Too Much/Not Enough Information: Complaints

Why is it so hard to maintain an appropriate amount of information on anything in particular?  I'm living a life in which I know way too much about people I don't care about, yet I am not quite sure if my dad is married or not.  This lack of clarity can only be expressed in .gif form.

I'm frustrated because I'm trying to finish my research on my diarist, Anna.  What I need, and all I could really hope to acquire in this type of case, is her obituary.  I know her birth year, birth location, and probable location of death, which SHOULD make finding the obit fairly easy, and yet I have nothing.

Corresponding with her nephew's wife was not as fruitful as I had hoped it would be.  Once she decided that I wasn't of much use to her for her own genealogical needs, she blew me off.  SUCH TYPICAL.  I did learn that Anna remarried someone named Charles "Chick" Davis, that she was living in Phoenix at least in the late 60s, and that her daughter married a doctor, which is why I can't find her by her maiden name.  She did send a picture of Anna, though, which was worth a million dollars to me.

Ancestry.com has a social security death index entry for an Anne C. Davis (could easily be my Anna H. C. Davis), who died in Maricopa County in 1996.  None of our online newspaper databases have a corresponding obituary, however.  I think that means I have to drag myself into our disgusting main library and look at the microfiche.  Seriously, navigating through that place reminds me of the old Simpsons Nintendo game.  End of analogy.

If I can find the obituary, then it might include the married name of her daughter Colleen, which might allow me to locate her now.  But if I have to search in the microfiche, then I have to look at every paper from that year.  Because all I have is the year.  Do obituaries only come out on Sundays?  I need to locate someone who reads actual newspapers and ask them.  Looking at microfiche is incredibly tedious even when you know exactly where you're going, so I expect that looking at all of the obituary pages for all of the papers in an entire year would take months, at least.  And I'm not even sure I have the right year.  Those death indexes are often slightly off, and that might not even be my Anna.

It might be easier to apply for a copy of her death certificate with vital records first just to be sure I have the right date, but they are somewhat tough customers at that office when it comes to handing shit over to non-relatives.

I wonder, if I found everything I needed and then located the daughter, if she would want the book.  What if she packed the diary with a bunch of other Goodwill stuff because she hated her mother?

And yes, I could just ask my dad if he married his longterm banshee (actually, I have called her La Llorona for years), but he can be oddly secretive, and if he didn't tell me, then perhaps he doesn't want me to know for some reason that I suppose I will respect.  He hasn't told anyone.  He informed my uncle that he was considering doing it, then never followed up or announced anything.  I only know because my uncle told my cousin, who told me.  I assume they probably did marry because they each wear a matching Harley Davidson ring (real cool, guys) on their ring fingers.  Dweadful.

Research Research

Notes for myself, because Ancestry is very annoying for temporarily & informally documenting info.

Found Jack's obituary, he died in North Hollywood in 1954.  Almost no useful info contained in the obit, which I had to purchase to view:

I see an Anna Davis who died in Glendale, AZ in 1984 who has an almost but not quite exact birthdate.  I think it's probably her, but I have not been able to find any obituaries for her in Arizona to qualify it.  Annoying!

Since I'm at an impasse with those two, I'm branching out to her immediate family.  Not super relevant to searches, but her father's work industry in 1920 is recorded as "motion pictures".  1920 is so early!  Much earlier than that and movies were still things you paid a penny to see through a viewfinder while turning a wheel.  So that's kind of neat.

The diary was given as a Christmas gift to Anna and inscribed "from Errol".  Errol is her brother, whom the census indicates is her exact age, to the day.  A twin!

Researching him was a good idea.  I should have more of those.  Like Anna, Errol was living in Hollywood in the 50s and appears to have had some kind of stage career with his wife.  There are a couple of publicity shots of the two of them.  Haven't found anything on google yet.

Errol and wife Arlene Smith Whitney

Next on my list is to try to find Anna's 2nd husband, Charles "Chick" Davis.  Thanks for having a unique name, guy.  I'm sure it'll be easy to find you with no birthdate.

Also, I will have to branch into her other siblings, particularly a younger one, Kathleen, who potentially could still be alive.  Very old, but alive.

Repeated searches for daughter Colleen turn up absolutely nothing, and Kay, the woman I have been emailing with, apparently has no idea as to her whereabouts.  Frustrating, as she is a family member and therefore has access to other family members, theoretically (try, Kay).

I would do this all day long if I could.  I love untangling little balls of information and reordering it into something cohesive and meaningful.

Anna in 1967.  This is just what I thought she looked like.  How amazing.

DEVELOPMENT!

Oooh, who got an email from another amateur genealogist today?  This guy.

It's so exciting to get data or evidence in a concentration to which so much is lost with a simple death.  People don't record things about their lives, especially excessively pragmatic people.  How the hell am I supposed to be a spy detective archivist when there's no material?  That's why this is exciting.

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Subject: RE: Anna Helen Connelly Davis Hi Brittany,  Sorry I have not back to you sooner. I just reaad the message today. Anna Ireland is my husband aunt who married John Connelly and then married again after the death of John. I know she lived in Arizona and we did visit her back in the late 60's. She had a daughter Colleen who married a doctor. We have no idea where she is living now. I will have to check my files and see what I have enter in the records about her. I will try to update them for you.  you can contact me through my e-mail.  What are the dates in the diary? I wonder why her diary was in an antique store?  Wow, you may some information in the diary that I could use.  I hope this will help for now.  Kay Connelly ----------------------------- So!  She lived in Arizona in the late 60s.  A record without a source on Ancestry says she died in 1966, and I can't find anything reliable in the Social Security Death Index.  None of those entries seem to fit her, so I can't reasonably say when she died at all. That explains how the diary got here.  She schlepped it with her over 30 years, through various marriages and moves, so it must have retained some meaning for her.  I assume that she died in Arizona, and her personal effects were boxed up and donated, diary included. I asked for a picture and for her to try to find a way to contact the daughter.  All right!  I wish someone would find some artifact belonging to one of my ancestors and send it along with some research.  Damn!