This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: GabrielRotello54 Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.robinson/10229/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hi - I am researching a family mystery and I thought that perhaps someone on the Robinson thread might be able to help. My grandfather William Princeton Adams was born in Boston in the 1880s. His always said that his father was named William Porter Adams of Boston and that his mother was Clara Robinson of Kentucky, most probably of Louisville. She may have been Clara E Robinson. At some point in the early 1900s when my grandfather was in his teens, his father died, followed shortly by his mother and his only sibling, a sister probably named Christine Mary. The circumstances are very obscure, but may have involved some kind of tragedy. He would never speak of it. He died in 1983, always refusing to speak of what happened or say anything about his parents. However, he once told my grandmother that after his parents' deaths, relatives from Kentucky arrived to take him down to the Louisville area. But when one of them made disparaging remarks about how his poor mother had 'married a Yankee,' he took offense and ran away. He also told my grandmother that at some point many years later that he traveled to Louisville to seek out these relatives but lost his nerve at the last moment and never met them. He eventually moved to Danbury, CT, married my grandmother Rowena Raymond and had my mother, his only child, who he named Mary Christine after his dead sister. We have been unable to find any record of who his parents actually were or of what happened. To make matters more complicated, he said he was born on June 7, 1886. There was a Boston man named William Porter Adams who indeed had a male child on June 7, 1886, and who indeed had a wife named Clara E. BUT - she was Clara E Rand of New Hampshire, not Clara E Robinson of Kentucky. When we discovered this we assumed that he was somehow confused about his mother's identity. But we have recently discovered an odd fact - the male child born to William Porter Adams and Clara E Adams actually died the same day. This raises the possibility that either my grandfather was coincidentally born on June 7, 1886, to parents with the same names, William and Clara Adams, or that he somehow appropriated the identity of a child who died at birth. In any event, we now consider it very probable that his mother really was Clara Robinson of Kentucky. But we have not been able to find any record of her, or her marriage to an Adams, or the birth of my grandfather or his sister Christine Mary. So if anyone has any information about a Clara Robinson who was from Kentucky, married an Adams in the 1880s, and lived in Boston, please let me know. It's quite a mystery and we're very eager to clear it up. Thanks so much! Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.