Lillian Moore Ray, Part II

I found her!! Previously, I had a woe-is-me episode over Lillian Moore Ray. Well, thanks to FamilySearch Indexers, I broke through!Why is it that it always takes a little creative searching to find what you're looking for?

When we last left off, Lillian Moore had married Franklin Ray. They had three children:

i. Ralph Franklin Ray

ii. Hazel G. Ray

iii. Belluah Ray

Well, let's first examine Ralph Franklin Ray.

A birth record for him appears in the Ohio Births and christenings, 1821-1962. He is b. 22 Aug 1884 in Wellsville, Columbiana, OH with parents of Frank Ray and Nellie Moore. Nellie/Lillian close enough, I'll take it. (Source film 931592/ ref # Bk.3 p.150 cn.297)

In 1900 he was living in Avalon Borough, Allegheny, PA

1910 St. Louis Ward 22.

WWI Draft Card, Mrs. Elizabeth Porter Ray will always know his whereabouts. How about that? PORTER!!! I haven't found their marriage record, yet. They have three children:

i. 1. Elizabeth L. Ray (lillian?)

i. 2. Robert F. Ray (franklin?)

i. 3. Hazel V. Ray (named after aunt?)

I have found much about the children.

The third chid, Belluah, was born 18 July 1894 in Wellsville, Columbiana, OH. (931592 film #, ref #. vol. 5. pg212 #55) No information other then t

hat.

Interestingly, I believe that Hazel has the most information. She was born 07 December 1885 in Wellsville, Columbiana, Ohio ((931592 film #, no ref number given).

She married Cecil Burson, son of G.W. Burson and Jennie Guiney on December 7, 1906. Here is the marriage certificate (left hand, bottom) (film number 0886219, ref. 2:3zpwdwm)

The 1910, 1920 and 1930 census shows three children:

ii. 1. Frank R. Burson

ii. 2. Sara E. Burson

iii 3. Helen L. Burson

Plenty of poking, typing and banging on they keyboard in both ancestry.com and familysearch.org find the North CArolina Deaths 193101993 for Frank Ray Burson. he was born June 15, 1908 and was a ret. engineer. He died September 28, 1985. He was the son of Cecil Burson and Hazel Ray and was married to Claire Heyden. (film 1991194 ref # v. 37b, cn37587). More googling got me to a son, Ray H. Burson (they love their family names!) He confirms this at the Rutger's Oral History Project. I emailed him a bit ago at an email I found. It hasn't bounced back to me, so hopefully, he can confirm and perhaps give details?

And that gets me excited. And when I explain it to my mom, gets her confused. Finally, something to share at the family reunion!

Bakers in the 1930 Census

Finally. I have found the Baker Family in the 1930 Census. I first searched for Clarence Baker in Familysearch.org and low and behold, the family popped up. There they were: Clarence Lee Baker, Hazel M. Baker and Clarence M. Baker. All the birthdates looked good, as did parent's birth places. FINALLY.

But I searched again in ancestry and did not come up with them. It's not a difficult name. All other documents tell me they've been in the U.S. for a while. But nothing. I've previously searched for Clarence and Hazel in Gary, IN to no avail.

Using the information from familysearch, I looked up the pages in the U.S. 1930 Census manually.

I found them under Barker, Clarence, Habel and Clarence. The annotator must have been drunk that day or something because it's clearly Baker. Oh well. Here it is, finally:

Lillian Moore Ray

Oh Lillian Moore Ray, where art thou? Your father was George Washington Moore and your mother, Martha White. You are my Calvin Moore's half-sister.

You married Franklin Ray, son of Zachariah Ray. You were married 25 September 1880, coincedently, the day I was married, just in the year 2010. Your father and step-mother were married on my birthday. But I digress.

You had three children: Beluah H. Ray, b. 1895, Hazel G. Ray, b. 1886 and Ralph F. Ray, b. 1884 all in Ohio. (These are about years). You lived in Allegany PA for a while and then in 1920, you were living in California. After that, you vanish, both you and your husband.

A potential son was found living in Chicago, IL based on the WWII registrations. But alas, you and your kin disappear.

Christmas as a child

When I was growing up in Indiana, Christmas was a huge event. My grandmother, Sylvia, was an awesome cook and more importantly an awesome baker. I remember the lovely pies on the table, the several days of cookie baking and the cheesecake. Oh the cheesecake!

The days leading up to Christmas was cooking and baking. My mom would go over to help and often a few cousins would come over to have their time with grandma. It was fairly easy as they lived across the field from my grandma and my parent's business was next door. There were nine cousins, my sister and myself, the three who lived across the field and the four who lived down the road.

The day of Christmas evening was spent gathering everything. We would go to grandma and grandpa's house to open presents. Early on, we got gifts from our aunts and uncles and our grandparents. Our moms would always order clothes for us from the Sears and/or JcPenny catalog. We got two outfits each-a dress and a school outfit. more often then not, the girls had matching dress outfits in some way or another. As we got older, we would exchange names with cousins to pick a cousin for which to buy. When we got older, my grandma would take Kelley and I shopping for our own clothes. We'd go to the mall in Michigan City and make a Saturday afternoon of it. We'd have lunch and grandma would always insist we'd have sundaes. One year, I don't remember why-I think it's when grandma fell and broke her hip maybe?- grandpa starting taking us shopping. When he did, we got a lot more then two outfits. I think we would say Grandpa, we can't decide and he'd tell us to get them all and let's go. We just couldn't tell everyone else :)

Christmas Eve was present opening at Grandpa and Grandma Poparad's house. We'd open presents and then have supper. Usually, it was Italian Beef and broasted chicken with potato wedges. There may have been boxed mac and cheese, too. The Italian beef was in the crockpot most of the day and the chicken came from the gas station down the road. Is broasted chicken available outside of NW Indiana? I haven't found it in Texas or New York. I digress. We'd eat, do a fashion show and then usually, go home from there. My cousins went to early church at their church. My mom and grandparents would usually go to midnight service. When I got older, I would often go with them.

Christmas morning was usually early at our house. We'd open presents in the morning and spend the next few hours cleaning up and putting toys together. There were always barbie dolls. I loved playing with my barbies. One year, I remember my sister getting a glow worm. She was probably two or three. I was so excited for her that we opened the present before my parents got up. Then we wrapped it back up. There was the year that there was a present in the back of the tree. My mom put the tree up in a corner. When I reached back for it, the tree fell over and on me. There was the year we go our fake cabbage kid dolls (my dad didn't work a lot) and then the year we got real cabbage patch kids. We each had preemie dolls in our stockings.

My mom loved decorating for Christmas--and still does. There is a santa claus doll that is hand made and I believe my dad made with his grandmother. Or did she make it for him? We had stockings that were made for us and were hung on the back of the front door. No one ever used the front door. We rarely even answered the door bell if someone rang it. If we knew them, they came to the back. When the bay window went in, she built a town with the fake snow and the multitude of buildings. There were Christmas figurines all on the tables. And the Christmas music-always the Christmas music!

After presents, etc., we'd go to breakfast at grandma and grandpa's house. They would have a large dinner at one, but we'd go down to GG Knapp's afterward. When that relationship went side ways, we'd stay for dinner. There was always food, so so much food! Turkey, Swedish meatballs, ham, mashed potatos, and pies. The strawberry pie was my favorite, along with the cheesecake. The female cousins would get one strawberry pie and my two male cousins could share their own strawberry pie. One year, all hell broke lose when there wasn't enough gravy.

We played poker after dinner. Always had many many dishes to clean up. Often, we had to take them upstairs for the dishwasher. We'd wash the china downstairs by hand in the back and dry them on the washer.

Communication with Jim Estepp

I wrote to James Randol Estepp (jim at estepp.net). He was the author of the packet that I received from Doug Estepp, Stephen's uncle.

He has sent me some nice photos of his grandfather, James Albert Estepp (brother of Rhodes) as well as Estep Cemetery, where he thinks Rhodes is buried. I will need to talk to Lisa (Estepp) to confirm what she knows.

Estepp family

So. I have married into the Estepp family. I thought my Kentucky line was confusing! Whoa nelly, these people did not move. At least, though, they changed their names to random names. The only problem is that the spelling of these names are not standardized, so searching can be difficult.

The Estepp family is originally Estep and there are families that are Estepp/Estep in the same generation. My husband's gg-grandfather is Rhodes Estep, who is the son of Jonathan Estepp, husband of Christina Meades. We recently receieved the ancestors and family of James R. Estepp from his uncle. James R. Estepp was the brother of Rhodes Estep. There are a lot of children and families inter marrying.

Stephen and I were married September 25, 2010 at Miller Park Pavillion, Miller Beach, Indiana.