I'm searching for my paternal grandfather, Wm. Dodds Evans, as it appears he had another family before he married my grandmother. Sad to say, none of us knew about his previous family. The first we heard of it was when my father (his son by my grandmother) passed away in 1997 & my mother was telling my aunt (my grandfather's daughter, also by my grandmother) that some years ago they had received a letter supposedly from my grandfather's first family. The author of the letter had done some research & believed she had found her father's (my grandfather) second family, and as she would be in our area, she would love to come by if it was OK & meet her 1/2 siblings & their families. Being that my father had never heard of his dad having been married before, he flatly refused this lady & wrote her back telling her to never bother us again. My grandmother had passed away by that time, so he couldn't ask if this might be true or not -- he just assumed. None of us (my siblings & I) had ever heard anything on this till the day my mom told my aunt about her having a 1/2 sister out there somewhere.

I was talking to my older sister a few weeks back when I brought it back up. She told me about how when she was a young teenager (1950's or so....& with the rest of the family gone from the house), she got to snooping through my grandmother's things, as kids are known to do. Yes, I know, she shouldn't have but now I'm so glad she did! She said in her search, she found some legal papers for a divorce between my grandfather & another lady. Sadly that is all she can remember now. I don't have a clue as to which state was involved, the lady's name or any date(s). I'm fairly certain that it would have been in either the state of Tennessee or Kentucky though, as they were the two states that he lived in before he moved to Arkansas & married my grandmother.

And that is my brick wall......I've searched what I could & can find nothing on my grandfather's previous marriage, 1st wife, any children or the divorced. I truly feel we have some relatives out there somewhere & would love to find either our aunt, if we should be blessed that she is still alive, or at least her family.

Here is a bit about my grandfather & his time-line, so maybe something will look/sound familiar to someone who will want to make a connection.

Name: William Dodds Evans
B: 1885 in Hardin County, Tennessee
D: 1960 in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas
Father: Thomas J Evans (B: 1849 in Tennessee / D: somewhere between 1990 - 1910)
Mother: Alice L Trantham (B: 1859 in Tennessee / D: 1928 in Kentucky)
Thomas/Alice's Children: Wallace (B: 1880 TN / D: Bef. 1960)
Benjamin Franklin (B: 1882 TN / D: Bef. 1960)
Wm. Dodds (B: 1885 TN / D: 1960 AR)
Daisy Maude (B: 1887 TN / D: 1951 KY)
Samuel Dewitt (B: 1889 TN / D: 1963 KY)
Jesse T (B: 1892 TN / D: 1913 KY)
Unknown Child (B: ? D: Bef. Jun 1960)

Married: Bertha Ann Rollins (B: 1895 in Arkansas / D: 1972 in Arkansas) They had 1 son (1918-1997) & 1 daughter (1923 - n/a)

1880 Tennessee Census' show Wm. Dodds parents living in Hardin County in Tennessee before he was born in 1885
1890 -- no census'
1900 Tennessee Census' shows Wm. Dodds at 15 years of age, single & living in Hardin County in Tennessee
1910 Kentucky Census' shows Wm. Dodds at 25 years of age, single & living in Paducah, McCracken County, Kentucky
1920 Arkansas Census' shows Wm. Dodds at 34 years of age, married to my grandmother, Bertha, & living in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas

So between 1900 & 1910, his family & him moved to Kentucky. Then between 1910 & 1918, he moved to Arkansas, cause of the railroad, which he was employed with & married my grandmother. I pretty much have his info/data from that time till he passed away.....its his life & 1st wife/family, somewhere between 1900 to 1918, that is a mystery to us all.

If any of this sounds familiar to any of you, I would dearly love to hear from you & maybe we could break through that brick wall?

Thanks, Deb

I don't know this family in particular, but I have plenty of divorces in mine and here are my suggestions:

Do you know where/when your grandparents married? Was it Pulaski county? Some people wouldn't legally divorce until right before they remarried in those days, so I'd start with the county your grandparents married in and work backwards.

Unfortunately the index of Arkansas marriages on Ancestry.com starts in 1923, but you could get a microfilm from the LDS Family History Library. They also have some of the chancery court records, and you might be able to find the divorce in the index.

If Pulaski county turns up nothing, then you might try McCracken County, Kentucky. I'd look for that first marriage and again, it looks like Ancestry doesn't have it, so you'd need to turn again to the LDS. However, it doesn't look like they have the divorce records.

From the census, it's conceivable that William Evans married in Hardin Co., Tennessee at, say, age 20 in 1905 and then divorced in 1909, and left the family to work on the river at Paducah. So I'd also try Hardin County, Tennessee where he was in 1900 at age 15.

Sometimes I've found that I had to go to the courthouse in person to find divorce records. They aren't indexed as often as the marriage records.

Good luck finding out the rest of the story!

Thank you Heather for your reply & great hints! Luckily we do have a branch of a LDS facility here where I am. I will give that a try & see what I can come up with.

My grandfather/grandmother were married on "1 Mar 1918". And I'm pretty sure it was in Pulaski County, but I don't have any hard proof on that yet.

Appreciate!
Deb

Good luck! I hope you can find that divorce and the first marriage. Let us all know how it turns out.

Just wanted to post an update to my original post.....for those who might wander over here, they'll have the newest information found & the current status.

To my surprise, a wonderful sweet lady from Kentucky by the name of Dorann Lam emailed me one day last month. She loves to help others who are searching for their relatives in Kentucky. We emailed back & forth for a couple of weeks & due to her hard work (which I can never thank her enough for), she was able to bust down that rock hard wall I kept running into on granddaddy, Wm. Dodds Evans.

Here is the what has been discovered:

1) William Dodds Evans' marriage license to Fannie B. Scott. They married in 17 Jun 1910 in Paducah, Kentucky. (((NOTE: Something interesting that Dorann noticed about the signatures on the marriage license is who the ceremony was preformed by & that was Alben W Barkley, County Judge at that time. There was an Alben W Barkley who served as prosecuting attorney, county judge, then was a senator from Kentucky for 20 years. Finally he also served as Vice President under Harry S Truman.....not sure if they are the one & the same or not.)))

2) Per Wm. D.'s marriage license, it shows that his marriage to Fannie would be number TWO for him!. So one brick wall comes down to only have another erected! heehee

3) Dorann also found Fannie's death certificate. This gives me her date of birth (25 Jul 1892), her date of death (21 Aug 1928) & that the cause of death was acute appendicitis . As well as her father's name (Charles C Scott) & mother's name (Mary Cobb). The informant was an Eva Evans.

4) I found Fannie's obituary from a newspaper in Missouri (which is where she went to live after divorcing granddaddy). In her obituary, Eva is listed as her daughter.

5) Dorann was able to get Charles C Scott's death certificate also. It give his date of birth (11 Apr 1862), date of death (9 Aug 18 1925) & his cause of death was listed as "revolver wound of the head, suicide". It list his occupation as watchmaker.

6) She also found the 1910 & 1920 Kentucky Census' for Charles C Scott. In the 1910, it list Charles, his wife Mary & their 6 daughters: Kate, Fannie, Callie, Agnes, Jane & Mannie (or I think it says Mannie). And that his father came from Scotland & his mother from Ireland. By the 1920 census', Charles was the only one listed & he was a widower.

As you can see, Dorann has been a godsend to me in helping me discovering Granddaddy's 2nd family. If it wasn't for her, I don't know if we'd ever would have found any of this. I know I (as well as my niece & nephew) have tried for such a long time & never could find any leads. If you should see this Dorann.....thanks for all of your hard work, your time & generosity.

Later, Deb