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Bonita's son Wm was married to a woman named Rachel. They lived in San Francisco and had a child (Warren) while they lived in San Francisco. The earthquake of 1906 struck the city and they moved north to stay with Bonita and WO until the city was rebuilt.
Rachel worked in a restaurant uptown in Ferndale and William worked as a cook for them. After the city was built back up, they found work in San Francisco in Vaudville. They were not able to take the baby with them, due to their work, so they wanted to leave him with his grandmother, Bonita. Bonita and WO had never had children of their own.
Bonita refused to keep the child unless she could adopt him. She didn't want to get attached to the baby and have them come back and take him away from them. So Bonita and WO adopted Warren and that is how our branch of the tree became Davis and the rest of the family stayed Lauder.
Warren grew up with his grandmother Bonita, and step grandfather WO Davis in Ferndale. My dad was born in 1915 and remembered Warren as a young man married to Sara. Sara was a friend of my dad's mom Marcella. Dad used to say Warren was a spoiled by the grandparents, they over indulged him.
New stories learned in the last year make all this information suspect. see timeline.
I heard stories from both mom and my grandma Sara that Warren had brothers in San Francisco. I even found Earl and Rose' address in Grandma's address book. Jay talked about going and visiting her uncle's family. She talked of seeing the sites, coit tower, pier, island, aquarium.... I knew grandma Sara and Warren got a divorce, and Warren remarried. His second wife Betty was not able to have children, and so Warren and Betty would come get the kids in the summer for a month. I always thought that they took all three kids, but apparently mom was left out several times because she was too young. She may have only gone once, maybe twice. Her other 1/2 brothers didn't understand how come mom, Jay, and Richard got to go camping in the summer and they didn't.
I have photos of all of them camping, Warren, Betty, Betty's dad, Jay, Richard, and Mom at horse creek.
Warren and Betty divorced, and Warren moved "back east" where he married again and had three other kids.
Years later when I asked what ever happened to grandpa, mom told me she had a letter from him years ago, he had been working over seas and had a heart attack. She said he was being sent home, and was going to stop here, but never did. She said he probably had another heart attack and died before he could come.
So, years later, in the 90s, I asked my mom if she would mind me trying to find the kids "back east" her 1/2 siblings. She said go ahead, so I did. But I didn't know where to start. How do you find three people when you know nothing about them. Step one, re-interview the family and see what they remembered. I got pretty much the same information as what I started with.
I talked to my aunt who was taking care of my grandma at the time. She told me she had met her dad by accident in Bethesda air port when they both were in the service. Imagine her surprise to see her dad there when she had not seen or heard from him in years. She said she talked with him and they exchanged information and he also gave her two photos. I said wow you have photos of the kids back east? Auntie said yes, and they have names on them but I can't remember what they are. Names! I was finally able to get the names a few months later when Jay returned from home with two snapshot photos. She said they had been on her fridge for years. One was a baby crawling on the floor, it said Connie on the back, the other was a boy and girl standing side by side holding hands. The back of this photo said Warren Jr and Sheri. I was so tickled! because now, for the first time in 30 years, I knew the names of my auntie and uncle. I had something to go on.
Computers were just starting to be more widely used in homes at the time, so I took to the internet and decided to try to find the family this way. Since I was new to the computer, I went to a company that was making money by harvesting addresses and selling lists of names. I ordered a list of names and got a list of 280 some names. I sat down immediately to craft a letter. I put just enough info in it so someone who was a relative would know it was true, but not enough info to have someone pretend they were family. I added a post card pre-addressed and stamped and asked "Please drop postcard in the mail if you are not the person I am searching for so I can remove you from the list.
Of the letters sent I got back over 200 post cards. most of them blank, some said little like "sorry not me" or "good luck in your hunt". One said "Sorry not me, I is black!". Then there was the one who sent a copy of Who's Who in America, his info underlined AND highlighted. He said "This is most certainly NOT me. I went to Harvaaard!" Like I want to be related to your sorry ass.......I was starting to lose hope this was not working!
My son Chris was also learning computer skills at school and he came home one day and said, "Mom, who you looking for Warren Davis? here is a bunch of them." He handed me three pages with Warren Davis address on them, and comparing lists found I had covered most of them but there were a dozen I had not hit yet. So, off went more letters.
Thanks to Chris, and the new addresses, I finally got back the letter I had been looking for. It said, I think I am the person you are looking for but, who are you?....... BINGO! More info was exchanged and in a very short time, we had a family reunion in Humboldt. Warren, wife Becky, children Chad and Craig, Sheri, husband Howie, Connie husband Gary, and son Chris. It was fantastic, but, there was still mystery. What happened all those years ago to Warren and his family.
The "kids" back east really had less info than we did. Warren was gone a lot working over seas. Questions about his family life were answered with he was adopted by old people and they were gone. He had no family. Yet, Warren Jr remembered as a child flying to San Francisco and seeing an Uncle. hmm. Sheri, saw letters that were addressed "Dear Dad" and signed "your daughter Jay". Hmm.
I contacted the owner of the tree and found that he was not the matching person but the tree had been built for his college roommate. We made email contact, and the DNA match was my second cousin Chris. He told me his mom was alive and very eager to speak with us. Cousin Joan called me and we talked for an hour. I was able to fill in a lot of the family history for her from our side, she also surprised me with info from her side. Earl and William were both in an Catholic orphanage for a time they were listed as 1/2 orphans. This is when one parent is dead and the other incapacitated. family legend says, Rachel and William had owned a restaurant that had burned. They lost everything. It was so devistating to for them both. William one evening said he needed to go out for a package of ciggarettes and never returned. Rachel left with children to raise was not able to handle the stress.
I also shared information that Joan was not aware of. The boys did not only have a younger sister (Rita) but an older sister Alice. Alice was born in Humboldt in 1903, and died at age 15 in 1918, we believe one of the millions killed by the Spanish flu that spread across the nation in 1918. She was burried 22 December 1918 in Coloma.(1-10-19) I now have the death certificate and she indeed was a victim of the flu. This very well could have been the straw that broke the family. Especially since the boys did not seem to be aware they had an older sister, or if they did they never spoke of her.
What happened to William? (2022 still no answers)
I have looked and looked for a record that shows where he died, I have been able to find nothing.(2022)
Did he walk out and change his name and die under another ID? (last known to be in Camp Harriet VA)
Did he walk out and commit suicide?
Was the loss of the restaurant and Alice in close proximity to each other?(he had a lunch counter in Ferndale for about a month was this the lost restaurant? (22)
How did Alice die? Was it really the flu as I had been told? (yes now have death cert. she died of the flu 2022)
yes, I now have the death certificate, she died of influenza
What happened to sister Rita/Bonita? (I believe l she married and never had children)
Joan said she thought the sister was sent to an aunt, no doubt this had to be one of Rachel's sisters as William had no other brothers or sisters that we know of.
Who was William Lauder's father? (possible his name was Jon or Ian and was born in California)
Who was the "aunt" who took Earl and Warren in?
Why was Warren the oldest son left with his grandmother, when there was younger children in the family and an older sister? (since it is looking like William was not a stable person perhaps Warren was left with grandparents because William and Rachel just coudln't handle another child. 2022)
Why did Bonita move from lower california to MO?
How and why did Bonita go from Missouri to Humboldt?
Did she bring William Lauder her son with her or did he follow later on?
New questions!
I found in a San Francisco paper, Rachel was named as Rachel Phillips, when her mother's estate was sold
Then found a wedding announcement for Rachel Delahunte and Wm Phillips.
This was a not quite 6 months prior to Alice Louder being born.
Could it be that Rachel was married for a very short time to someone named Phillips, that was not Wm Louder? or
maybe the better scenario is Wm Louder was going by a different name, Phillips, and he changed his name to work in Vaudville? or perhaps he was a Lauder but temporarily was going by Phillips
Now searching for both William Louder and William Phillips.
More to follow......
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