Sidetracked Again!

I have no idea how I got sidetracked today, but somehow I got started on looking up a marriage record for my mom's cousin Leo Zimmeth. Leo was born January 31 1907 in East Tawas, Michigan, the oldest child and only surviving son of George Zimmeth and Julia Blust. George died in 1918 during the Spanish Influenza epidemic, and Julia died in 1925 four months after her second marriage. These tragedies left three orphan children: Leo, age 18; Rose, age 15; and Mary age 12. I don't know what became of Leo at this time, but I suspect he was left to fend for himself, being 18 and all. Rose and Mary were sent to live with their Mother's family.

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When I was researching at the church that the Zimmeth family attended up in Iosco county, I noticed a marriage annotation on his baptismal record that stated he married Adele P. Kasten in Cape Girardeau, Missouri on October 11, 1930. Two things bother me, though. The first is that I can't find a marriage record in Missouri for the couple and the second is that they appear to be married a year already on the 1930 census.

There is a third thing that bothers me. The family consensus is that Leo's wife's name was 'Babe.' And that she was of American Indian descent. And that she probably was his common-law wife. This certainly does not jive with the German Kasten family. Probably Leo and Adele divorced. Maybe that was due to his four-year stint in Jackson (Michigan) Prison for armed robbery. And maybe it was also due to the fact that when he was paroled, he was taken to Covington, Kentucky to face charges there. Then there was the fact that he was also wanted in Cincinnati, Ohio for armed robbery.

Leo and Babe would visit with my grandparents in Pinconning periodically. He died in 1989. I certainly don't recall meeting him.

Now if I could just remember what I was doing before I got sidetracked.

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes