Leah Rhae Ruby Smith Jeffery Crow, my 1st cousin 3x removed, continues to elude me, but I'm getting closer. Today I figured out that she had a child! Or I think she did. It gets confusing. I can't place her in Duluth, Minnesota, where her "daughter" was born in 1917, but the child's father, Bayliss David Jeffery, was definitely there. He was a salesman. I found Leah, Bayliss and Elizabeth al...l living next to her parents in, of all places, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas in 1920. Then something happens and the couple divorce by 1922, she's living alone, he's married to the secretary/receptionist of the ad agency he works for, and the new couple have 4 daughters, none of them Elizabeth, so she stayed with Leah, meaning she IS Leah's daughter, I think, and not just Bayliss' from a previous relationship. I find them in the 1930 census in Texas, and Elizabeth is not with them. Elizabeth is next found in 1940 in Texas living with Leah, Leah's parents, and Leah's husband, Fred Crow. Elizabeth's surname has mysteriously changed to Crow. Then everyone seems to die: Bayliss and his wife die before 1940, and their daughters are found living in Illinois with Bayliss' sister in the 1940 census. Leah's parents die and are buried in San Antonio, and her husband, Fred, dies. He's got a find a grave memorial with a headstone showing his name and dates of birth and death, and Leah's date of birth, but no death date. Meanwhile, Elizabeth has taken back her father's surname and enlists in the armed forces in Texas in 1942. Then nothing until I find an Elizabeth Rhae Jeffery marrying a man named Vilo Dean Bannon in South Dakota. I do find both of their death data...in Spanaway, Pierce Washington! Elizabeth's Social Security Death index record shows she got her Social Security card in Texas, so I'm pretty sure I'm on the right track. There are also links to Vilo and Elizabeth's obituaries! But it's an index listing from a public library in Washington which no longer does the look-ups of the obituaries themselves, but they have links to people/places that do! For a fee.
So, what to do, what to do? I found a public tree with Elizabeth Rhae Bannon in it, with her father listed only as "Jeffery", no first name, and no mother, married to Vilo and with a child, but the child is listed as "private", meaning s/he is living. I sent a message to the owner of the tree, but she hasn't been on Ancestry in a year, so she may never see it. And there are only 5 people in her tree. I would so love to see the obituary, but I bet it doesn't even mention Leah, much less when Leah died.
Genealogy can be so frustrating at times!
