A little surprise,,,,,

This surprise is not as shocking as the one I posted about yesterday but it came as a surprise to me nonetheless. First a little background. I grew up living next door to my Aunt Emmaline, Aunt Line for short. She was one of my mother's sisters. I spent a great deal of time with Aunt Line, especially during the summer. I helped her in her garden every day. Then we had lunch together and afterward we did crafts on her dining room table. In truth, she was babysitting me but she never made me feel that way. Aunt Line was a huge influence on my life and truth be told she was more like a mother to me than my mother was. My love of gardening, crafts, canning food and all things creative came from Aunt Line. She truly lead the way in shaping the woman I would become today. To say we were close would be an understatement.

Taken circa 1932, my beautiful Aunt Line.

Aunt Line was married to a man named Edwin. In the 1950s Uncle Ed had a series of strokes which left him partially paralyzed and deaf. He got around Ok but could not put the heel of his left foot on the ground and so waked with a bit of a limp. I was also close to Uncle Ed. Even though he could not hear me we could carry on great conversations. He could read lips very well.

I was about 8 years old. Uncle Ed and I having one of our epic conversations. Aunt Line's garden behind us.

Needless to say, I thought I knew everything there was to know about my aunt and uncle who lived right next door. But nope, I sure didn't!! My little surprise came along the same day I found the newspaper article about my grandfather. You know, the one I wrote about yesterday. I found first a wedding announcement.

But wait!! Wilbur Bowley? Who is that? Did she actually marry him?? Inquiring minds want to know!! I had to know!! I knew Aunt Line had a "boyfriend" or two before Uncle Ed but had never been told about an engagement or possible marriage. So the hunt was on and I was determined to find out. I searched and searched in the paper the announcement was made and nothing. Maybe they did not get married I thought. So I decided to do a little search on this Wilbur Bowley to see if I could figure out who he was.

Off to ancestry.com I go. I did a search of Wilbur Bowley living in Port Jervis, NY during the time frame of the engagement announcement and there he is!! There are his parents, and there is the street he lived on. The information kept flowing. Just in case there might be something more, I clicked on the newspapers link at ancestry and bam! There were several newspaper articles about him!! One was his wife getting a divorce/annulment. His wife, was my Aunt!!!

Sorry it is not bigger or clearer, that is just how it saved for some reason.

Apparently Mr. Bowley was a bit of a scoundrel. He had been arrested for assault and also burglaries. He was mean to my aunt as well. Long story short, she had a marriage before, that I did not know about. I was surprised, more so because I was practically raised by her and had never been told about it. And never had any indication she had a previous marriage. I wonder if Uncle Ed knew or if it was something that was just not discussed? After all the article does say she went back to her maiden name of Parker.

This is not the only multiple marriage that I have discovered while researching old newspapers. My Uncle John had a previous marriage and my great grandfather. Oh that is a story that took me over 3 years to unravel. I'll tell you about that another time!!

If you do genealogy, take the time to read old newspapers. You never know what you will find!!

Until next time,,,,