Re: Harpers of Tama, Iowa / Jesse Milford Harper
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In reply to:
Re: Harpers of Tama, Iowa / Jesse Milford Harper
J Christiansen 7/26/12
Thanks for impinge in! It's been nice to have someone to bounce this all off of that knows (or at least appears to) about geneology!
It has been months of law nights. JMH was actually the very first person I believed to be the father but it was right when I had started on ancestry and didn't know as much as I do now, so when I saw that he basically fell off of the face of the earth I decided to pursue other options but nothing led anywhere.
I finally had a breakthrough when I found the newspaper article and a potential name to go off of for his mother and have just been plugging different things in as I've gone along until I finally had a story that I thought somewhat made sense...
I hadnt seen the Jessie Armstrong census' though and that really solidified things, so thank you so much for your help there!
There's a place on the Clark county records website where to can put in a name and any wedding or divorces will come up... I saw several Dorothy Champlins and Dorothy Harper but none of them were weddings between Dorothy and JRH so I'm guessing they got married elsewhere...
I had seen a tree or two with his middle name as Manford and I wrote the person but he knew nothing about him and said he didn't even know if it was right. I always assumed Manford was wrong since the two documents I did find with his middle name fully spelled out we're his birth record on and his draft card. I figured those would definitely have the right name but maybe it is Manford who knows! My thought was that since the guy didn't know anything about JMH and since I knew he basically dropped off the earth I took it as they had a name they thought was right but it was too long ago and for anyone, including JMH to set the middle name straight :)
Side note, the only Dorothy Harper marriage record I found was in Las Vegas in 1955 and as far as I know, he divorced Helen Mayer in 1957ish (Helen Irene Mayer Harper, and then remarried as O'hare) or at least that's when I found the newspaper articles where she was taking him to court but I still think JRH and Dorothy maiden name Champlin, married outside of Clark/washoe county.
I did find another marriage record for Helen Irene in Nevada to someone not named Ohare so I think there wereleast 2 husbands after JRH. That's besides the point though.
Going to check out this tree now!
Side note, I contacted 5 ancestry members who's trees JMH appeared in, as well as Jesse William Harper but have not gotten any responses yet!
I will look at their tree now!