Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Young Jimmy

I was surprised and pleased to find these photos. It is hard to imagine my father as a little boy. In many of these pictures he reminds me a lot of Eric.
I was very surprised to see the inscription saying that the picture had been taken "when he came east with his mother." He had always insisted that he had almost no contact with Gladys until he left Todd. I keep wondering, he told of having been put on a street car alone by Gram when he was quite young, the driver put him off where instructed and while he stood there alone and crying a woman came up and asked him if he was Jimmy; he said that woman was Gladys and she took him somewhere and there was a man there. Could it be that Gladys put him on a street car in Chicago, Christine picked him up and took him to his father?

We'll never know. As he grew older he forgot a lot and reconstructed a lot. Researchers have found that every time we visit a memory it changes a bit when we re-store it.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

John Wagner documents

I am way behind in posting to the family history. I have been too busy with my other blog.

I decided to revisit John one more time. Not for a page in the family history book but to preserve some supplementary documents. How, you might ask, can I be sure that this man was the father of James Wagner. (click on the documents to enlarge and make readable)






Well, one of the documents entered into evidence is the divorce decree of John and Gladys. The testimony of his sister-in-law also states that he was married before ( to Gladys) and had a son named James Julius. Evidently he had no contact after the divorce as Salt Lake City is the last place he knew his son to be.


Although hard to read, the petition for naturalization indicates that Julius Rozsa, who asks to have his name changed to John Wagner, is the same man. He has a son named James, he has the birth date wrong but the place of birth is correct. The name of his wife and the residence are the same as the John Wagner who is clearly the father of our James Wagner.




If further evidence is required, look at the picture of Dick Wagner next to the one of John Wagner. Dick is a little younger in this picture taken in 1961 than was John in the picture taken of him and his second wife. The resemblance is striking. Dick said it was like looking in a mirror.