Now, thanks to the folks at the Rock Island County illinois Genealogical Society, I have made a major breakthrough tracking down Shawn Butler, the great grandson of Leta Smith.  Based on one of Shawns earlier message forums posts, I have been working under the assumption that Shawn was the grandson of Leta Butler.  That would make him the son of Merle Record.  So all my research was focused on looking for Merle or Muyrll Butler. So armed with that information, I took a shot and emailed the RICIGS for help.  Within a couple of days, one of their researchers had emailed me back with the following research.

“I visited RICHS library and found information I think will be helpful. His request is both specific (can we put him in touch with Shawn Butler) and broad (any information on Shawn, his mother, father, or grandparents). I limited myself to one visit and spent about 1-1/2 hours and found the following samples on the family. Based on below information Leta and Berl Record may be the great-grandparents of Shawn Butler, not his grandparents.

1. Birth Index of Rock Island County, IL 1908-1921, Compiled by the Blackhawk Genealogy Society of Rock Island and Mercer Counties:

Name: Record, Beryell A; Father – Bert; Mother – Lita; Birth – 1912; Book 11 Page 202

Name: Record, Merle Leon; Father – Bert; Mother – Leta E.; Birth – 1909; Book 9 Page 121

2. City Directories – 1925 lists Bert P. Record, wife Leta E, living at 1303 40th St., Rock Island. Bert is listed as foreman, People’s Power Co.

1930 City Directory – no listing for Bert P. Record in either Rock Island, Moline, or East Moline.

3. Mohlenbruck, Dwight E.: Death Index, Rock Island, IL Area 1930’s, Vol 29 L thru Z.

Record, Muyrel L., died 24 Sep 1930, obituary 25 Sep 1930, a.k.a. Turner.

See attached file Obit-Muyrel Record Turner.jpg

I could find no information about Roy Turner. No listing of gravestone in Chippiannock Cemetery. If more information is required suggest direct contact with cemetery – it may be a burial without a gravestone.

4.  Birth Index of Rock Island County, IL 1922-1934, Compiled by the Blackhawk Genealogy Society of Rock Island and Mercer Counties:

Name: Turner, Leta Ellen; Father – Roy G.; Mother – Mayell; Birth – 1929; Record # 11225

5.  Rock Island / Moline City Directory 1974: Butler, Wm. O. (wife Leta E.), Lab Tech Rock Island City Water Purification Plant, Home 1925 9-1/2 St., Rock Island.

6.  Obituary Record Binders: Butler, Leta, Obituary in The Argus, Rock Island, IL, 21 Dec 1990 (copy attached – see Obit-Leta Turner Butler.jpg). No records of an obituary for William Butler.

7.  Shawn Butler – no records found in time allotted. However, a inquiry of www.qconline.com finds news stories as recent as 2007 which list a Mercer County Deputy Shawn Butler. Since Leta Butler died in Mercer County this may or may not be her son Shawn listed in her obituary. Law enforcement personnel normally do not list contact information. Suggest direct contact with the Mercer County Sheriff’s department to attempt contact with this person.”

The obituaries were the key to solving the mystery.

• Muryll Turner Obituary (Click To View)
• Leta E Butler (Click To View)

So based on the obituaries, the following is believed to be true.

Leta and Bert Record had a daughter named Muyrll Leon Record (b. 25 Aug 1909, d. 24 Sep 190) and a son Burrell Aaron Record (b. 24 Sep 1912, d. 17 July 1968) .  Muyrll married Roy Turner (b. 1906, d ????).  Muyrll died tragically at the age of 21following two operations for an intestinal ailment,  leaving behind two children.  The two children were Clarence (b. abt 1927) and Leta EllenTurner (b. 9 Aug 1929, d. 22 Dec 1990).  Leta Turner married  William Butler on 19 November 1965 in Rock Island.  They had five girls and two boys.  One of those boys is Shawn Butler.  I think I found him living near Joy, Illinois, which is where he was living when his mom died!

So today, I sent three letters to addresses I believe to be where Shawn works and lives.  With any luck, I will be hearing from him in the coming weeks.  A few more Smith cousins have been added to the family tree.

Then in July 2009, I found an interest post on a genealogy message board that gave me the name of Leta’s great grandson.  His name was Shawn Butler.  He was looking for information about his great great grandmother Julia Geeslin Smith, for which I have lots of info about.  I tried to contact him without success. The problem was that his email address that he provided was no longer valid.  I even tried contact some Shawn Butlers on Facebook.  No good.  You can read more about that part of the story here:

http://hayesfamily.us/index.php/2009/07/17/great-grandson-of-leta-smith-found-sort-of/

So with that dead end, I gave up on her for a while, until this morning.  I’m not sure why I selected her  for my research effort again.  I guess it was because I just couldn’t accept the fact that I couldn’t  find her or her family.  With such unusual names involved, you would think finding a mother named Leta and two children name Merle and Berle would be easy.  No way.  It has been a nearly impossible task…  until this AM.

This morning I decided to do a fresh search of Leta using four know variations of her name, including Leeta, Leda and Leeda.  I stripped out almost all other search criteria except for her birth year and birth state and asked for exact matches.   Then I added what was believed to be Leta husbands first name… Bert. Since I had no idea what the last name could be, I left it blank.   I confined the search to the 1920 Census.

When I pressed the search button, there,  at the top was a Leta E Record, married to a Bert Record with two children; Muyrell and Burnes (at least according to the person who translated the record into the Ancestry.com database).  On closer examination of the actual 1920 Census record, I found the Leta E was born in Iowa, her mother born in Iowa and her father was born in New York.  This information perfectly matched what I knew about Leta.  Now, my concern was of the two children’s names.  They looked similar to the names I was looking for, but far from a match.  In addition, this Census Record was taken in the Rock Island, Illinois area.

What would Leta be doing in Illinois?  But then I remembered.  Back when I was looking for Leta’s son, I tracked down Shawn Butlers Internet Service Provider and they were in Illinois.  Hmmmmmm.  That’s interesting!

So I went back to the original article I wrote about Shawn’s inquiry to see if there were any clues that I missed. Nope, nothing there.   I then went back to the original postings he made at geneaology.com.  Nope… didn’t miss anything there either.  But….  he had made inquiries into other surnmes at geneaology.com.  So I went to check on his other postings.  Sure enough, there was the confirmation I needed.  He posted several messages indicating that he was in possession of the “Record Family Bible”.  And the details of his post was even more interesting.  In one post, he said:

“I have a family bible handed down to me with my great-great grandfather listed as well as his brothers and sisters. Grandfather Bert Record is buried in rock Island .”

Bingo..  Now the pieces have fallen into place.   Leta Ethel Smith married Bert Record.  And Merle and Berle do not appear to be twins, at least according to the 1920 Census.  Now I just need to make the rest of the connections!  Say tuned!

Laurel rescued them from a flood at her mother’s house.  She tried to clean them up as best she could, but in addition to the water damage, they also suffered some oil damage in the flood.  I scanned them in at high resolution and tried to crop out as much of the damage as I could without losing any of the important surroundings.  Now we just need to identify those photo’s that have the generic “img_XXX” label.

http://www.hayesfamily.us/albums/The%20Laurel%20Newman%20Collection/index.html

Frank Edward Smith was born February 27, 1893 in Humboldt, Iowa to Hiram Gregg Smith and Julia Geeslin Smith.

1900

For some reason Frank was not listed with or not living with his parents in 1900 when the Census was taken.

1910

We next see him in 1910 living with his divorced mother Julia and brothers Ben, Sumner (Summer) and John.  Sometime between 1910 and 1920, Frank enlisted in the United States Navy and moved to New York.

1920

Then in 1920 we see him in two places.  In the first census record he is with his new bride Jean Louise Baron, her mother and her siblings on 81st Street in Brooklyn, NY.  For some strange reason, he is listed as a salesman for a chemical company, yet we know he was serving in the Navy.  I tend to think that  Frank was not present at the time of the census interview because his birthplace was listed as California.  California is where father and various siblings were living at the time, but not where he was born.

Then in another census record for the same year we find him at the Bay Ridge, Brooklyn US Navy Receiving Ship. A receiving ship, is any vessel, that serves as a point of induction into the service for new recruits. Vessels were not built for the purpose of serving in this role, rather, vessels were appointed. His occupation was listed as Water Tender.

1930

In 1930 we see Frank living with his first wife and three daughters on Culloden Road in Stamford, CT.  His occupation is listed as a stationary engraver in the lock manufacturing industry.  At this point he seems retired from the Navy. He is 37 years old.

Between 1930 and Present

We know Frank abandoned his wife and three daughters by suddenly disappearing, but we don’t know why. Sometime between 1930 and 1976, he married Almira Moore and settled in New Milford, CT. He was working as an auto mechanic.  He died of an Acute Myocardial Infarction on November 5, 1976 at New Milford Hospital and was buried at Reynolds Cemetery in Cross River, NY. Reynolds Cemetery is literally just down the street from where his great granddaughter Colleen and great grandson Jimmy were living at the time. Frank was 83 years old when he passed away.

Click To Enlarge
Photo By Kirk Beaty

His grave identifies him as a CWT with the US Navy.  CWT stands for “Chief Water Tender”.  In the Navy, it’s the highet ranked petty office charged with maintaining boiler pressure in a ship’s propulsion system.

Death Certificate For Frank Edward Smith

Click to Enlarge

New Milford Home Of Frank and Almira Smith

Click To Enlarge
105 Wellsville Avenue
New Milford, CT

On December 17, 1884, Hiram Gregg Smith married Julia Geeslin in Rutland, Iowa.  There first child, Caroline (Carrie) was born shortly thereafter sometime in 1885.  Their second child, Leta Ethel Smith was born May 30, 1887.  Following Leta was John William Smith on August 3, 1889.  Benjamin H Smith was then born sometime in 1891 followed by Franklin (Frank) Edward Smith on February 27, 1893.  The sixth and final child, Sumner (or Summer) Smith was born sometime in 1896.

In the beginning, the family was living in Weaver Township where Gregg was a farmer. His parents, Caroline Elizabeth and Benjamin H. Smith were nearby. By 1895 they were living in Gilmore City as were his parents. .  Then by 1900 the young Smith family had moved to Webster City.

By 1910, Julia and Gregg had divorced and went their own ways.  Julia remarried  sometime after 1910 and became Julia Davis.  At this point, I do not know who she married or where she moved to.

In 1920, we see Gregg remarried to a woman named Ella and was living in Placentia California which is in Orange County.  His step daughter Josephine McKaughan was living with him and his new wife.Vy this time Gregg had become a plumber for an oil field.

On December 4, 1926, Hiram Gregg Smith was killed in a horrific industrial accident which was covered by the local newspapers.

At the time of his death, it appears that his mother, Caroline Elizabeth Smith was living in Santa Fe Springs, California.  The newspaper coverage also tell us that his sister Kate Young and brother Boyd Smith lived nearby.  There was no mention of the family he left behind in Iowa.

I am looking for any information on  Hiram Gregg Smith. He died sometime before 1913 in Iowa and was married to Julia Ann Geesline in 1884 in Humboldt Co., Iowa. They are reported to have had at least 5 known children including my great-grandmother Leta Ethel Smith. E-mail me directly. Shawn Butler

I was very excited.  I finally found another Smith relative.  Shawn had actually posted another similar query at the Ancestry.com forums on March 9, 2001.

Looking for any information on Julia Ann Geesline born in Johnson Co. 5 DEC 1868 and later married Hiram Gregg Smith

The bad news is that the email address attached to his postings is no longer valid.  Unfortunately there are just too  many Shawn Butlers out there to try to find him without more info.