Friday, May 25, 2012

Frank Smith/Wilber Schooley

author Lisa Butler this was posted on a genealogy message board (cleaning desk drawers looking for something and found this...) My great-grandmother Maggie M Brown married a Wilber M Schooley on July 16 1923. Maggie and Wilber both lived in Lamoni Iowa but were married in Leon, IA. I have found some marriage records for Leon on -line that states Wilber was 31 at the time of the marriage, meaning he was born around 1892. This is the ONLY data I have on Wilber. I don't have much more on Maggie! She was left with a couple at an early age and it's assumed her parents had died. She married my great-grandfather when she was 13 and had 5 or so kids in short order. When my grandfather was about 5 Maggie up and left, leaving all the kids with assorted relatives. My grandfather didn't see her again till he was 15. Anyway, everyone thought Maggies second was Frank Smith.. In fact their kids had Smith for their last name. I have newspaper clipping from when their daughter Wyvonne Smith died at age 14-it states her parents were Frank and Maggie Smith. It also lists my grandfather as a half brother. I know this is 'my' Maggie as the marriage certificate for her 3rd marriage lists her name as Maggie Schooley. Side note-I have a newspaper clipping of Wyvonne Elaine Smith's death and another typed thing-source unknown. She was 14 and died at Lamoni on 17Sept 1941. My grandmother suspects that Wilber was a convict and was given the option of getting out of jail to fight in World War I. Frank Smith was probably another soldier who died and Wilber swapped dog tags with him to keep from going back to jail after the war.. He likely had to use Wilber as his name to get married (possibly had to show birth certificate) but always went by Frank... This could be why they lived in Lamoni but got married in Leon. I'm looking for anything to prove the above. I find it hard to believe that Frank's relatives didn't have any contact wtih "Frank" when he returned from the war, thereby discovering it wasn't really Frank. Of course Frank possibly had NO living relatives. At this point this is simply a 86-year old ladies opinion...and I have no REAL clue why there is a difference in names. Does anyone has ANY information to help me sort out the Smith/Schooley messs?!

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