sorting out money and meaning

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 [...]

My Dad’s SS-5 — Application for Social Security Account Number — arrived today! It’s strange to see a document in his handwriting that he filled in at age 15 on November 7, 1946. You probably can’t read the writing but he lists his given name at birth as John Jeff Carnell Jr., and his father [...]

During my lengthy Summer visits to grandmother Dorothy’s home in Hersher, Illinois about 17 miles from the nearest large town of Kankakee, I got used to the odd but peaceful structure of life with grandmother, my stepgrandfather Jamie and my father’s maternal great aunt Lillie Testie in their two-story rented farm house. The house was [...]

  Jack J Carnall, the probable father of my father does not seem to be a nasty character after further genealogical digging and after recollecting the sadness in his voice when my father spoke of his real father. Now I think the nasty one is perhaps the Tiner fellow Grandmother Dorothy met at the time [...]