Meeting More Marthas

In continuing to dig for information on the children of Lewis C. and Martha J. (LEE) LYNN, I managed pretty easily to find information on their daughter, Martha Catherine (LYNN). In the Illinois Statewide Marriage index (I TOLD you it’s a great resource) I found her marriage to Isaac F. GREGORY on Sept. 25, 1897, in Jackson County.

I found the GREGORYs in several subsequent census records. And, in those records, it appears that Martha used her middle name, Catherine. (I’m guessing to avoid confusion with her mother.) It appears that the couple, who stayed primarily in Murphsyboro, Ill., had at least four children:

·         Ezra David (also listed as David Ezra in some documentation),

·         Glenn E.

·         Louis A., 1910-1979

·         Maud “Maudie” F., 1908-12 Apr 1929

I found Martha C. GREGORY and some of her children still in the same place in the 1930 census. There were also three grandchildren listed as living there. My initial assumption was that these children belonged to Ezra and/or Glenn, especially since Ezra was listed as “divorced.” I found:

• ·         Lorin Edgar,  1922
• ·         Billie Ruth, 1925
• ·         Martha J., 1927

I’ve since found items to confirm that Lorin and Billie were Ezra’s children. And, in a separate genealogy data base, Martha is listed as Ezra’s child, too. What I found odd was that neither Lorin nor Billie’s obituaries mentioned any other sibling. For now, I will list Martha as Ezra’s child but will still look for something beyond a genealogy database to confirm it. (Yes, another generation of Marthas! Love it.)

While I don’t know who her parents were (for certain), I do know whom she married and who some of her children were. Martha, you see, made national headlines in 1957. More on that in my next post…