Don’t normally post trigger warning notices as life doesn’t come with trigger warnings, however some of my readers have mental health issues – suicide.
In this post Genealogy and Missing Family Members Part I – May 2, 2020, I talked about two missing family members. Next, I am talking about two more missing family members. One, my mother’s half-sister’s Vera husband, Will Prinz. The other is Mom’s mother’s first husband, Will Jordan.
Vera was from Grandfather Charlie’s first marriage. I knew she had been married as her last name was Prinz. I didn’t know his name, if he was still alive, did they get divorced, etc.? Aunt Vera got married to Uncle William on my Dad’s birthday in 1932. Thankfully, she got married in my hometown which allows online search for marriage certificates. See next paragraph for some limitations. It doesn’t let you pull up a copy of the license, only some general information.
There are two judicial districts in my home county as it’s one of a handful of counties in Mississippi with two county seats – Gulfport and Biloxi. You have to check both districts, allow for misspelling of last names, and know the bride’s last name. For example, I didn’t see my sister’s second marriage to Dwight either place, but I was looking under her maiden name. Turns out they misspelled his last name and she was going by her first married last name. Didn’t think to check using her first married last name until today.
Anyway back to Aunt Vera’s marriage. I had a marriage date and the fact there were married by a Lutheran pastor. I don’t believe she was Lutheran as she attended United Methodist services later in life and her father (? – not sure) and step-mother were members of a Methodist church. That leads me to believe her husband was Lutheran, or possibly they grabbed the first pastor who would marry a couple of different faiths. Not all pastors will marry people of different faiths.
It appears he killed himself in 1950 after having lots of issues holding a decent paying job. He’s buried in New Orleans.
Grandmother Cora’s first husband is another unknown. Will Jordan married her late September 1916. By 1919, shortly before marrying Grandfather Charlie, she was finally got divorced. The only child from this marriage was my half-aunt Helen. Most family trees on Ancestry wrongly assume my grandfather was her father as they don’t know about the first marriage.
I haven’t found anything on Will Jordan, other than an estimated birth year. No death date, burial location, or parents’ names. If I get a chance to make it home, I may be able to get a copy of the marriage license and see what’s on it. Haven’t tried looking for divorce records yet as I need more information.
Ups Downs Family History 