Pray Marriage Certificates

These confirm that Maude Pray and Beatrice Pray are Louise Marie Pray's sisters. She was a witness in each of their marriages!

Disappointments and Discoveries

The social security application I ordered for Louise Marie Pray arrived this weekend. It turns out that she didn't fill out the application, but filled out a different form when applying for some type of welfare and was then given a social security number. As you might guess, there was no information about her parents on that form. I'm not even sure she filled it out because there is hardly anything there and it is fairly inaccurate.

So, I decided I really needed to buckle down and get all my sources and information together to figure this out. I organized it all by the Pray sister it belonged to- Beatrice Mary Pray-Smith, Maude Pray-Stuart, and Louise Marie Pray-Chabin.
I discovered pretty quickly that I had a lot of information to look up for the two sisters.

I found that Marion and Maude moved to Californi sometime in 1924. I found them in the 1930 voter registrations, which also includes their address. I saw that the address was the same in 1928, 1930, and 1932, so I figured it was a fair assumption that they were at that address when the 1930 census was taken.

1930 California Voter Registration List

So, I realized I was going to have to find their record the old fasioned way, by where they lived. I marked their residence in a map, and Ancestry.com allows you to browse the images, and you can do it by the districts, and it gives the approximate location of the districts. I went through hundreds of images and I finally found it!

1930 US census

As you can see, their name was incorrectly written in the census (no wonder I couldn't find them easy!) But it gave me great information about their children (ALSO BORN IN MONTANA).

Gold mine.

I discovered that I didn't do much research on Beatrice's line, so I pursued that as well. Smith is, unfortunately, a very common name. Since two of the sisters were in California by 1930, I figured, what are the chances the third is there too? I refined my search to only Los Angeles county, and to a few other specific dates, and I was able to locate Beatrice in the 1930 census.

1930 US census

She had one child by then, ALSO BORN IN MONTANA. 

Now, my goal is to locate where they all lived when their children were born in montana. I found that Marion Stuart registered for WWI in 1917ish while living in Wyoming.

Marion Irving Stuart - WWI Registration Card

Another piece of the puzzle.

Maloney Line

Well, after doing further research into the Maloney line, I discovered that all the work has been done over there!
That means I get to focus more on my direct lines.

Maloney Line

I received a letter notifying me that the social security office received my request for records and that it should be completed within 30 days. Yay!

In the meantime, I started working on another line:

Marie Agnes Maloney is the wife of Harry Wheeler Chabin, brother of John Able Chabin, Sr. Harry Wheeler Chabin is my Mom's Grandma's Uncle.

Marie Agnes Maloney was born to Richard E Maloney and Amelia Ryan (parent's name gathered from Chaffin book of descendants). I found them, and found Richard's parents, Patrick Thomas Maloney and Mary Anne McCarthy.

Richard E Maloney and Amelia Ryan-Maloney's Gravestone. I still have no idea who Kathryn is. I have been able to identify all their children, none of which is a Kathryn, or anything close to that. We'll see if I can find out who it is eventually.

Photos of Henry K Miller and Louise Marie Chabin-Miller

Here are some photos of them:

Louise Marie Chabin when she graduated from High School (photo was found with her diploma)

Henry K Miller when he joined the Navy. He joined when he was 17, lied about his age to get in.

Henry K Miller

Louise Marie Chabin-Miller

Henry K Miller, Louise Marie, and my grandpa (the boy)

Scanning

I just finished scanning a batch of photos from my grandfather's side of the family. Once I get people identified I'll post them for your enjoyment!

Beatrice Mary Pray- Smith

Well, I got back the results from New Orleans, Louisiana that Beatrice was not born there. Sad day.
I'm still waiting for Louise Mary Pray-Chabin's social security application, which I'm hoping will be the turning point in my research.