Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Auntie (cousin) Mame?

I have been trying to find records for Mame Tuohy (not sure of the spelling). I was told that she was born in Ireland, was a cousin of John Henry Golden, that she married someone named Garnet, and died in San Francisco around 1955. She was present at the wedding of Bob and Betty Golden, and I think I was told that she paid for Aunt Margie (Sheldon) to go to school at the San Francisco College for Women. Are my facts correct? Does anyone have any other information that would help locate her in the 1930 census or the California Death records? So far I haven't been able to find anything.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Finding Pearl

Pearl Paloutzian (b. 15 Aug 1900 in Turkey) was the oldest child of Manoug Paloutzian and his second wife Mary Parvanian. Pearl was married to Merial Shakerjian sometime before 1920, as the 1920 census record shows them living together in Fresno. They had a son, Benjamin, but the marriage didn't last. By 1930 Pearl and Ben were living in Los Angeles with her parents.
I hadn't been able to find out when Pearl died because I couldn't find a death record for a Pearl Paloutzian or Pearl Shakerjian. I was sharing this information with my parents when they provided a most valuable clue: She had shortened her last name to Shaker! And no one had bothered to tell me they were harboring this information! Anyway, I found Pearl Shaker's death record. She died in Los Angeles county 19 Apr 1976.

Sunday, August 5, 2007

The other Thomas Paloutzians

I had the information from uncle Ernie Paloutzian's family tree, and I had come across the records on Ancestry, but today I finally put it all together and worked out where Thomas (Toumas) Paloutzian, (born in Harput, Turkey in 1870), fit into our family tree.
Thomas' father was Armenag. One of Armenag's brothers was Asadoor (Their father was also named Toumas.) Asadoor had 4 sons, Manoug, Hovhannes, Bedros (Peter) and Kachadoor, all who came to California. That makes Thomas (b. 1870) and Manoug first cousins. Manoug was the father of Tatevous, my great-grandfather.
Thomas and his family lived in California as well, moving from Fresno county to the Los Angeles area between 1920 and 1930. His wife was Martha, and they had 6 children, only the oldest was not born in California; Yeranhouy (b. 1892 in Turkey) married Tateous Apkarian and had 5 children in California: Nergis, Asadoor, twins Vahan and Vartan, and Zabel; Armenhouy (b. 1901) married James Der Hagopian and had at least 2 children, Ralph and Virginia; I'm not sure if Armen (b. 1902) married, Higie (b. 1904) married a man named Kamler, Dickranhoui (b. 1906) married a man named Paul, and Zari (b. 1908) married a man named Adanalian. I haven't located any other grandchildren of Thomas and Martha.
There is one more Toumas, and he was a first cousin to Armenag, being the son of Armenag's uncle Garabed.

On another note, I have been adding marriage and divorce records from the 2 newest data bases on Ancestry: the California marriage database (1960-1985) and the California divorce database (1966-1984). This has been very helpful for family members in my parents' generation.