James Isaac Hurlbut

I have decided to try and find more information on Grandpa Hurlbut.  I noticed on his Find A Grave memorial that his birth date is wrong and his death date isn't complete.  In fact, I have never seen his full death date anywhere!  So...I decided to see what I could find.  Here is a link to his memorial: James Hurlbut on Findagrave.com. 

I received a new package from the genealogist I hired in Ohio.  In the package was a newpaper page he had found that included James Hurlbut's obituary.  Yay!  Here is what it said:

 

I wanted to verify his death date, so I contacted the Mountain View Cemetery to see if they had his burial records.  They didn't have them, but they were able to verify his correct death date.   So...September 30, 1888 was when he died of Typhoid Fever.  I am trying to verify the fact that he died at home in San Diego.  It seems correct so I am going to try and request his death certificate.  I hope they have it! 

Now if we could just find his first wife and figure out what happened to her!

Budding Genealogists!

Every evening and a lot of time during the day I find myself curled up on the couch doing family history work on my laptop.  I guess I must have rubbed off onto my two little girls.  This is how I found them this morning:

I wish I could put a genealogy program on their little computers to get them started young! Hum...  I just thought they were so adorable and wanted to capture the moment.

Information from Professional Genealogist

I have been anxiously awaiting the mail to arrive for the past few days!  I was waiting for the package from the professional genealogist that I hired.  Well, it finally arrived today with so much fun stuff!  He didn't uncover too much, but he found a few things that were pleasant surprises!  First was a copy of a picture of the Thomas Gurley Home in Bronson, Ohio.  Here is a copy of the picture:

He told me the picture was taken in 1898 and that he assumed the woman standing on the front porch was Aura Gurley.  I think he was correct.  Her husband had died the year before and the girls were still teenagers at this point.  What a fun find!  

The second wonderful piece of information that found was so fun!  He found a son that was born to James and Marie Hurlbut!!  A long lost brother to grandma Vera!  He was only 3 months old when died and was their first child.  He was born and died in 1866.  His name was Thomas Gurley Hurlbut.  Wonderful surprise!   I have a copy of his obituary.  

Third piece of information he found was the possible marriages of Kate and Antoinette (Nettie) Hurlbut.  They were the daughters of Grandpa James from his first marriage to Caroline Carter.  They are also Uncle Frank's sisters.  So fun!!  It says that Kate was married to a Frank Shotten and Nettie to Henry Moshier.  These are added to my future research to do list!  I do have the marriage records for both of them.  Now I just need to prove that it is them!

Nettie Gurley

I didn't worry too much about Nettie Gurley.  It looked like she married a nice man, had two children and lived happily.  Boy was I wrong.  First, here is her marriage record to Richard Manahan. Notice that she was pretty young when she married, but her mother is the one who gave permission for her to marry.

I had seen this death certificate before, but I didn't think it was her because it says that she died in Toledo instead of in Norwalk.  I finally decided to take a closer look at it when I found it again.  It also says that she was divorced which I thought was incorrect.  I had to do some much further research to determine what had happened.

I finally found a newspaper article from 1927 that states their divorce.  I had started looking at 1927 because that was how long it said she had been at the Toledo State Hospital.  Yes, the Toledo State Hospital is a mental institution.  I was very curious about a lot of things.  The divorce happened in the early part of 1927 and by the end of 1927 she was sent by court order to the hospital.  I was feeling pretty bad for her.  I ordered the court records for the divorce and received them in the mail.  If anyone wants a copy of them, let me know.  It states that Richard filed for divorce because Nettie was a neglectful from her duties as a mother and wife.  She would go out and spend money and ignore her family.  It never states Nettie's side of the story because she failed to show up for court.  Apparently she was having a pretty difficult time and eventually was sent to the hospital where she died.