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- Jul 27, 2010
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- 29,698
I am going crazy right now trying to figure out bizarre behavior of a relative from 106 years ago. His name was Eugene and he purposefully misspelled his last name with two extra letters before he married a woman and served in World War One. He was a literate guy and had a 10th grade education when many people dropped from school by 8th grade to get a job.
His father, my great uncle, was a constable and ran the county jail for years. In fact, Eugene was born in a apartment above the jail in 1893 And his mother used to cook meals for inmates and so he and the rest of the family had contact with those awaiting trial. His father was always in the newspapers for being involved with arrests and prisoner transportation from the jail to the court house. Point being, Eugene saw his fathers name in newsprint so often that I can’t believe he didn’t know how to spell it. On his draft registration card, he signed it that way and so it was no mistake. What scam was he running?
He married Mabel, using the incorrectly spelled name and the three kids that they had together over their 5 year marriage all had this incorrect name. She was pregnant with his first child when they got married and she was born when he was away getting trained at Ft Cody near Demming, NM for WW1. After returning from France, there was a post war depression and so that couldn’t have been easy. He deserted Mabel and the kids and moved to Oakland, CA. She was granted a divorce back in South Dakota and two of the kids were adopted out. Meanwhile, Eugene’s last name is back to the correct spelling in California and he married a gal and had several kids with her and was considered a great grandpa. His 2nd wife must have known about the first marriag, but their kids and grand kids never knew until we discovered it (Gene’s granddaughter and myself) through dna matching.
Did he think that contracts were invalid if his name was misspelled? What really gets me is that incorrect signature. NO ONE misspells a signature by accident.
His father, my great uncle, was a constable and ran the county jail for years. In fact, Eugene was born in a apartment above the jail in 1893 And his mother used to cook meals for inmates and so he and the rest of the family had contact with those awaiting trial. His father was always in the newspapers for being involved with arrests and prisoner transportation from the jail to the court house. Point being, Eugene saw his fathers name in newsprint so often that I can’t believe he didn’t know how to spell it. On his draft registration card, he signed it that way and so it was no mistake. What scam was he running?
He married Mabel, using the incorrectly spelled name and the three kids that they had together over their 5 year marriage all had this incorrect name. She was pregnant with his first child when they got married and she was born when he was away getting trained at Ft Cody near Demming, NM for WW1. After returning from France, there was a post war depression and so that couldn’t have been easy. He deserted Mabel and the kids and moved to Oakland, CA. She was granted a divorce back in South Dakota and two of the kids were adopted out. Meanwhile, Eugene’s last name is back to the correct spelling in California and he married a gal and had several kids with her and was considered a great grandpa. His 2nd wife must have known about the first marriag, but their kids and grand kids never knew until we discovered it (Gene’s granddaughter and myself) through dna matching.
Did he think that contracts were invalid if his name was misspelled? What really gets me is that incorrect signature. NO ONE misspells a signature by accident.
