Monday, May 12, 2014

The Family Scandal-That Wasn't

June Walley-Second row, second from the left
This is both a sad and a happy story. It is the story of family lost and family found. When I began researching my Tapply relatives, I knew there were a few "skeletons" in the family closet. I had heard the stories of divorces, misbehavior and one in particular about a baby born out of wedlock and adopted by another family member. When I filled in the original family tree, I plugged in what I knew and hoped I'd find more.

Before 1920, my grandmother's sister Bess Tapply and her husband Samuel Walley were living in Rutland, Vermont where he worked for A T & T. I found a very sad record of a stillborn child early in my research and I knew that her only other child was adopted, so Bess was unable to have children of her own. Bess was one of the loveliest and most loving people I have known.  I could only imagine how long she and Sam tried for children. It made me very happy to find this in the 1920 census:
There is the child they adopted living with the Walleys at 1 1/2 years old. In a later census she is recorded as Eunice Haskins Walley. The story as I heard it was that Bess's brother Harry has gotten a girl "in the family way" and that Bess and Sam had adopted the baby. They always called her June. So I recorded Harry as the father with mother "unknown" and Bess and Sam as the adopted parents.

Clearly there was some trace of her beginnings in the census. Could the mother's name have been Haskins? I looked in Ancestry and FamilySearch and didn't turn up anything. In the meantime, I was also turning up Tapply cousins who were interested in genealogy. One was Holly Jones, Harry Tapply's granddaughter. Did she know the family story? I hoped so. But one day she emailed me and asked "Who is this June?" This is one of the moments in genealogy you don't look forward to. I told her the story I knew and referred her to the family reunion photo. In the close-up above you see June in the second row, second from the left next to her half-sister. Did they know? Probably not. Holly had never heard this story from her mother Beryl or her aunts Fern and Janice.

Holly felt sure there was more to this story-the 1920 census showed Harry living with his parents and listed as a widower. I began to suspect so as well. I think it was BillionGraves that turned up the record that made us sure. Gertrude L. Tapply showed up in a search, buried in Westminster, Massachusetts in the Haskins family plot.

 Unlikely that she'd be buried as a Tapply if they hadn't married. Next we found the death record:
So we know she died in February of 1918, that she was married at the time, and that June was born in late 1917 or very early 1918. The cause of death doesn't seem like a death in childbirth.
Finally we located the marriage record:
So clearly Gertrude was pregnant when they married and Harry was in the Army fighting in WW I. Was he even around when the baby was born? When his wife died? Perhaps not. Even so, he'd be hard-pressed to care for an infant by himself and there was his sister longing for a child. So June lost her mother and her father early in her life and became the very loved child of Bess and Sam Walley. Bess and Sam had a large house in Newburyport, Massachusetts and went on to raise June's son, Ted as well. Family lost, family found. And another family myth dispelled!

10 comments:

  1. Post Script, Yes, Gertrude Haskins Tapply's great great nephew saw the cemetery photo when he was researching his line and contatc me to send me a beautiful memento: a Military style New Testament, covered in khaki, inscribed to Harry from Gertrude. I imagine she sent her husband off to World War I with it in his uniform.

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  2. That's great. A nice addendum to the story.

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  3. Hi,

    I want to let you know that your blog post is listed in today's Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2014/05/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-may-16-2014.html

    Have a wonderful weekend!

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  4. Thanks Jana, always nice to have new people find the blog.

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  5. Dying in 1918 perhaps she succumbed to the flu epidemic that occurred at that time. She would have been about the right age for those persons most susceptible. Jon

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  6. True, although the death records from that period that I indexed for FamilySearch said "influenza", but she could have had it and developed complications. Hers says "anaemia and nephritis".

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  7. I just want to thank you for all the work you have done on the Tapply family. I am a descendant, also, and find it fascination!

    Just an FYI, I noticed on your family tree on Anc@stry.com that you list June Walley's date of death as "July, 21 1967?". According to Samuel H. Walley's obituary published in the Boston Herald dated April 8, 1970, his daughter was living in Springfield at the time of his death. She is listed as Mrs. John P. Walsh. The Massachusetts Death Index shows a Eunice Walley Walsh passing away in Holyoke, Ma. in 1977. Both the obituary clipping and death index can be found on Anc@stry.com There was no mention of a grandson listed in Sam's obituary. Best wishes, Lindy

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  8. Hi Lindy,
    Great to find another Tapply cousin. If you like the blog, join our Tapply family group over on FB as well. I'm glad you were able to find an obit for Sam with more accurate information for "June" Walley. I'll check this against what I found. I knew June worked as a nurse, but not much more. As for the grandson....well that's another family secret. Ted was June's son but raised by Bess and Sam as their own. That's why no mention in the obit.

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  9. Hi, I'm also a retired genealogist and I'm in the midst of a mtDNA Project to identify a wife's surname in the 1600's. In tracking the mother to daughter descent in one of the families I'm trying to match, I arrived at Gertrude and her daughter Eunice Haskins Tapply Walley. Thank you for filling in the blanks with your great work. I also found another birth certifice at the same time and place (gardner, MA) for Amy Eunice Tappley, possibly a double entry due to the adoption. And an earlier marriage for June, in 1940. If June's son Ted is still living, he would be candidate for my project, or if June had a daughter, she too would obviously qualify. thanks again for your work. You can reach me at dan@dshamilton.com if you wish.

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    1. Someone else contacted me...not sure what branch they are from. They had a definite death date and place for Eunice (June) in western Mass. I doubt Ted is still with us, but I've found no evidence one way or the other.

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