Grandpa Grover Candy's Scrapbook

About the Beldens...

At this point in our research we were attempting to read the whole story from Censuses and this wasn't going perfectly smoothly. Too much leaping and uncertainty. But hours and hours of poking around and on paper connecting the dots was giving us more information than we had.

Tracing the census records back through Grandpa Ted and Uncle Allie led us to the Beldens where we could see that some of the children were Beldens and some were Candys.

Something must have happened.

And then by comparing census records from 1920 to earlier records, we found out that Nellie Belden had been Mrs. George Candy.

George Candy died.

At the time that George died, in 1907, Nellie was expecting her seventh child with husband George.

So she was "widowed."

And pregnant.

That seventh child was George A. Candy, born in 1908.

So, many of these Candy children, were listed again, in the 1920 Census--as having joined the Belden family. Because Nellie (Lake) Candy re-married to Charles D. Belden.

Nellie was 44.

In 1920, the Belden household was FULL!

There were "children":

Blanch E. Belden

Charles D. Belden, Jr.

Pearl R. Belden (a newborn)

AND,

Ella J. Candy

Glen G. Candy

John E. Candy

Delbert A. Candy

and little George A. Candy

So where was Allie?
Well, in 1920, he would have been 23 years old. He was old enough to be on his own at that point and so wouldn't have been in the Beldens' household.

We did find a photograph in Mama's scrapbook labeled Uncle Allie, Laura, and Nellie!

Uncle Allie with Laura Candy and Nellie Candy

On one of the trips Mama (Sherry Candy Lane) made to visit her father Grover out in Oregon by that time, he labeled some photographs that he gave her for her scrapbook.

Allie would've been Grover's Uncle because Allie was Grandpa Ted's brother. The woman with the baby is Laura Robinson Candy. And the baby is Nellie Candy according to the labels. The baby was Grandpa Grover's big sister. We might assume the baby was named for Nellie (Lake) [Candy] Belden, but the baby had another grandmother Nellie too! She was Nellie Menney, married to Jesse Robinson.

From Grandpa Grover's Photograph Collection handed down to Sherry Candy Lane

Allie was older than Grandpa Ted and Ted's sister Ella would have been 26, and she'd married (according to Census readings)--in 1914 when she was twenty.

She married a man named Frank Alger in St. Louis, Gratiot, Michigan.

Frank was a veterinarian and Estella was a nurse.

And, Ella's husband, Frank Alger had parents named Frank Alger and Ella Strouple.

At this point in our research we looked for more information about their biological father. How did he die? Where was he buried? Our questions were wrought with emotional weight even though we'd never known George Candy. His death seemed so sudden and so impact-ful on so many lives it felt like it was extra important to know what happened.

There were newspapers from that time and place but we were crushed to find out from Grace Dooley that the newspapers had been destroyed in a fire. Grace Dooley is one of those contact angels among researchers and though she couldn't tell us much about George Candy, she did send us Nellie Belden's obituary!

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Received 8 NOVEMBER 2010 from Grace Dooley

2 photocopied pages

1. "Bulletin" Ogemaw County Herald 1/17/1946, page 1, column 5

2. "Mrs. Nellie Belden Buried Friday, Jan. 18, at Brookside" Ogemaw County Herald 1/24/1946 page 1, column 4

"Bulletin"

"Mrs. Charles Belden, well known Ogemaw township resident, and widow of the late Charles Belden, died Wednesday morning, January 16, at her farm home three miles west of West Branch on M-55 and a mile and three quarters south on the Stony Hill road."

"Mrs. Nellie Belden Buried Friday, Jan. 18, at Brookside"

"Had Been A Resident of Ogemaw Township Past Forty-six Years--Funeral services for Mrs. Nellie Belden, well known resident of Ogemaw township were held on Friday afternoon of last week, January 18, from the Steuernol Funeral Chapel in West Branch with Rev. Eric J. Whiting, rector of Trinity Episcopal church, West Branch, officiating. Burial took place in Brookside cemetery.

"Mrs. Belden died at three o'clock the morning of Wednesday, January 16, at her farm residence on the Stony Hill road in Ogemaw township, three miles west of West Branch and nearly two miles south of M-55. She was 70 years of age, and had been ill about eight days.

"Born at Sunfield, Eaton county, Michigan, on September 1, 1875, she came to Ogemaw from Iowa [continued on page 8, researcher attached to photocopy] about 46 years ago, and was the widow of the late Charles Belden who passed away in 1934.

"She is survived by eight children, Estella Alger of Ithaca; Allie J. Candy of West Branch, Glenn Candy of Gladwin, John A. Candy, Delbert A. Candy, Blanche Rau and Pearl Hodgkinson, all of West Branch, and Charles Belden of Gaylord, and 19 grandchildren."

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The simple or basic information in the obituary really served to ground us because we were in a tumble of researching. A few clues from Grandma Pearl Bohlinger and some narrative from Sherry Candy Lane had got us going on a hobby that meant something. And it was the kind of hobby that went well with my (Lara Lynn Lane) other academic pursuits and journalism vocation. But none of us had any money to succinctly put together a nice neat Quilt for Mama so we had to settle for piecemeal assembly and labor of love.

Besides, we had about ten thousand (or so it seemed) relatives to incorporate somehow into the project so there was time to post and wait.

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Meanwhile we felt confident enough about Grandpa Ted and Grandmother Robinson to start doing more serious research.

per "Michigan Marriages, 1868-1925," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NQM3-2GG: accessed 26 MAY 2013), John W. Candy and Laura Robinson, 11 JUNE 1921.

A Return of Marriages in the County of Ogemaw for the quarter ending June 30, 1921 gives us the basic information of the marriage license dated 14 JUNE 1921.

Groom: John W. Candy
Bride: Laura Robinson

Both are aged 20. John W. was a farmer. John W's parents are listed as George Candy and Nellie Lake. Laura's parents are listed as Jesse Robinson and Nellie Menney.

Neither groom nor bride were previously married.

The date of the marriage was 11th June 1921 in Butman, Michigan. They were married by George W. Bailey, an elder of LDS. Witnesses were Rosie E. Muma and Jenna (a little unclear) Muma, both of Roscommon.

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Laura was born a Robinson,
2 APRIL 1901 in Roscommon County, Michigan.

She married John Erwin Candy (born 1906)
on the 11th of June 1921 in Ogemaw, Michigan.

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The U.S. Census for 1920 (Ogemaw, Michigan) shows us Laura Robinson as a single, white, female, aged 19 years old. She is listed as a daughter in the household of Jesse Robinson. On that Census Jesse Robinson is male, 52 years old (born in Michigan). And the wife is Nellie Robinson, aged 43 (born in Canada). Besides Laura there is listed a son: Floyd Robinson who is thirteen and had been born in Michigan.

"United States Census, 1920," index and images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MZQB-302: accessed 26 MAY 2013, Laura Robinson in entry for Jesse Robinson, 1920.

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Working backwards in our family tree through Grover, then his parents John and Laura (Robinson) Candy was how we first discovered the Beldens who adopted the Candy kids left by the George Candy who was married to Nellie Lake.

We believe that John Candy (who married Laura) is on the U.S. Census, 1920 in the household of Charles D. Belden. Although we may be wrong because on that enumeration it's "John E. Candy" (not John W. Candy, popularly called "Grandpa Ted"). John E. Candy has an estimated birth year of 1906 according to the family search record (we still need to see the actual Census): "United States Census, 1920," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MZQB-H7D: accessed 26 MAY 2013), John E Candy in entry for Charles D. Belden. An estimated birth year of 1906 doesn't match up to the ages which date John W. Candy's birth year as +/- 1901. So there's a discrepancy.

Going back to the 1910 U.S. Census (which is barely three years after George Candy died and left Nellie with all those children, we find Nellie marrying Charles Belden but at first it's only her five sons by George who are listed on the Census in their household together. We think it's Grandpa Ted listed as Edwin there at which time he's recorded as being eight years old.

That Michigan Marriage Return showing the marriage between John W. Candy and Laura Robinson lists his parents as Geo Candy and Nellie Lake. And this fits together with the information we have on Nellie Lake who became Nellie Belden when her first husband George Candy died and left behind several children. We find some of those children listed as step-children on the 1920 U.S. Census for the Belden Household.

By 1920 Nellie and Charles had three children of their own as well (Blanch E., Charles D., and Pearl R.). And Ella J. is in the Census with them as well. That's Estella Candy, she's 22 on the Census of 1920 but there's a marriage record [ "Michigan, Marriages, 1868-1925," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N3LR-QZZ : accessed 26 MAY 2013), Geo Candy in entry for Frank L. Alger and Estella Candy, 23 SEP 1914 ] that suggests she may have used a woman's wiggle room re: age in that snapshot. Estella's important to our research because her parents were also George Candy and Nellie Lake and she was one of their seven children who was born in Iowa before the family moved to Ogemaw County in Michigan. The marriage return of Frank L. Alger (Veterinarian) and Estella Candy (a nurse) gives us confirmation of Estella's birth in 1894 in Goodell, Iowa. And that helps us later in the story when we find more ancestors. We believe that in the US Census 1920 of the Belden household "Grandpa Ted" is listed as John E. Candy and he's listed as being fourteen years old.

But by the U.S. Census of 1930 we find the name Ted E. Candy (instead of John E. Candy) as brother to the head of household Glen S. Candy (not Glen G. Candy as he'd been listed on the Beldens 1920 enumeration). In 1930, Ted E. and Laura K, as well as Nellie M. Candy (born +/- 1914) and Grover E. Candy are in Glen and his wife, Rena's, household. We know Ted is listed as brother, Laura as sister-in-law, Nellie and Grover as niece and nephew respectively.

And back in the Belden's household, Edwin/John E./Ted E. Candy is not on his mother's list. This agrees with the information that Grandpa Ted (which is what Grover's grandkids knew Grover's father as) got married to Laura Robinson in 1921 (on June 11th according to the return of marriage). On that record it's "John W. Candy." And he and bride Laura are both twenty years old. That record gives us the parents of each! John's parents were Geo Candy and Nellie Lake. And Laura's were Jesse Robinson and Nellie Menney.

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The Census (U.S. 1910, Ogemaw, Michigan) shows Jesse's birthplace as Canada so that's a discrepancy.

In household ID #127, there is:

Self Jesse Robinson, M, 42
Wife Nellie Robinson, F, 32
Dau   Iva Mary Robinson, F, 12
Son   Bert Robinson, M, 11
Dau   Laura Robinson, F, 9
Son   Floyd Robinson, M, 4

"United States Census, 1910," index and images, FamilySearch (https://FAMILYSEARCH.ORG/PAL:/mm9.1.1/mlrl-rjc: ACCESSED 26 MAY 2013), Laura Robinson in entry for Jesse Robinson, 1910.

I know, lots of Nellies.

The US Census 1920 of Ogemaw, Michigan shows us Laura Robinson at age 19 in the household of her father (that record lists relationships to Head of Household). So, that she'd be truly twenty the next year when she got married makes perfect sense.

"United States Census, 1920," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MZQB-3DZ : accessed 26 MAY 2013, Laura Robinson in entry for Jesse Robinson, 1920.

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Grandpa Ted, Laura Robinson and their daughter Nellie

Children with the photographs of Grandpa Ted and Uncle Allie in Grandpa Grover's collection.

In the 1930 U.S. Census we find Laura Robinson married and she's Laura K. Candy. 28 years old. She's the sister-in-law to the head of the household of Glen S. Candy in Ogemaw. On that enumeration her father and mother were listed as being born in Michigan. And in this full household we find baby Grover and his sister Nellie. Everybody on the list was born in Michigan.

Head of Household Glen S. Candy, male, 30
Wife Rena M. Candy, female, 21
Stepson, Kenneth J. Nesbet, male, 2
Nephew, Junior D. Candy, male, 2
Niece, Betty J. Candy, female, 0
Brother Ted E. Candy, male, 28
Sister-in-law Laura K. Candy, male, 28
Niece Nellie M. Candy, female, 6
Nephew Grover E. Candy, male, 0

"United States Census, 1930," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XQ1Y-1RB: accessed 26 MAY 2013), Laura K. Candy in entry for Glen S. Candy, 1930.

Grandpa Grover, on the back it says when they went to Flint I stayed with Grace

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Keep in mind that anytime we have Census information from the past, there's no way for us to know who was relaying information. Hence so much guestimating and such about peoples' ages and name spellings and, sometimes, discrepancies.

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Reading a 1940 Census for the first time was interesting.

"United States Census, 1940," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/K4PC-Z8L: accessed 26 MAY 2013), Laura Candy in household of John Candy, Ogemaw Township, Ogemaw, Michigan, U.S., citing enumeration district (ED) 65-11, sheet 2B, family 38, NARA digital publication T627, roll 1806.

Here we see Laura Candy at age 39ish still married to John Candy (who is 38ish years old). Both born in Michigan. With them are a daughter--Nellie Candy, age 16 and a son, Grover Candy, age 10. They are living on Route 3 in Ogemaw Township although their residence on April 1, 1939 was in Clio, Michigan (Genesee County).

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Based on this information, so far, it seems evidential that Grover's parents were Laura Robinson and John Erwin Candy whom Sherry Candy Lane says everybody called "Grandpa Ted."