Intrigue, lies and a story of real people affected by one woman's decisions

I have been following The Armchair Genealogist for a little while now. It is all about how to write your family history on a blog. I have several blogs but find it difficult to keep up with them. Lynn Palermo does a great job of breaking down the steps from blog to book. With that in mind, I am going to start blogging the never-ending-story of our family history. I really want to turn it into a book. I know, my family history is my family history and maybe not as interesting to you as it might be for me. I can promise intrigue, lies and a story of real people affected by one woman's decisions. It is the search for my husbands missing siblings. There are at least 13 of them and we have found 8. It may be a never-ending-story because finding these kids gets more and more difficult every day.
Frank Arnold Gaulthier was born on Feb 13, 1896 in Lansing, Iowa. In the 1905 Iowa Census, the family was still living there. Several states over Mabel Myrtle Morgan was born on June 7, 1906. In 1910, both families had moved with the Gaulthier’s going to La Crosse, WI and the Morgan’s taking up residence in West Virginia. We don’t know anything about these families other than their meeting was the catalyst for the this story.

Wisconsin was in the midst of a heat wave on September 25, 1925, when Lida Mary Gaulthair was born. There was not much going on in the world. Hitler was making noises in Germany but World War 1 was over. Calvin Coolidge was the President of the United States and it would be several years before the Great Depression. In La Farge, Wisconsin, none of it mattered very much as the families went about their day to day tasks.
In 1925, Frank Arnold and Mabel Myrtle Gaulthair had one living child. Little Louisa had passed away at 28 days when she had been taken to bed by her mother who rolled over and smothered her. She died of asphyxiation but the death certificate read “Acute Gastro Enkhitis”. Doc Haggerty was a family friend.
Violet was three when Lida came home. They had a new brother in 1927 but he died at three months due to bronchial pneumonia as a complication of the flu. It looked like that was it but in 1928 Frank Lee Gaulthair made his entrance. He was called “Jackie” by the family.

They seemed like a any normal 1920’s family. Dad was a laborer on the Wisconsin State Road Aid and made a decent wage. They lived in a two-story four bedroom house on Welsh Street with plenty of space for the children to play. They were surrounded by family, Frank’s parents lived nearby and Mabel’s mother and father were next door. Frank’s sister, Sophia and her brood, lived a couple blocks away on Main Street. La Farge only had one school so the kids went together.

By 1940, Frank Arnold was no longer working. Injured in WWI, medical issues had sidelined him. Mabel’s father still lived next door but her mother had passed away. Sophia Kendall, with her husband and kids, moved to California for better jobs during the depression. Violet was married and living in Minneapolis, leaving 13-yr-old Lida and 10-yr-old Jackie at home. Still, there were many kids around. Some of them would become part of Lydia’s story but while all of this swirls around her, it is not her story.
This is about the 13 children who were unnamed and abstracts in a story that spanned decades. This is the search for the Gaulthair children.

I am in a holding pattern

I need to figure out how to find the court records. Karolene says she will send me info but I am not going to push it. I need to learn patience. In the meantime, we sent in the DNA sample for Gary. Ancestry.com only allows one at this time. We are looking to verify his Native American identity. However, if there are other Gaulthair relatives out there who have also done the DNA testing, it might provide us with new clues. Now, I have to wait for that too.

Once again, God has smiled on us

We now not only have proof that the Rickman kids were Lydia's but I had the opportunity to speak with both of them. Karolene has information that we were not aware of and was with lydia when she passed away. They know their mom as Lida so they were not around when she changed her name to Lydia. We now have a total of eight confirmed children. Karolene says that Lydia had nine husbands. We know of seven but only have five names. That is a big clue and means I need to do more research. Darla sent over some pictures of other children and we don't know who they are. If there were two more men, then these are probably more brothers and sisters. You have to wonder if there is an end to this?

Live and learn

Once you have a little success, you want more. We found Darla and David or, Darla found us. Heady with success, I waited but nothing else happened. Then, my story was featured on "The Armchair Genealogist". It is a blog I read sporadically but I had not spent the time to really take in all the information she has and continues to post. What I learned was to ask researchers in the historical societies across the country to do the research for me. They are surprisingly affordable and very easy to work with. This was an eye-opener for me when I found that I could get information 3000 miles away without having to leave home. I started with the Richland County History Room in Richland, Wisconsin. They found a picture of Patricia Powell from high school and confirmed that she was indeed a Gaulthair. Nita (my researcher) also suggested that I ask the La Crosse Library if they had any information. The La Crosse Library has a form that you can submit. I was skeptical but filled out my question and sent it on in. Within two days, I had a response. Mr. Peterson told me that he didn't have the information I needed but he had found a newspaper clipping about the parents. This was more helpful than he realized because Frank Gaulthair divorced Mable while she was in the Racine Asylum. This is the first hint of mental illness that might help to explain Lydia's behavior. He attached the article to an e-mail and now we have it for our records. Today, I heard from the Vernon County Library. Carol not only found records that verify that Karolene and Gerald are related, she said she also had marriage records. We thought that Lydia went from man to man without the benefit of marriage and now we know even more. We should receive the documentation next week and I can't wait to get it.

The Montoya Children

So we know that Ramon Montoya had two children with Lydia Mary Gaulthair. She apparently had at least one child before Enrique that we thought was Frances but now are told that it was Patty. Frances says Ramon is not her father but the picture that Gary's mom had for 50 years shows Rickie and Frances and they look alike. That was the first inkling we had that Gary was really a Montoya since he also looked like them. Confused...so is everyone else. With the reunion just a little more than a month off, the list of questions just gets longer. When did they know about Gary? How do they know about Patty and is it the Patricia Powell I tracked down on Ancestry.com? When did Lydia disappear from their lives? Does Rick and Frances know that Lydia also offered them to Pat and Bill but they turned her down? How does anyone just give away children?

Gaulthair children

The Gaulthair children are aging. We believe that one of the oldest passed away in 2011. We have only tracked down seven so far so we think there are six to go. If we didn't live so far from Wisconsin, it would be easier. This is what we have found so far. Gary, Frances and Enrique will meet for the first time in July 2012. They are in their 50's. Lydia Mary Gaulthair was born on Sept 30, 1925 and died in March 2002 in Dallas, Texas. Ramon Montoya was born in 1916 and passed away in 1989. The three Montoya children are...Frances Montoya born in 1952, Enrique Montoya born in 1954 and Gary Montoya born in 1955. We suspect that some of the other children are Gerold Rickma and Karolene Rickman born in the early 1940's, Patricia L. Powell born in 1947 and David A. Gaulthair born in 1957.