not have been exactly “friends,” perhaps simply neighbors. 

Ina was born “Ina Estelle Printz” on April 23, 1886 and grew up around Luray, Virginia, an area heavily populated with Printz families.  She married a Printz cousin, too, Albin Othor Printz. 

That was about 1906.  In 1910 they were living on Second Street, just across the street from Sallie and two doors from Sallie’s sister and brother-in-law, Vic and Decatur Breeden.  Ina was caring for her 2-year old son Earl while Albin worked as a carpenter.

By the time the divorce trial began in 1914, Albin and Ina had moved several streets away, but Ina proved to be a solid witness just the same. 

Deposition of Ina Printz 1914
Last names have been marked through to protect the privacy of living descendants.

By 1920, Ina had two more children, Hazel and Elmo.  Albin was a car inspector for the railroad.  While they were no longer Sallie’s neighbors, Ina was now a neighbor to Ulysses and Sadie Jollett, Sallie’s brother and sister-in-law.

In 1930, the census indicates the Printz family had added one more child, Ramona.  Albin had returned to carpentry, which makes me wonder if he ever worked with my great-grandfather Walter Davis (Sallie’s brother-in-law). 

Ina died in 1933.  She and Albin are buried in the Coverstone Cemetery in Shenandoah where many of my ancestors are also buried.  

photo courtesy Jan Robinson, Findagrave.com

If you are so inclined, you can inspect other interesting and innovative blogs at the A to Z April Challenge.

© 2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.