My Mom called me yesterday to wish me a Happy New Year, we had already exchanged text messages the night before. I still can’t get over her learning how to send text messages, go head Momma!

She asked me what I was doing and before I could get it out she said, “looking for dead people, I bet.” Of course she was right…Once again I complained how I couldn’t find her mother, Eunice Franklin before 1930 and that I wasn’t sure if the Eunice Franklin in the 1930 census from Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri was even her!

I started reading the names to her of the other household members, John White, Elizabeth White, Virginia White, Orange White, Samuel White, Rosemary White, Ednamay White, Elizabeth White, Florence White, Artelia Jones and Lucy Brown. She said, very calmly I might add, “Oh, those are Mother Dear’s (that’s what her daughters called their mother) cousins, I don’t know who that Jones woman is or Lucy Brown.” I’m like, “WHAT?” “Yeah, I remember Mother Dear talking about Orange, I think I even met him once.” “Maaa..!” “What?” “You never mentioned any of those names!” “You never mentioned them to me either and when you read them I remembered.” “You’re right, I shoulda asked. Thanks Ma, but now I gotta go, I gotta go find me some more dead people! With a name like Orange White I should be able to find a bunch more information! Love you, talk to you later.”

Just for kicks, I searched and found five males with the name of Orange White for 1900, 1920 and 1930! But I put him to the side to investigate later. I wanted to know if Elizabeth White was my great grandmothers sister. Several hours later I had my answer and more questions!

Why did I have to track Elizabeth? I come from a family of women, my great great grandmother had five girls, I’ve only found four, my great grandmother had two girls, my grandmother had three girls, my mother had three girls, her sister had two girls and her younger sister had one girl. That’s a lot of women!

Yes Elizabeth was my great grandmother’s sister and now I have her married name! I have no idea who “Artelia” Jones might be, I suspect the name may be something else but I can’t decipher the handwriting. And I don’t know who Lucy Brown is..but I will find out!

I STILL can’t find Grandma Eunice before 1930 but now I know she went to Kansas City for a visit.

I’m hunting and untangling.