I am having a hard time researching my great-great grandfather, Benjamin F Smith. He was born in Texas on Jan. 31, 1875. He married his wife, Cora Baker sometime in 1898, and in the 1920 Census she lists herself as a widow with 4 kids and she is living in New Mexico. In 1930 she is remarried and living in Texas again.
There is a World War 1 draft card for him in September 1918. Family legend says he may have disappeared on the border. Could he have been sent to the border while he was in the military and then disappeared? According to the Texas Rangers website over 400 people have disappeared on the border.
If anyone has searched for a relative who went missing, where did you look and who did you talk to about the case? Where would I look for more information? Any help anyone can give me would really help! Thanks!

You might try to find his military record, which should list if he went missing, or died, or if there was a discharge date. Here is information from the National Archives

http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/

Thanks for the info.
I was able to find out that he had signed up for the draft in September 1918 but never served in the military. 400 people disappeared around the border between 1900-1920 due to the Mexican Revolution and bandits.
Been looking through old newspapers to see if I can find something.

I found a border crossing record on www.familysearch.org that said a "Benjam" Smith crossed into the US at Laredo in 1920, but not enough info to know if it is the right Ben.

Yeah, I've seen the same record. I have no idea if that's him or not. I called ancestry and asked if they had records for people who traveled between Mexico and Texas and they only have records for people coming in from Mexico.
Thanks so much for your help.

After doing some searching, I realized there are multiple family trees that list Benjamin F (Franklin) Smith as dying on May 9, 1958. But, i haven't seen any that list a source for that information.
But it appears to be the correct person, as the birthday matches up.

If you go to the following tree, and click on "view all comments", there is a little obituary that someone has posted.

Is this the Benjamin F. Smith you are looking for? You may already know all this, and I may be confused about what you are looking for. :)

Sorry I didn't mean to confuse ya. I'm a little confused about all this, too. According to the 1920 Census, his wife Cora Baker Smith, is living in New Mexico with her 5 kids and lists herself as a widow. In 1930, she is remarried and living in San Angelo, Texas. I also have a World War I Draft Registration, that he signed up for but he never served in the military. I think he signed up in Matagorda County, Texas in 1918.
I've seen this date for his death, but it just said date of death and his name, and the county of his death. I didn't know there was an obituary. I will take a look at this. Thanks for the information.
If anyone knows any information that could help sort all this out I would really be grateful. Thanks again!

I totally forgot to put the link in!

But I just noticed: There appear to be 2 different Bnjamin Smiths that people are listing as having died on May 9, 1958.
Here's a link to one that is not your relative, but lists the 1958 death.
http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/12001124/person/-269103034?ss...=

Then, here's a tree with what appears to be your relative, with a comment about the death.
http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/26596372/person/1876413271/co...

http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/16117645/person/362366727

And there's another tree, which lists Velma as his daughter-in-law, through his son Benjamin Everett. That matches up with the Velma that was mentioned in the comment on the previous tree.

I hope I am making sense!

Sounds like you should try to contact user "AANGELENGERU", the person who is leaving comments regarding his death.

Anyways, good luck!

Thanks so much for your help. I'm in the process of trying to contact people and trying to find out exactly what happened and why is his wife listing herself as widowed in 1920, if he was still alive??