Lies and Marriages

Recently I watched an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? where British actress Clare Balding was exploring her heritage in America. The name of her American ancestors was Hoagland and I thought I recognized that name. As I looked at my family tree, I realized that my wife’s great-grandmother had married William Hoagland (he was her second husband). So my wife and Clare Balding are distant step-cousins. But that’s not the topic of this blog.

I had written about the complicated family tree on my wife’s father’s side where she had no less than six women who she called “grandma” when she was born. They were actually a biological grandmother, a step-grandmother, two biological great-grandmothers, and two step-great-grandmothers (see here). I wrote that blog six years ago, but as I read it again last night, I noticed a nuance I had not seen before that even further complicated that story. The below is the expanded version of just two of those women – one of my wife’s biological great-grandmothers and one of her step-great-grandmothers.

Because dates are so critical to this story, I’ve had to be more exacting than typical doing this ancestral research and not just give years of birth/marriage/death. So, let’s get into the details.

 

William and Rachel – Just a little lie?

(The marriage law in Michigan was changed just last year. Previously, girls younger than 18 could get married with the consent of one parent if they were 16-17 or at age 15 if they also had a judge’s approval. Girls under the age of 18 could also not marry a man more than 3 years older than they were. Now the age of consent has been raised to 18.)

William Duba was born in French-speaking Canada on 8 Aug 1869. His birth name was Dubeau, but it was anglicized to Duba when he immigrated to Michigan in 1878.

Rachel Swaney was born in Grand Traverse County, Michigan, on 20 Nov 1883. William and Rachel married on 30 Mar 1900. William gave his age as 30 (which was correct), but Rachel gave her age as 18 when she was actually only 16. So, not only was she too young to get married without consent, but she was marrying a man who was almost twice her age!

[Marriage of William and Rachel]

 

Just a few months later in June 1900, on the 1900 census (one of the few that asked for actual month and year of birth in addition to age), Rachel backed off a little bit in her lie and told the census taker that she had been born in Sep 1882 and that she was 17.

William and Rachel lived in Bellaire, Antrim County, MI. Over the next few years, they had three children – Gertrude Rose (born 14 Sep 1901 when Rachel was only 17), Beulah (born 20 Feb 1903 when Rachel was 19), and Allen (born 5 Jun 1905 when Rachel was 21). But the marriage was not a stable one.

 

Charles and Mary Ann – Bigger lies and deception

Charles Holly was born on 19 Feb 1879. In the 1900 census he was living with his parents in Forest Home Township, Antrim County, MI. The census records indicate that at age 21 he was married, but that his wife was not living with him. He had married in Dec 1897 to a girl his same age (18), but had left her and returned to his parents. She filed for divorce in June 1901, listing a cause of desertion, and the divorce had been finalized on 22 Oct 1901.

Mary Ann Nestell was born on 17 May 1887. This information was accurate in the 1900 census taken in early June of that year when she was living with her parents and siblings. Her mother had also indicated that Mary Ann was 13 which is consistent.

Just a year later, on 11 Nov 1901, Charles and Mary Ann married (Charles’ divorce had been finalized less than 3 weeks prior!) He gave his age as 22, which was correct, but Mary Ann inflated her age by four years and said that she was 18. Not only was she under the age of consent, but she was even younger than would have been necessary if she had consent! Imagine a 22-year-old man marrying a 14-year-old girl!

[Marriage of Charles and Mary Ann]

 

Fortunately, Charles and Mary Ann did not have any children together to complicate the situation. But the marriage was not going well, and the pattern of lies was not yet over.

 

Divorce and More Lies – Mary Ann

The years just before and after 1910 were marked with turmoil in these two families. In May 1909, Mary Ann [Nestell] Holly filed for divorce from Charles with a cause of Extreme Cruelty. However, that petition was dismissed. But Charles returned to live with his parents once again. He can be found living there in the 1910 census, once again listing himself as married, but with no wife in the home. On 18 Apr 1911 Mary Ann once again filed for divorce, this time on the basis of desertion. It was granted and finalized on 22 May 1911. Given Charles’ pattern, I have no reason to doubt the claim of desertion. (I should also note that Charles was a serial marrier, as he married and divorced at least twice more in the coming decades.)

Meanwhile, Mary Ann had moved into the home of William Duba (more on his situation below). In the 1910 census, she lists herself as age 23 (no longer lying about her age), but with a status of widowed. But this is obviously another lie as she is still legally married to Charles who is alive and living with his parents. Apparently, she does not want to be shown in the census records as married and living with a man who is not her husband? Four months after her divorce from Charles was finalized, Mary Ann married Willam on 5 Sep 1911.

Mary Ann lived a long life, not passing away until her late 90’s. But she had told so many lies about her age over the years that even in her death there was confusion. Her social security record lists her birth as 18 May 1883, but her obituary lists her birth as 17 May 1886 and her gravestone has 17 May 1887. At least her grave has the correct date on it. The obituary was obviously written by someone who did not know the family well. Besides the date of birth being off by a year, it misspells the name of her stepson as Alan instead of Allen, and lists her local step-grandchildren as Louise Gibbard (instead of Louise Pop) and William VanDeCar (instead of Charles VanDeCar).

 

Wrapping up the Loose Ends – William and Rachel

But what happened to Rachel [Swaney] Duba? William was listed as divorced in the 1910 census and he remarried in 1911. And what happened to their three children?

William and Rachel divorced some time after the birth of Allen in 1905 and before her subsequent marriage (see more below). Mary Ann’s obituary, while having many errors as noted above, says that she moved to Bellaire in 1910 – again, just shortly before the census was taken.

The older two children of William and Rachel (Gertrude and Beulah) stayed at least for a short time with William as they were still there in 1910. Some time later they moved to Detroit and lived with their aunt. Beulah passed away in Detroit in 1919 at the age of only 16. Gertrude married Archibald VanDeCar (in Detroit) in 1920 at the age of 19. Allen, the youngest child of William and Rachel cannot be found in the 1910 census. But in the 1920 census he was 14 and working at a foundry in Pontiac, MI.

Rachel married a second time to William Hoagland on 7 Apr 1909. But she eventually divorced him and married Alfred Stafford on 20 Apr 1922. She and Alfred had one son together on 16 May 1923.

 

Conclusion

Rachel does not appear to have done any lying except for when she married at age 16. But Mary Ann gave many different years for her birth over the years and also lied about her marital status on the 1910 census. At the time of her death, there were conflicting dates about how old she was.

Divorces, second, third and even fourth marriages. Just trying to keep all the individuals straight is hard enough. But when you add in the phony dates it makes for a pretty complicated story!