In a message dated 12/4/2002 8:29:59 PM US Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: > Valerie, I did several searches on Ancestry.com of the 1920 and 1930 census > images and I couldn't find any record of your great-grandmother. I used > spelling variations of the surname "Wagner" and still found nothing. I even > searched the statewide death index with no results. In 1944, she would have > been about 65 years of age. Have you been able to locate her obit? > Kay Hi Kay! Thank you so much for trying to help me. Now I know that it wasnt just my poor census browsing skills. She just isnt there. About 2 years ago, I visited the Schuyler County Gen Society where I heard they had albums full of obits from the counties surrounding that area (McDonough and Fulton included). Page by page I searched - but there was nothing. But these were just a spattering of collected obits - not a full record of all obits. As I reached the last pages without a trace of May, my hopes were dashed. So I headed to the small town of Vermont where she was last known to live in 1944. I walked the cemetary - stone by stone. I went to a small cafe where the waitress told me on Wed nights they held a women's club gathering and the ladies would all have lived in Vermont in 1944. That dear woman then CALLED the leader of this club!! --- but again --- no one knew of May WAGNER. So they suggested I go to the house of the man who used to run the local funeral parlor during those years. Desperate to find May, with only one day to research before heading back to Indiana, I did. But he was not happy that I knocked on his door, and he snapped at me that he had given all records to another funeral company in McComb. I called that company -- and they said May WAGNER was not on record. But I had found a cousin of mine online a few years prior. He was related to me thru May's sister, Sarah BREEDEN. His wife Connie took me to May's mothers grave in McDonough (Scotts Cemetary). There are other relatives of May there, but not May. (As far as I know). She also said they remember a relative telling them that they had attended May's funeral but could not remember where -- they are guessing this would be sometime in the 1940's, and somewhere in that tri-county area. Connie had a copy of Mays brother Newton INGRAM's obituary of 1944 from McComb, McDonough County, which shows May was alive and living in Vermont, IL. Maybe this obit is wrong and leading me astray?? Was May ever remarried? Did she die with a different last name??? Woe is me. Connie typed her brother's obit from 1944 for me as follows: Newton INGRAM, 1225 East Pierce street, died at the Phelps Hospital about 3:00a.m. yesterday after an illiness of one year. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow at the Dodsworth funeral home. Rev. C.C. Mordling will officiate, with the burial at Scotts cemetery. He was the Son of Marire (Uriah) and Permelia Ingram and was born January 17, 1872, in Schuyler county. He resided in Bethel township before moving to Macomb. In 1912 he married Mary Nancy Clark, who died about three months ago. They had no children. He is survived by five sisters, Mesdames May Wagner of Vermont, Sarah Alice Breeden of LaPrairie, Frances Mason of Macomb, Belle Cracraft and Jane Scalf of Beatrice, Neb. Two Brothers, Jasper and Charles Ingram are deceased. * * * * * * END OBIT Connie added: The obit of Mary Nancy Clark Ingram list seven grandchildren. Oren Mason, Silas Mason, and Jess Mason, of Macomb, Clarence Mason of Beardstown, Mrs. Ocie Vogler of Colchester, Clem Mason and Mrs Oacle Hendrickson of Macomb. Her obit said they were married May 18, 1911. I want to thank all the people who have volunteered to do these extra searches for me like Kay above did, and thank you to all who have sent me suggestions of what to do next. I very much appreciate them all! You are all angels. THANK YOU! Hope you all have a blessed Holiday Season! Valerie