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To order the document I had to submit proof of who I
was along with Mary's death certificate. On her death certificate it
lists her parents as Herman Small and Marion Deex. What I got back
from the Pennsylvania Department of Health was clearly a doctored up
forged document. Since the family name was changed from Schmalz to
Small in 1949 and Mary was born in 1933 the original birth
certificate would NOT have Herman or Marion "Small"
as the father. Other factors have come to light during my investigation which
clouds the history of Mary's birth. Below is the story as it has unfolded so far:
My parents had always told us that they were married in 1932. My
sister, Mary, moved to Dallas, Texas after she retired and lived
across the street from me for about ten years. She and I would talk
or visit several times a week. During one of our many visits (around
1990 I think) she related the following story to me. At some point
(late 1970s or early 80s before my mom died in 1982) she needed a
birth certificate. She had always thought she was born in Cleveland
and contacted the Cuyahoga County, Ohio Clerk and requested a
certified copy of her birth certificate. After several communiqu�s
going back and forth; the county clerk insisting there was no record
of her and Mary insisting there should be... She even knew the name
of the hospital she was born in, or so she thought... She
finally contacted my mother and told her how much trouble she was
having trying to get the document. My mom, with some trepidation,
told my sister that, in fact, she was not born in Cleveland but in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Well this was a shock to her and it was a
shock to everyone since no one in the immediate family knew they
ever lived anywhere other than Cleveland and Tucson, Arizona after they were
married. My mother and dad simply said that they had moved to PA
to because of my dads job and it caused such bad feelings in the
family because they moved that they moved back and decided to never
mention it again. Anyway, Mary finally got her birth certificate. I
don't know if my mother provided the birth certificate or if it came
from PA. This is where things get a little muddy. I remember Mary
telling me that the first birth certificate she got didn't even have
mother and dad's names on it but somebody else's names (or maybe it
was just dad's name that wasn't on it). Like I said it gets fuzzy
for me at this point. Mary contacted PA again and was able to get a
"corrected" birth certificate. Mary showed this copy to me and at
that time I thought it looked phoney. Carol, my younger sister,
remembers a similar story but remembers mother sending Mary the copy
of her birth certificate. At any rate I was convinced at the time
there was more to this story. As things go, my mom passed, then my
dad, and eventually Mary and all this would have gone to the grave with them except
for a couple minor details (Lucy and the documents remained). After
my mom died my dad married her sister, Lucy (we called her Aunt
Mom). When my dad died that left my younger sister, Carol, to take
care of Lucy and sometime in the ten years after my dad's death Lucy
told Carol that my dad was not Mary's biological father; that Mary
was the product of a relationship my mother had with a married man
and Mary was ten months old when my mom and dad married. At this
point Carol decided she would just not say anything and would have
not told anyone if I hadn't started doing the family genealogy.
Carol came to visit me two and a half years before this writing and I told her I was
going to do the family genealogy. Since she had saved all my parents
papers she agreed to send me copies of everything. After having
those conversations with Mary years earlier, I told Carol I was
definitely interested in seeing Mary's birth certificate. Well at
this point Carol realized that the documents in her possession would
confirm that my suspicions were not unfounded so she told me what
Lucy had told her and that in fact the marriage and birth
certificates confirm Lucy's story.
Fortunately or unfortunately I misunderstood Carol and thought she
said that mother was "pregnant" with Mary from another relationship
when she married dad and documented that in the genealogy. All was
well once again... for awhile.... As I was able to verify marriage
dates and birth dates I would enter them in the database but I
wasn't paying much attention to how the marriage and birth dates
related to each other. As the genealogy research progressed I
contacted several more long lost relatives and one in particular,
my mother's first cousin, Arthur Deex, had already done extensive research and had a
lot of info I didn't have. He said that after scanning my
information that I had a lot of info he didn't have and that we
would both benefit by combining our efforts. About a week later I
got an email from him that questioned my information about Mary.
Arthur's email...
Hi Gordon,
The dates and narrative in the entries for Marion (my mother), Mary Jane
(my Sister), and
Robert (my brother) on your website don't seem to fit together coherently. But I
do remember this: Before Herman, Marion, Mary Jane, and Robert
visited my home in Brook Park I was told that Herman & Marion had
adopted Mary Jane, and Robert (I think they were brother & sister)
but that I should not mention that fact since they didn't know. Now
that is completely in disagreement with your narrative. But without
the narrative, the dates make sense. I asked my 91 year old sister
Catherine, but all she remembered was that Robert had played on our
foot-pump organ and that it never worked properly again. History is
an elusive fellow...
After reviewing the dates....
Mary b: 27 Sep 1933 (Death certificate has this date as her birth
date and this is what everyone in the family knew as her birthday) My
parents married: 16 Jul 1934 (Marriage certificate verifies this
date)
My brother b: 25 Feb 1935 (My brother confirmed this date)
I realized Marry was nine months old and my mom was slightly
pregnant with my brother when she and my dad got married. I have
since found out that Lucy (my mother's Sister and also my dad's
second wife after my mother died) had also told my older brother the same
story she told my sister Carol. This makes me tend to think that the
above message is incorrect and that Lucy's story about Mary being
mom's child is true and that my brother is probably my dad's
biological son. I have asked a cousin to talk to her mother (my
dad's sister) and see if she is willing to discuss her version of
events.
Message from Marie's daughter, Gail (Marie is my
dad's sister)
I talked to Mother on Christmas Eve (2004) about your Mom and Mary
and Bob. She told me that Mary was adopted. She said she was sworn
to secrecy so she really did not want to talk about it. I told her
that you had a right to know and just wanted the facts that no one
was condemning anyone. She said that Mary's Mother was an alcoholic
and that is why they adopted her. She said that Bob was a 7 month
baby because your Mother fell off a ladder and went into labor
early. She did not want to talk any more about it but swore it was
the truth. I told her what your uncle said and she said it was
definitely not true. I don't know if, being sworn to secrecy she
will not say any more or if that is definitely the truth. Let me
know what you think.
Now this story also makes sense since my Mary had problems with
alcohol as did three of her five kids. On the other hand it could be
that this was the story told to my fathers side of the family to
protect my mother's purity. Just some speculation here....
Let me add a little more from my perspective here. Mary looked
exactly like my mother. I and my brother's and other sister believe
that Mary was most likely mom's child. There was just too much
family resemblance. Though, could she be a child of another family
member??? Is it possible that Mary was adopted??? I, my brother's
and sister, Carol, have very similar temperaments. Mary's
temperament was drastically different. Even to the point that I used
to tease her that she must be adopted.
My mother often quoted Sir Walter Scott to sum up certain
situations; "Oh, what a tangled web we weave...."
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