Sunday, September 8, 2013

Whoo-hoo! I finally found my mother's missing Aunt Mary.

A little background:  For many years I searched records for Mary Bond, my mother's aunt.  She was the only Bond aunt or uncle with whom she corresponded, and I thought it would be so nice to find out more about her.  Just curious, but no luck.  I had no surname for her husband, and could find no marriage record.  All I knew (or remembered, anyway) was that Aunt Mary was married to a doctor and lived around Oklahoma City.  I spent a lot of time looking but with no name for the husband, I just couldn't find a clue.

Recently, and it was truly a stroke of luck, I found her.  Tracing her mother, Martha Nichols Bond, my great grandfather's second wife, led me to Aunt Mary.  Grandma Nichols, as she was known by the grandchildren of the first family, was living with her daughter Mary and Mary's husband, Jesse Anton Bates, who was a physician.  This is from the 1930 census in Seminole County, Oklahoma. 


 Jesse Anton Bates is buried in Oklahoma City in Memorial Park Cemetery, having died in 1947.  In Tishomingo Cemetery in Johnston County, Oklahoma there is buried a Mary Lee Bates and a Charlie Frank Bates.   Their son Charles was named after both grandfathers: Charles Bond and Frank Bates.   Mary Bond Bates lived until 1977.  This would reinforce my recollection of Mother receiving letters while I was still at home on the farm.  Tishomingo is the birthplace of my mother and has been home to many Bond families over the years. 

I note that other researchers have Aunt Mary dying in 1920.  I could find no evidence of this.  She and husband Jesse and son Charles are also on the 1940 census for Seminole County, Oklahoma.  Charles appears to have had no children and so this family simply disappeared in the sands of time.