Grandfather Research Moving Full Steam Ahead!

Yesterday was a Home Run in my ancestry research!

I’ve been trying to find out whatever I can about my Mom’s Dad, and his first marriage, which we know almost nothing about.

Here he is with his second wife, my Grandma TG, in 1935.

They look like Bonnie and Clyde to me, only nicer  🙂  I don’t think they ever killed anybody…

Here, from Wikipedia, are the real Bonnie and Clyde, in 1933:

Anyway, I had ordered a 1924 yearbook from eBay. It is from my Grandfather’s high school, the year he graduated. I knew that he was in it, as a very nice man at the school had sent me a couple of pdfs when I contacted the school not too long ago. My Wonderful Detective. You can read about that here if you’d like.

The yearbook arrived yesterday.

In it, I found the team picture of the basketball players, my Grandfather the team captain and holding the ball:

Some game stats and info about “Captain Fogg”:

My Grandfather’s younger brother Fred, who was 1 year behind him (shown bottom right – F.Fogg):

I was ecstatic! These are new pictures for my family.

Then, towards the end of the book, I came upon this:

That’s definitely my Grandpa, but who is M.B.??

I looked through the student pictures again, and there she was!

“The Delight Of Our Hearts”.

My Grandfather’s High School Sweetheart.

I excitedly checked my notes. Yep, in the 1930 U.S. Census, he was listed as being married  to a “Mildred E.” – we had never known her last name!

Jackpot!!

Here she was again in the yearbook, as one of “The Tatlers” (a school reporter perhaps?):

She’s the 4th person down, on the far right. Here she is again, blown up:

She looks a little like Amelia Earhart, if Amelia’s hair was fluffier. Again, thanks to Wikipedia, here’s Amelia in 1935:

Anyway, ding-ding-ding – we have a winner!! My Grandfather’s first wife. They married after (I think) 2 years of college.

I went back to Ancestry.com and did a search for her name. I found her family in several censuses.

AND, I found a Braden family tree that someone has worked on in connection with Mildred, and with a contact name of a gentleman with that same last name. I emailed him hoping to hear back from him.

I’ll keep you posted, Mom! Hopefully he is still checking on on the site and will get my message…

xoxo,

SAllan