My Dead End: Louise Marie Pray

I wish I had a photo of Louise Marie Pray. But apparently my grandfather's mother, Louise Marie Chabin, disowned her later in live, resulting in our family knowing really nothing about her. But here is what I do know:

My mother gave me the birth certificate of her grandmother, Louise Marie Chabin. That was basically the wall she hit doing family history. I noted that her mother was Louise Marie Pray, born in Iowa, and father John A Chabin born in Petersburg, Illinois. I proceeded to search for them in the census.

I found them in the 1910 census living in Denver, Colorado as boarders. I noticed that this census listed Louise Marie Pray's birth location as Louisiana, and birth year about 1886.  I then begn to search local marriages around 1908-1909 for their marriage, because it indicated that they were married for 1 year, with no children. And I eventually found it!

She married John Able Chabin on September 26th, 1908 in Denver, Colorado. I found it interesting that they were married by the district judge, instead of some religious pastor. I wonder if this is because they were of different religions and/or if their marriage was opposed by their family. I noted that the certificate listed Louise Marie Pray as being "of" Colorado.

I've located the family in the 1920, and 1930 census, and those sources listed her birth location as Louisiana, and Colorado, respectively. So, I've got 3 places they could be...

I decided to do more recent research to find out more about her. I obtained the birth certificates of her other two children, Cecelia Irene, and John A:

To my relief, both listed the same location for her birth: Louisiana. One says New Orleans, Louisiana. So I immediately sent a search request in new orleans for her birth certificate. And they found none.

I looked through the deaths on the Ancestry website and found one Louise M Chabin born April 15, 1886
(California death index), a Louise M Pray born 7 Dec 1888(SSDI) and another Louise Pray born 5 May 1885 (SSDI). I decided that since women tend to keep their married name til death, I figured the first was my ancestor. I ordered the death certificate and I knew I was right:

I knew I was right because while waiting for documents to arrive, I worked on tracing forward the descendants of Louise Marie Pray's other children, to find other living relatives to help. And I came across Madelyne as the daughter of Cecelia Irene.

This document has been very valuable, since it lists the names of her parents, John and Mary. But it also lists the birth place as Colorado. I'm hoping to be able to contact someone on that end of the family (apparently my grandfather may be able to contact them) to get more information.

In the meantime, I went on Footnote.com and found Louise Pray in the Denver City Directory:

And I found her mother, and that she had two sisters, Beatrice and Maude. I also noted that they moved to Colorado in 1906, Louise Marie got married in 1908, and in 1911 Beatrice and Marie (or Mary, her mother) are no longer in Denver, and in 1912 Maude is no longer in Denver.

So far, searching for Louise Marie Pray's sisters has returned no results in any census search. I cannot find Louise Marie Pray or John Able Chabin in the 1900 census, which would provide a lot of great information.

My next step besides contacting Madelyne, would be to order Louise Marie Pray's Social Security Application. I'm assuming that she filled out the form herself, and that perhaps that will help me locate her family, and location of birth. Unfortunately, those documents are $27 a piece, when they used to be like $6. I'll have to save up for that.