Come Out, Sweet Virginia  

   TALES OF THE TRIBE OF MUNCH                   

Edith Virginia Haley (1936)

(Author's note: This is a genealogical proof exercise. I'm a big believer that vital records only tell half the story. The "proof standard" of all our lives lies somewhere in the middle.)

As always, vitally unedited.

There are few things more genealogically pleasurable, tedious, or outright humbling than trying to amass the required proofs for a lineage society application. These days, I'm assisting with a Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) application, so I thought I’d share a little bit of what I’ve been encountering on that painful and humiliating path of finding my way to the truth, or at least my attempts to strive for "the proof standard."

This time, it all revolves around Edith.

On the surface, putting Edith’s proofs together shouldn't be a big deal. Born in 1920 and passing away in 2003, Edith's life is a fairly contemporary presence in this DAR journey. My basic problem with Edith, however, is that I don't have a birth or death certificate for her. Say what?? How will I ever get Edith past those mavens at the DAR and their stringent ways of demanding authoritative, official, and vital records?

The truth is, I may not.

I gotta say too, getting in line (or via the U.S.Mail) at the Vital Records offices in Tennessee or South Carolina does not thrill me. There's that interminable and endless waiting period, followed by the chance that the clerk just graduated from the "School of Cranky" and won't send you the record anyway because it doesn't meet some obscure law on the books from say 1933.

Well, you'd think it should be easy... 

Gathering enough "other information" to meet the proof standards outside of vital records—the documents for verifying Edith’s life—can turn out to be quite a mountain to climb.

Especially since, beyond this Social Security Applications and Claims Index online (at least this far) I have found little to nothing that says her name was "Edith" at all.   

Working backward from the Social Security Applications and Claims Index, I can get a general sense of who she was. Sadly, while this very helpful Index record should do the trick, because it isn't an official, certified document, it will quickly be discarded as hearsay by those charming gals at the DAR.

I mean, I get their point. I know it's Edith, but they sure as Hell don't - especially when pretty much on anything and everywhere she's called herself "Virginia."

Okay, not a big deal, right?

I just figured I'd just go back to the beginning, and while I don't have her birth certificate, surely there was a birth announcement for her in the local newspaper. This should give me a published starting point. While not an official record it would certainly be one hard to argue with.

But...

(1920)

And there it was, the announcement made on behalf of her parents welcoming their new baby girl, a girl called:

 "Elizabeth Virginia."

Wtf?

So now, in addition to not having an actual birth certificate, I have a misprint of her name, Edith, as Elizabeth?

Oh, yay, this is going well. 

The only thing I could think to do was to start following "Edith," "Edith Virginia," "Virginia," and now the possibility of a dang "Elizabeth" to see how it was all going to shake out. I mean I knew I had her headstone where she's called "Virginia" (but also referred to as "Dena"), and I knew that I have her marriage notice posted in the newspapers as "Virginia" but I still had to get around why her name was ever "Edith" - even if I could likely discount "Elizabeth" as a typo and "Dena" as a nickname. 

You got all that?

So I started matching any one of her names to her parents, her father "Raymond" and, you guessed it, her mother "Edith, Sr." (who shared her first name, adding to the confusion). This pulled up an old marriage and divorce and newspaper notices for "Edith Virginia," who was linked to "Mr. and Mrs. Raymond..."  

                                (1936)

It certainly seems like the same "Virginia?" But was it a sister? Were Edith and Virginia sisters or the same person? From the documents, you just couldn't tell. 

Remember, I have the Social Security Applications and Claim  Index. I already know the answer is that they are the same person, but you see, proving it is the problem. 

Following "Edith Virginia," daughter of "Mr. and Mrs. Raymond..." and Edith Virginia's new husband (you guessed it) also named "Raymond," from marriage to divorce went pretty easily. However, while I still couldn't really differentiate "Edith" from "Virginia," it was becoming more and more obvious that they are/were one and the same person. 

In the image below, our gal Edith Virginia is four lines down, where it shows she and Mr. Ray have split the sheets.                    

(May 1941)

I guess it was about 1941 when the "Edith" side of the equation went away. See the difference in her marriage notices in the newspapers? Here, "Virginia," daughter of "Mr. and Mrs. Raymond..." marries "Roy."  

(July 1941)   

There is no more mention of"Edith" or "Edith Virginia."

Now we are just "Virginia."

I think the reasons for this appear to be two-fold. First of all, I think "Edith Virginia" was simply done with the name Edith. It was probably confusing since her mother had the same name, and that it represented her old life with her first husband. I think too that the "polite society" of the time allowed "Mr. and Mrs. Raymond..." to marry off their daughter a second time without scandal, once in 1936 as "Miss Edith Virginia" and now in 1941 as simply "Miss Virginia."

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

It's interesting, however, in that before 1941 marriage, and for a period of about two months, and after her divorce from first husband Raymond, she was, in fact, "Mrs. Edith Virginia..." 

She hadn't been a "Miss" anything since 1936.

No disrespect Miss Edith. Just sayin.'

But I'm not gonna rat her out, or mention the fact that she kinda misstated her age by two years in 1936 when she married Raymond. (She was only sixteen at the time.) It may be that her parents, "Mr. and Mrs. Raymond..." were able to get her an annulment even after so many years (1936-1941) all in an effort to make a scandal and what was left of Edith disappear into the reconstituted Virginia. 

 

(1936)

In Virginia's defense, she was called the name "Virginia" by her family. This is proven out in the 1930 census, and later on in the obituaries of her parents. It's all good, and I sure as Heck am not passing judgment. 

   

           (1930)

I'm just your average everyday wannabe-genealogist trying to get around the useless triumvirate of vital records, (i.e., birth, marriage, death) being required. 

In this exercise, I'm just trying to piece together the proof standard without them.               

                

                            (2003)

In light of the Social Security Applications and Claim  Index, the secondary sources do prove that Edith and Virginia were one and the same person. I've gone ahead and ordered her Tennessee birth certificate just to stay on top of the standard. Tennessee has proven to be a friendly place in this regard. Because her birth record is over 100 years old Tennessee is okay with me having a copy. I'm probably gonna forego a death cert at this point. A death cert means getting back in line with South Carolina vital records, and they (SCDPH) are no friends of man, dog, or wannabe genealogist. 

In the meantime, I think we're close to being ready to submit the application.  It's good stuff, and will, with any luck, prove valuable to the family of Edith Virginia for years to come. 

Just a few more bridges to cross. 

🕊️