The FAN Club: A Gift That Keeps on Giving

FAN Research: Riches Ahead!

It isn't all mysteries and adventure; by following the FANs (Family, Associates & Neighbors), fascinating stories can be unearthed. Families intertwine in the most interesting patterns. Digging in the dirt, as in archaeology, beauty sometimes emerges. 

I found an image which reminds me of this family, created centuries ago by the Minoans, now in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete. Isn't it gorgeous?

Courtesy of Mark Cartwright, published on 4 September 2017. The copyright holder has published
this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike.

Who are these Hamiltons who keep showing up in my tree and my DNA matches? This has been the question I've been asking myself more often lately. So far, no Hamilton ancestors have shown up, but the Hamiltons are the largest portion of my grandfather Harvey McBee's ancestors' FAN club for four generations.

In the screenshot below, you can see the parents of Hamilton siblings who marry Oder siblings, Flora and Wayne. Parents and couple who set me off on this adventure are in boxes; the circled pair, another sib who married a sib. Pedigree collapse!

Parents William H & Delana Tutterow Hamilton;

Sibs Wilbur & Margaret Hamilton marry sibs Flora & Wayne Oder

Allied Families

The mysteries and questions begin earlier. Below is an image two generations up the tree, with my third-great-grandparents, George Henry and Martha Willis McBee and their connection to George W. Hamilton. Although the tree shows their son Israel as George Hamilton's father, he's in records as the step-father, and George Hamilton never used the McBee surname.

Geo. & Martha McBee in the box; was their son Israel George Hamilton's father?
Notice Israel McBee's wife is also a Hamilton, and her mother, a Willis

As I worked my way through the ten children of William and Delana Hamilton, I found my way to Violet Oder, who was left widowed with a young baby when her husband Wilbur Hamilton died at age 24. I had to hunt her down when I found Wilbur Jr. living with his grandparents in both 1940 and 1950. Newspapers.com delivered a sad gift: in The Cainsville News, Cainsville, Missouri, Thursday 16 July 1936, page 5, column 3, Flora Violet Oder Hamilton Elmore obituary, below.

Violet had remarried in order to better care for her young son, but in vain. She died at age 24, and Wilbur Jr. was raised by his grandparents, along with a cousin about the same age. According to Wilbur Jr.'s own obituary, "he was raised by his paternal grandparents on their farm in Kansas. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1950 and served in Guam and San Diego. He married in 1953.

"After his discharge from the Navy he farmed with his grandfather for several years before moving to Escondido, Calif., where he started in the construction business. He and his family came to Juneau in 1972 for the summer, found their home and never left." - https://www.genlookups.com/ak. So that part of the story ends up fine, with the orphaned son raised with love, and finding love and happiness during his life.

FANs: Another Chapter to the Story

When following the fan club, there is often another beat to the story! I noticed this little bit in the newspaper:

Harrison County Times, Bethany, Missouri, Thursday 6 August 1936, page 6, column,
short news article about her funeral attendees; Newspapers.com : accessed 8 March 2024.

First, who was Mable* Hamilton who had an uncle Robert? Hadn't I seen Mable not that long ago researching this family? Yes indeed, Violet Elmore's first husband Wilbur Hamilton was Mable's brother, and Robert Hamilton was their father's brother.

Looking at Mable's records found so far, there was an oddity; In the 1920 Census she was with her family as a daughter, but married, with the surname Young. Who was Mr. Young? By 1930, she's widowed, still using the Young surname. In the above 1936 news bit, she's Miss Mable Hamilton, and she remained Miss Mable the rest of her life. How to solve this mystery? The newspapers had another gift to give: 

The Hugoton Hermes, Hugoton, Kansas, Friday 18 May 1917, page 1, column , marriage of
Reuben M.Young and Nellie Mabel Hamilton; Newspapers.com : accessed 9 March 2024.

So, 18 May 1917 she quietly married. Did her parents know in advance? Did she live with Reuben Young after the ceremony? Are there divorce or annulment records?

By 1920, Reuben had married Eulah Belle Harrington and was living with her on his farm south of Hugoton. Their son Marion Reuben Young was born in March 1921, and they went on to have seven children. So that mystery is solved. The identity of "cousin Mrs. E. E. Hamby" who helped Mable marry Reuben Young is still unknown. The FANs just keep coming.

Mable seems to have had a long, happy life as a single woman. As the oldest daughter of ten children, she helped raise her younger siblings, and also two of her young nephews. Her obituary says she was "a retired nurse. Miss Hamilton was a member of the Reorganized Church of the Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ." 

If she were my ancestor, I would have some fun and search for special collections about nurses in Kansas and the RLDS and find out more about them, if not her specifically. I noticed that her funeral was in the Christian Church, so perhaps her family didn't support her RLDS faith. However she lived her life with love and passion and was lovingly remembered.

*The Mabel/Mable spellings vary, but she used Mable officially.

Have you found some interesting FAN Club stories? Share them with us! Send them to m.strickland@skcgs.org.  

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Valorie Zimmerman