I did indeed have the death certificate for Mickey waiting for me on my return to Phoenix. What a surprise to actually find a name in the "father" category. I did not really expect there to be one. You have to wonder if Dorothy also named the father on the birth certificate (which I can't get because of privacy laws), or did she decide - now that the child had died, it didn't matter anymore? I, of course, immediately started doing research on this person. I will not give his name. There are several reasons for this - 1) did he know? 2) did his family know? 3) is he really the father? 4) I guess if someone else really wants to know, they can also ask for the death certificate.
By the way, Washtenaw County in Michigan, has a wonderful system for this very thing. For any death certificate (years available) and marriage certificates, you simply request online what you want with appropriate information and give your credit card information. If they have it, it will be mailed to you within a week or so, if they don't have it - you don't owe them any money. I wish more counties had this set up. Thank you, Washtenaw County!
Anyway, back to Mickey's father. I did some checking. There is a man with that name in Ann Arbor about that time. He is about a year older than Dorothy. He would have been 17, Dorothy 16, when she got pregnant. Did they go to the same high school? same church? I don't know. This man died in 1982 and I noted that he was a Sr. when he died, so there is a Jr. I don't know if the family knew about Mickey. Since these two parents would have been in high school and Mickey died not even ten years later, maybe not. It solves a mystery for me. If this man is indeed Mickey's father, then there was no incest involved. Rape? Maybe, maybe not. We will just never know.
The second "mystery" I have been researching is my grandfather, Garth Beckington, and the woman he married after my grandmother's death. Edna died in April, 1952. Garth remarried a woman by the name of Luddie in November 1954. He died in March of 1956. No one knows much about Luddie. Again, most cousins remember a small, round woman from the south, maybe Alabama. How did they meet? And who was she? His obituary does state that he married Miss Luddia M. Hensen. A start! I started searching Luddia/Luddie Hensen. I was amazed at how many Luddies are out there. Mostly in the south.
I found a very likely candidate. Luddia Mae Perkins was born in 1906 in Alabama. She married J. Chart Henson (spelled Henson in most cases) about 1920. I was able to follow this family through the 1940 census. She had two sons, Carl and Edward, and a daughter - the name is either Lion or Lucy, or something similar, all born in the 1920s. I can't find a death date or burial for J(ames) Chart, but assume he died between 1940 and 1954, when she married my grandfather. Or did she? Marry, that is? They were not married in Washtenaw County, in Lucas County (Toledo), Ohio or Chicago - three places that cousins suggested. Where did they marry? Why not marry in Washtenaw County, Michigan where he lived? How did they meet? She spent most of her life in Alabama, possibly some time in Georgia. Her sons lived and died in Alabama. I am having trouble finding descendants who might have an answer or two about this woman and if she was indeed the second wife of Garth. Did I follow the right woman and family? What happened to her after he died? I know Garth's children were not fond of her (for various reasons) and apparently one of her sons came in a "big car" to pick her up after Garth's funeral. That is the last anyone heard from her. She did not die with the name of Beckington, so maybe she remarried or just went back to Henson? I can't find a burial for that name either.
I will keep trying to find a descendant mostly to learn if I have the right woman. Garth was born in 1878 and she was born in 1906. Most of the cousins were young and to a child - anyone over the age of 40 is "old." There would have been 20+ years difference in their ages. My one surviving aunt was asked by her son if she thinks Luddie could have been that much younger than her father. She didn't live in Michigan during those years, but said yes, that was her understanding. Maybe a Henson will see this blog while Googling their name and make a comment.
Did I answer more questions than I added to my list of "don't knows?" I guess I feel confident that I have answered some major ones anyway.
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