Now, her father, Gene, had 3 brothers, Max, Harry, and Jim Frank. Max was the oldest and born in 1921, I think. I knew all of them and had spent nearly every summer at my great grandmother's house. I thought I knew everything about their family. Then, my mother found this.
This is a picture of the 1920 census from Dothan, Alabama. The highlighted section shows Masco Fowler (my great grandfather) as the head of household, Belle (my great grandmother) as his wife, and Sudie, their three and a half year old daughter, who according to another website was born around December 1916.
???
Neither my mother or I had ever heard of Sudie. Who was she? Why can't we find any further records or her? My writerly brain is running circles around this mystery. It's probably something like she passed away before any of the other kids were aware of her, and she just wasn't mentioned. But what if it were More?
One of my grandfather's brothers is still alive. My mom is going to ask him if he knows anything. But if he doesn't, who else is still around to answer our questions? Maybe I'll just have to write my own story for Sudie.
7 comments:
You could try to find some of the other people who were living there at the same time, maybe they remember Sudie?
It is still pretty weird that they never mentioned her -- had no photographs of her, no grave that they visited, etc. This is a time when people took pictures of dead people, including their dead children, to remember them by.
So why did the boys never hear of Sudie?
Or were they just not allowed to talk about her?
I visited the house in Dothan several times as a kid and do not remember any mention of a Sudie
http://www.lawrencefamhis.com/daughtrey-o/p2490.htm#i62238
Sudie Fowler was listed as a daughter at age three years one month, born in Alabama, in the household of E. Masco Fowler in Dothan Ward 3, Houston Co., Alabama, in the Census of 1920 enumerated 26 February 1920.1
No mention of a surving Sudie in the obituaries of my grandparents
http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/houston/obits/winsletteobits.txt
Sudie did not show up in the 1930 census
http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gl=CEN_1930&rank=1&new=1&so=3&MSAV=0&msT=1&gss=ms_r_f-184&gsln=fowler&msbdy=1917&msbpn__ftp=Alabama%2C+USA&msbpn=3&msbpn_PInfo=5-%7C0%7C1652393%7C0%7C2%7C3246%7C3%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C0%7C&uidh=000&_83004003-n_xcl=m
There's no mention of her in 1925 Alabama census either. Mom has an email out to Larry, Harry's son. Harry passed away in January, but we think Max is still around. She's going to see if Larry knows anyone we can ask, including Max.
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