Zander's Inside Voice

After months of frustration with the apparent loss of my great-great grandmother to the bowels of history, I think I found a group on Facebook that can help me figure out what happened to her! It’s a group dedicated to the county where she and a lot of my other relatives lived and worked.

What happened to Diana has been on my mind since the spring, when I got into this huge genealogy kick. Back in July I wrote this post with all my questions about Diana… Where Did I Come From?

I’ve had many discoveries and revelations since then. When my great-grandfather died, he never listed Diana as his mother. When her daughter (the other illegitimate child she had with my great-great grandfather) died, she only mentioned her father and not her mother at all. When Diana’s younger sons with her actual husband died, they also didn’t mention her. But her middle name is on all of their death certificates, although one of her children didn’t know her maiden name. They all used Elizabeth and not Diana. Why?

My great-grandfather was her oldest. He was the only one in his 20s when she died. He lived with his father or grandparents from what I can tell. In his obituary, he lists his father’s second wife but not his own mother. It doesn’t look like he ever lived with her. But he knew who she was. My father has no idea on this either. But for me, this is someone I am genetically related to and would like to know more about.

Based on my discoveries about her, it looks like she must’ve died between 1910 and 1913, when her husband married another woman. All of her children, with the exception of my great-grandfather, died young. Was she also sickly to die in her 30s? Did my great-great grandfather poison my great-grandfather’s mind so he would reject her?

Or is it something even more sinister? Like she walked away from all of her children? Was she placed in a sanitarium or something like that? Did someone want her gone? And why was there an unused marriage license that my great-great grandfather’s oldest brother gave the information for? Was it a way to make these children legitimate? Was my great-great grandfather the problem or was she crazy? And why has she dropped from history?

This Facebook group might have the answers I need. I am hopeful. One woman in the group is the daughter of my great-great grandfather’s youngest son. He was 26 years younger than my great-grandfather and the one who got everything when my great-great grandfather died. This woman knows so much about my family. Well, our family I guess! I am so hopeful that I can get answers about Diana who appears to have just faded away to nothing. If the truth is that she was awful…I will deal with that when I find out for sure. But for right now, I will just sit happily with the pictures I got to see and stories about family members that I only heard about briefly.