Monday, May 20, 2013

Mickey and Edna

From Mildred Lindborg's photo album.

15 Mickey and Edna
(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of N.B.


I have just spent an awful lot of time trying to figure out the Kimball family, and I would not be able to justify it except that history records two occasions on which William and Elma Kimball set foot on the sacred soil of Ainsworth — in August 1911, "Mrs. Wm. Kimball of Hegewisch visited Mr. and Mrs. Gust Lindborg," and a couple weeks later, "Wm. Kimball of Hegewisch spent Sunday with Gust Lindborg." So there.

Here's what I've gathered so far: Gust Lindborg had a younger sister, Elma. She came over from Sweden in 1906. The following year she married William Kimball, a railroad man who lived in Chicago. In 1908, they had a daughter, Edna; another daughter, Helen, was born around 1915.

I suppose it's these two girls, cousins to our Ainsworth Lindborgs, who are pictured above. How Helen came to be called "Mickey" I have no clue, nor can I identify the girl sitting on the ground in the photo at left.

These photos were taken in Pocatello, Idaho, where the family had moved sometime between the First World War and the 1920 census. By 1930 Edna had left the household — I have not been able to find out what became of her. In 1940 we find Elma Kimball in San Bruno, California, in the household of Helen (aka Mickey), who is now the wife of John Ellis. In the marital-status column, the census-taker first wrote "M" for Elma, but that was crossed out and someone wrote in something that looks like "7." I can't find William in 1940; however, when the Second World War broke out, he showed up in Pocatello, listing his daughter, Helen Ellis, as his contact. That's all I've got, and I'm not entirely sure I have found the right people.

Further confusion comes from the fact that the owner of this photo album gave me the surname "Goyette" in connection with these people. I have yet to discover how that fits in.


Sources:
1910 Census.
1920 Census.
1930 Census.
1940 Census.
♦ "Ainsworth." Hobart News 24 Aug. 1911; 7 Sept. 1911.
Cook County, Illinois, Marriage Index.
WWI Draft Cards.
WWII Army Enlistment Records.

No comments: