My grandmother, Dorothy Marie Crocker, was the plaintiff in her 1935 divorce from Jack J. Carnall.
The divorce papers are posted below. There is no mention of the first marriage in 1930, only of the second marriage in 1933. The Genlighten genealogist who helped with the divorce search couldn’t find a divorce between the two marriages. She checked these indexes:
#7 Superior Court DLC by Plaintiff: 1930-1933
#6 Circuit Court by Defendant 1930-1934
Divorce Index Calumet City 1928-1963 (index covers all those years)
Divorce Index Chicago Heights #1 1903-1964 A-D
She found the 1935 divorce at Cook County Archives, 50 W Washington, Room 1113, Chicago, IL File #35-S-4528 Superior Ct. Cook Cty Dorothy Carnall vs. Jack J. Carnall.
Since she didn’t find a divorce between the two marriages and the 1935 divorce mentions only the second marriage, so maybe the first one wasn’t recorded correctly, as Kerry suggested.
What’s really weird is that Dorothy testified that there were no children! Did she mean no children at all or no children from the 1933 marriage? If Jack Carnall was my father’s father, what could have motivated Dorothy to lie about his paternity? And if he wasn’t the father, what could have motivated Jack Carnall to marry my grandmother twice?
Maybe Dorothy lied and told Jack Carnall he was the father but he was not.
Dorothy testified that Jack Carnall hit her. My Aunt Lilly Tieste also testified to this effect. Jack Carnall testified that this was not true. Dorothy asked for alimony but received none.
I doubt Dorothy would say Jack Carnall wasn’t the father if he really was, because if he was, she could have probably gotten alimony and child support. She clearly wanted alimony.
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This whole thing gets curiouser and curiouser. And when lies are involved it becomes tougher to get to the true bottom of the story.
Do you have a next move? Can you dig deeper still? Since it was such an enormous scandal at the time to get pregnant before marriage, I can’t help wondering if that possibility was the source of all this.
Your thoughts and feelings? I am curious. Can’t help but be so.;-)
LBR, I am not sure yet. I think I need to ponder a bit before saying what I think and feel. I’ll post a follow-up soon when I’ve sorted out my thoughts.
savvysavingbytes, I am still digesting. Meanwhile, I’ve got a church function this evening, so I think I’ll have to sleep on it. But it sure does look like Grandmother lied to Jack Carnall. This is totally believable given what I knew of her growing up.
This is fascinating!
Hi K-Line, I hope you’re feeling better.
It is an interesting story, and it’s mine, but I’m not sure what to make of it at the moment.
I don’t think I’ve seen a more puzzling case.
I’m going to have to ponder it, because…wow, so many questions.
It’s funny how you always expect these stories to have a clear hero and a clear villain. I never works out that way. They always turn out to be human, and that makes it hard to know who to blame, and for what.
Kerry, that’s more or less what I was thinking too.
This story is helping me understand how confused my Dad must have been about his origins. Confusion doesn’t let him off the hook for years of monumental denial of responsibility as a parent, but it helps explain why he was kind of a mess!
That’s exactly what I’ve found research helps me with. It doesn’t excuse, but it does explain. That context helps me put things in perspective and move forward. Sometimes that’s enough.
Susan, I’m glad you found more information — but sorry that it doesn’t unravel much more of the mystery for you. Yet. I’m assuming you’re not through with the research. (Since I joined your journey pretty late, I’m not sure at what point you’d consider your quest ended, but I’d guess you’re far from satisfied.)
It’s amazing to me how similar the court records look to today’s version. I work with court transcripts every day, and bar the faded type, the pages from 1935 could fit right in with them. The clerk’s stamps look identical. Heck, even the language for the notices of appearance is identical.
Very interesting. You have officially earned your Private Investigator status, I think!
Keep digging and processing…
Meredith, I know, it looks just like my own divorce papers!
Hannah, well, I feel like I’m kind of at a dead end at the moment, but the next step is to try to track down the baptismal record.