Treasure Chest Thursday: Secrets

Here goes using the blogging prompt of Treasure Chest Thursday. If you need blogging ideas then the very bestest place to go is Geneabloggers and their Daily Blogging Prompts. A lot of bloggers like Treasure Chest Thursday as it encourages us to dig in the files and share some bit of family history usually with photos, and who doesn't like a story offered up with a pretty picture? So here's mine for this Thursday and it's about family secrets.

Mom tells of the early days of her interest in genealogy and the reactions she got from family members. Her Uncle Tuck found out she was nosing around her GG father, Samuel Albert House' history and told her that she better not go looking for something she might not like if she found out. Cryptic. Mom later added up all the pieces and came to the conclusion that her GGF was most likely illegitimate. I've written about that before and here are the links:

The basics of his father's identity:
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/06/big-family-secrets.html
A theory about why his natural father and mother didn't marry:
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/07/big-family-secret-dunkers.html
A funny story about how SA House enlisted in the Confederate Army even though he deserted after a couple of months, and argued with his relatives about the North versus the South all the days of his life:
http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2011/07/another-drinking-man.html

Here he is looking quite reputable later in life, below.

Samuel Albert House (1832 - 1917)

But there are more secrets on the tree than Samuel Albert House! On Dad's side, his father's parents didn't marry until after the second child. The usual lust preceding nuptials, you might ask? Mom has a better explanation and one that's been verified. Here's the couple with their offspring, below.

Please click on the image to read names and dates.

Mom and Grandma Kelly (Helen Gertrude Zeller Kelly 1894 - 1985) were pretty close and when they visited, GM would always ask Mom what else she'd found out in researching the family. Grandma loved a good story and doubly so if it was about the family! One day Grandma said: I know a secret about Lee's parents. Lee was Grandpa Kelly (John Lee Kelly 1892 - 1969.) That's them in the picture above: Christiana Eckhart Kelly (1861 - 1932) and Francis "Frank" P. Kelly (1854 - 1932). Mom replied, cool as the proverbial cucumber, Oh, do you mean that they didn't get married until after their second child was born? Grandma's mouth dropped! Mom knew the secret!!

So here's the story. Frank was Catholic: they were Irish, so whatta you expect? Her family were all German Lutherans, and stubborn! Both parents, especially hers, put up a fuss and forbade the marriage... so they went ahead and had two kids out of wedlock: Mary in 1880, and Eugene in 1888. Eventually the the parents gave in and the marriage was allowed on 23 Feb 1889. Finally! They went on to have 7 children in total.

Mom loved it that she and Grandma Kelly knew secrets together. Wonder how shocked Grandma would be to know I'm blogging about this for all the world to see? Oh, Grandma it's a very different world out there and today no one cares who da baby daddy!

The URL for this post is:  http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2013/01/treasure-chest-thursday-secrets.html