The Clue in the Cupboard: A Letter from Albert Edwards

I thought there was a letter from Albert somewhere. . .  The letters are stored in my Family Archive inside archival file folders inside archival boxes, but I haven't finished indexing or transcribing them, so it's a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack to find one exact file. The dates aren't complete in my genealogy database, either, and I'm unsure of where Arline was living and what she was doing at this time.

Fortunately, one of my last tasks was to organize the letters by date, more or less. This mixes up authors, but does make it easier to locate a particular letter if you have some idea of the year or date it may have been written. I don't recall any other letters from Edwards, but this one reveals quite a bit about the mysterious man --

U.S.S. Kilty
June 9, 1919

My Dear Wife
I will drop off
a few lines to let you
no that I still love
you and I am well and
happy but very lonsome
for a letter from you
I have bin to france
a cuple of times and 
I am leaving a gin
soon for how long I 
due not no I will give
any thing if I had a 
small picture of you or
any kind just to look
at when I am lonsom
for you I will never
for get you Dear
I made out an allotment
to you when I first
came in if you have
not received it yet let 
me no they take it out 
of my pay every month
so you can have it
I will forget the past
Dear and start all over
a gain Arline for no
I love you with all
of my hart and wont
you be the same I will
when we was taking
those walk in helper 
and the Parks in
Salt Lake I will
send you lots of 
Presents if you will
write to me Dear for
I am always think
of you 
I will Close with
lots of love as of
old  You Loving
Husband

Albert Edwards
U.S.S. Kilty
c/o P.M. New York

I'm afraid this doesn't paint a very good portrait of Arline. She sounds like a heartless new bride ignoring her soldier-husband. One can only wonder about the "other side of the story."

In 1919, Arline was 29 years old. She had a ten-year old daughter, Lucile, by her first husband LeRoy Paulen, and another daughter Bernadean. The envelope is addressed to Mrs. A.F. Edwards in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but forwarded twice, first to Pueblo, Colorado where Arline's mother lived, and then to the Page Hotel in Denver, Colorado, where Arline supposedly received the letter.

Edwards letter points to a man without much education, or at least with poor spelling and grammar skills. He mentions the walks in Helper and Salt Lake. I think the photo of Arline and Albert posted yesterday may have been taken in Helper or Beulah, at Arline's mother's ranch.

Next questions: Why was Arline in Minnesota, and then Denver?

Source:  Albert Edwards (USS Kilty, New York) to “My Dear Wife” [Arline Kinsel Edwards], letter, 9 June 1919; Arline Allen Kinsel Papers, 1890-, privately held by Denise Levenick, [address for private use,] Pasadena, California. 2012.

Note: USS Kilty (DD-137), U.S. Navy destroyer launched 25 April 1918 by Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, commissioned 17 December 1918. Sailed to Europe Summer 1919 and returned to San Diego. Decommissioned 5 June 1922.

Source: Wikipedia contributors, "USS Kilty (DD-137)," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Kilty_(DD-137)&oldid=443425306 (accessed January 26, 2012).

U.S.S. Kilty

June 9, 1919

My Dear Wife

I will drop off

a few lines to let you

no that I still love

you and I am well and

happy but very lonsome

for a letter from you

I have bin to france

a cuple of times and

I am leaving a gin

soon for how long I

due not no I will give

any thing if I had a

small picture of you or

any kind just to look

at when I am lonsom

for you I will never

for get you Dear

I made out an anlotment

to you when I first

came in if you have

not received it yet let

me no they take it out

of my pay every month

so you can have it

I will forget the past

Dear and start all over

a gain Arline for no

I love you with all

of my hart and wont

you be the same I will

when we was taking

those walk in helper

and the Parks in

Salt Lake I will

send you lots of

Presents if you will

write to me Dear for

I am always think

of you

I will Close with

lots of love as of

old  You Loving

Husband

Albert Edwards

U.S.S. Kilty

c/o P.M. New York

Source:  Albert Edwards (USS Kilty, New York) to “My Dear Wife” [Arline Kinsel Edwards], letter, 9 June 1919; Arline Allen Kinsel Papers, 1890-, privately held by Denise Levenick, [address for private use,] Pasadena, California. 2012.

Note: USS Kilty (DD-137), U.S. Navy destroyer launched 25 April 1918 by Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, commissioned 17 December 1918. Sailed to Europe Summer 1919 and returned to San Diego. Decommissioned 5 June 1922.

Source: Wikipedia contributors, "USS Kilty (DD-137)," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Kilty_(DD-137)&oldid=443425306 (accessed January 26, 2012).

Nancy Drew Goes to Salt Lake City

Before I can get to Roots Tech, I've got a SLC ToDo List that's more Detective than Digital. I'm playing Nancy Drew and tracking down clues to a mystery that's nearly a century old. If you would like a brain-teaser to occupy your little grey cells before the waves start buzzing with conference tweets and posts… please, feel free to leave your own ideas for

The Case of the Disappearing Husband

. . . in a previous episode of The Family Curator we posed several questions about our heroine, Arline Kinsel Paulen, and her life in Salt Lake City.

Albert Edwards and Arline Paulen
Armed and Ready 

The facts, as we knew them were few --

In 1914 Arline was living in Salt Lake City at 144 S. 5th West with her young daughter Lucile. She received frequent letters from her ex-husband Roy Paulen who worked as a business secretary at the Bingham Mine Company about 28 miles outside the City. Arline and little Lucy occasionally visited Roy in Bingham, but Roy's letters show that he longed to see them more often.

Then, in August of 1917, Arline Paulen (age 26) and Albert Edwards (age 36), both of Salt Lake City, traveled to Evanston, Wyoming where they were married by a Justice of the Peace before two local witnesses.

Within a few months, Arline moved back to her mother's ranch in Colorado and in September 1919 was served with divorce papers by Edwards.

"I'm sure he pushed it through in a hurry as I think he was just as anxious to get rid of me as me him," she wrote in a letter to her mother.

Inquiring minds want to know --

1. What was Arline doing in SLC?

2. Who was Albert Edwards?

3. Why did the couple leave SLC to be married? (Heck, why did they get married at all?)

4. Why Evanston, Wyoming? (Was it the Gretna Green of the time?)

5. What happened to Edwards?

Like any good detective, I have my casebook in hand and a list of witnesses to question. I want to check the Salt Lake City directories to see if Arline and Edwards are listed, and also try to figure out where she might have worked. I'm sure there are more clues in her letters from those years, but they haven't all been transcribed... yet.

I also have a nagging memory that Edwards might have been in the service. It certainly would have been the right decade. I'll have to check into that.

The Wyoming wedding mystifies me; I'd like to find out more about Utah marriage laws in 1917. Maybe there was a restriction on divorced persons remarrying? or maybe they weren't really divorced? 

Lots of questions... any more ideas?

Thanksgiving Blessings

At this certain time of year,
We think of friends both far and near.
We count our blessings, one-two-three,
And give a heartfelt thanks to Thee.

Happy Thanksgiving
from The Family Curator

Postcard from the collection of Arline Allen Kinsel.

Praying With My Ancestors: A Pilgrimage of Sorts

At least one branch of our family tree has leaned toward ecumenicalism for at least three generations. My great-granddparents were married in the home of a Presbyterian minister. My grandmother, Arline, was baptised protestant, confirmed Roman Catholic, and buried from a local Bible fellowship. Her sister Mercy was a devoted Seventh Day Adventist. My mother was baptised Roman Catholic but worshiped at Baptist and Evangelical Churches all her life. And her sister married a Texas Bible Church preacher.

Grandma Brown never went to church without her hat, gloves, and pocketbook. This photograph captures the small community where they worshipped each week.

I believe this is the Bible Center Church in Santa Ana. Second from left in the front row is my Aunt Frances, next to my grandmother, Arline Brown. Behind Auntie is her husband Benny C. Turner next to his mother, Willie Turner.

We have missionaries, preachers, Sunday School teachers, choir members, ushers, and summer camp counselors in our line, but no altar boys until my own sons.

Growing up, Sundays followed a strict schedule -- Sunday School followed by worship services, then home for lunch and "rest," and back to church for the evening service. On Wednesday, we attended mid-week services; as teenagers, we spent Friday nights with the Teen Group, and many weekends attending church-sponsored trips to Disneyland, the beach, or the mountains. Summers always included at least a week of Vacation Bible School and one or two weeks at church camp. When we grew to old to be campers, my sister and I signed up as counselors.

My grandmother, aunt and uncle attended church in Santa Ana, twenty minutes from our hometown, so I only heard Uncle Benny preach when I stayed overnight on the occasional weekend. I remember him as a tall, handsome, and very kind man. He and my pretty aunt were popular with the congregation and favorites of all the children.

Birth records for Kansas City are rare before 1900, so I was excited to find this in my grandmother's trunk.

This certificate holds two surprises: Arline converted to Catholicism in 1929 one year before she married my grandfather, and she is using the name of her third husband, Charles Parker.

This undated church certificate was probably issued in the 1950's when my grandparents lived in Santa Ana, California.

This article was written for the September Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy.