誰是W. P. 埃利斯?

威廉·P. 埃利斯是我的曾祖父. 不幸的是, 當我祖父去世時他去世了, 吉爾伯特P. 埃利斯, 當時只有兩歲. 我的曾祖母不知道很多關於威廉的家庭. 爺爺掌握的關於他的實際資訊很少, 所以威廉才是家族史上真正的神秘人，直到 2006 或 2007.

Grandpa had a picture of William sitting on a fake moon. William was a giant of a man. I would say 6’4″ to 6’6″. My grandfather was 6’4″ himself. Thanks to the digital age, I know more about my great grandfather than his own son did, but the journey was complex and illustrates the joys and challenges of the genealogical journey.

I started out knowing William died in St. 路易, Missouri between June 22, 1917, and June 21, 1918. My grandfather was the most truthful, direct person I have ever known. I knew his information was as correct as his memory allowed. I limited my search to this period even with memory not being 100 percent correct.

The Missouri Secretary of State uploaded most Missouri death certificates from 1910 至 1955 to its website, when I began this search. The first few times I searched; I could not find William P. 埃利斯. 最後, I decided I would search for every death certificate from St. Louis City in both the year 1917 和 1918 with the last name Ellis.

幸好, I hit pay dirt in 1917. You see my great grandfather’s death certificate listed his first name as “W.P.” and last name “埃利斯”, so I could have search William Ellis throughout the state until the cows came home and never found him. Finding William’s death certificate was like hitting the lottery.

William was born August 1, 1877, to William H. Ellis and an unknown mother in the state of Kentucky. He lived at 5311A Magnolia Avenue, where died of lung disease on December 4, 1917. The death certificate listed his occupation as a clay miner. 聖. Louis was home to a large amount of clay mines along S. Kingshighway Boulevard and the “Dogtown” neighborhood at the turn of the century.

These mines turned out the bricks that St. Louis is still famous for. William’s death certificate proved that my great grandmother only had limited knowledge of William’s background because she did not know his mother’s name or where she was from. 它既是家譜和歷史的挑戰，. If you do not tell someone or do not record it, you lose the information.

William moved to St. 查爾斯, 密蘇里州, sometime before 1900 because he mustered into one of the volunteer units going to fight the Spanish-American War on July 9, 1898, at St. 查爾斯, 密蘇里州. He served in the 6th Volunteer Missouri Regiment, Light Battery A. He served for two years and mustered out on May 10, 1899.

我的曾祖母, 卡羅琳埃利斯, lived in St. Charles also. They met sometime prior to 1912, when they married. 在5月 15, 1912, 威廉·P. Ellis married Caroline Leah “李” Johannpeter in St. 查爾斯. They would welcome my grandfather, 吉爾伯特P. 埃利斯, into the world on Tuesday, 六月 22, 1915, by which time, they were living in St. Louis City. They moved to the city to be closer to his work. Clay mines were within a couple of blocks of their flat on Magnolia Avenue.

Whether it was from the working in the clay mines, environmental factors, or some other cause, Lung problems afflicted William for six months until his premature death on December 4, 1917. He was just 40 歲.

His obituary was printed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on December 5, 1917: Obit of Wm P Ellis, 聖. 聖路易斯郵調度, 05 十二月 1917 Ellis-Entered into rest on Tuesday, 十二月. 4, 1917, 在 11:20 am at residence, 5811 Magnolia Avenue, 威廉·P. 埃利斯, beloved husband of Lena Ellis (nee Johannpeter), dear father of Gilbert, our dear son, brother, and son-in-law at the age of 40 歲月, 4 months and 3 天. Funeral Friday at 2:30 pm from Blederwieden-Dunkmann’s Chapel, 1934 聖. 路易斯大道, to New Bethlehem Cemetery. Motor.

多年來，, I thought that William’s lineage traced back through Susan Mustain through to the Plantagenet Kings of Cowardly King John and King Edward III. I recently discovered that I may have traced our lineage through the wrong William H. 埃利斯. 不幸的是, William Ellis is a quite common name in both Virginia and Kentucky. I do not know if or when I will be able to verify this side of the family back past William P. Ellis and his father, William H. 埃利斯.

Sources: 聖. 聖路易斯郵報, 十二月 5, 1917, P. 17 and Missouri Death Certificate Database

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