This week’s theme for the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks”
challenge is “Going to the Chapel.” What perfect timing to share a recent
research problem and how our challenge leader Amy Johnson Crow helped me solve
it.
My enthusiasm for researching my Irish ancestors returned
when a new record popped up for the sister of my great-grandmother Mary Theresa
Sheehan Killeen Walsh. The sister is Johanna Sheehan Hederman (or Heatherman!).
Her story always makes me sad because only 2 of her 7 children
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| Possibly Johanna Sheehan Hederman with children Catherine and John |
The older of the two children was Catherine who married
Charles Fraundorf on August 18, 1908. They had one daughter, Gertrude born in
1916. The little family appeared in the expected New York census records for
1920, 1925, 1930 and 1940. After that, my online searches found little more
than dates of death for Charles and Catherine. A few newspaper articles
revealed Charles was active in the Knights of Columbus and local politics. But
there was nothing new about Gertrude.
Just this past week in a fit of boredom, I opened
Ancestry and did a general search for Fraundorf. What a surprise to find a
listing for good ol’ Gertrude in the New York State Marriage Index. She married
on April 21, 1940 in Long Beach, Nassau County, New York. Long Beach had been
the Fraundorfs’ home at least since 1935. However, any celebration over the
thought of new leads to follow came to a halt when the index gave me the
husband’s name as Vivian Hennekey.
Surely New York was not so progressive in
1940 to be granting marriage licenses to lesbians. Still, I clicked Miss Hennekey’s
name, which took me to a page that revealed a different marriage date and
location. She did not marry Gertrude Fraundorf after all! The cause of confusion
is clearly the illegible certificate number.
Back to the search I went and plugged in the certificate
number, “7882.” It gave me Vivian Hennekey again. So maybe the certificate
number was NOT 7882, but no other number I tried gave me Gertrude Fraundorf AND
someone other than Vivian.
During a Facebook group chat with Amy Johnson Crow, I
posed the question, “Is there a workaround to find the correct couple in the
New York State Marriage index 1881-1967?” As soon as Amy pulled up the index on
her screen, she saw the problem with the smudged certificate numbers. She
studied the screen and said, “Try entering just the exact day, month, year and
location, no names.”
That is what I did. And it worked. Two brides and 2
grooms married on April 21, 1940 in Long Beach. (Not surprisingly, NONE of their
marriage certificate numbers are clear.)
Wallace Beers and Rita Lay married and
lived happily ever after. They are even buried happily ever after together. Their
descendants have shared family trees on Ancestry.
So that left Gertrude plus Salvatore DeLucia.
If, like me, you think surely a name like Salvatore
DeLucia and Gertrude DeLucia would be easy to find, think again. Apparently
there is an unwritten rule that Italian families - especially the DeLucias -
must name a son “Salvatore.”
With an April wedding, Sal and Gert could have been in
the census together in 1940, but apparently they were not. In fact, Gertrude
was still at home with her parents, probably fully engulfed in wedding
planning, when the enumerator came around about 3 weeks before the big day.
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| Believed to be Catherine and Gertrude Fraundorf |
With no supporting facts to go on, it is impossible to
sift through the numerous Salvatore DeLucias and Lucias and DeLucios and Luccios
and DeLucas to come to a logical conclusion about the husband of Gertrude
Fraundorf. Was he born in Italy or was he an American-born son of Italian
immigrants? Was he about Gertrude’s age or did she marry a much older man? My
research indicates the older Salvatores were also very married with families in
1940. The single Salvatores were mostly children, too young to marry in 1940.
The best candidate for a husband was the Salvatore
DeLucia who was an Italian immigrant son of Italian immigrants Angelo and Rose
DeLucia. This Salvatore was born in Italy in 1908, arrived in the United States
in 1914, and was naturalized by 1930. He was still single in 1940 and only
slightly older than Gertrude. The fact that he was living in the right
neighborhood at the right time to have met and courted Gertrude Fraundorf makes
him the most likely suspect.
BUT - There is NOTHING to say I am right and EVERYTHING
to say I am wrong. Family trees on Ancestry put Salvatore not with Gertrude
Fraundorf but with Theresa Botticelli - MARRIED and BURIED together. The ONE
and only ONE piece of information that keeps this Sal in the running is that he
and Miss Botticelli married in 1947, seven years after Gertrude and whichever
Salvatore married.
Did Gertrude die young? Could Gertrude and Salvatore have
called off the wedding? Could they have married and later divorced? If so, that
would have been tough for a couple of Catholics.
Wendy
© 2018, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
