Finding an Uncle, piecing it all together.

Well, I am moving my blog, which I unfortunately, have not posted on as religiously as I would like to here. My old posts were on the "old" myspace, and since I am not sure how long those will be available, I am moving to this platform.

I started my research in genealogy with two purposes. To answer questions about my grandfather's family, and to find his brother, and my mother's half brother.As many finds as I have had, and I have had many, no matter the thrill of success I have had, I have failed to come close to finding my half Uncle in the last decade.

I know now, I actually have two half Uncle's. I had long suspected my grandmother had had an illegitimate child, and she did. Sometime in what I estimate to be the spring or summer of 1948, in Los Angeles County, California, she gave birth to a boy. She gave him up for adoption.I know the father was the lawyer my grandma worked for, but not his name. I don't ever expect to find this man, but if there is an adoptee looking for Dolores Barbara Hinds as his birth mother, give me a shout.

My mother's other half brother I had learned of when I was about 8 years old. No matter how hard I tried, I never could get my grandfather to say anything about him. My grandmother only spoke to me about him once. Her story was she met him once, and he was "a little guy". This would be 1948 or early 1949. By little guy, I am assuming he was about 3 or 4 years old. She said my grandfather actually had custody of him because while he was away from base during World War 2, his mother had "run off" with another man. He ended up giving the son back because she had "remarried.". This was also the only time I had learned my grandfather had been married twice, and not once before my grandmother.

My mother swears this brother's name was Patrick Daniel or Daniel Patrick. Based on some hard work and research, I have had some luck finding information on both of my grandfather's wives. I even have a time table for when this son was born, but dang, even though I found the women, I can't find the son. Either he died, or was given up for adoption before 1951.

I know my grandfather enlisted in the Coast Guard on June 25, 1942. After boot camp he was stationed in the 7th District, Coast Guard, serving in Tampa. In 1942 I find a marriage for Claudus Byron Hager (my grandfather's birth name) to Barbara Ann Combs in Pinellas County, which is nearby. I found a divorce for them in 1945, for some reason I have that this occurred in June. In 1945 on the State Census (undated) I find Barbara living with her mother as Barbara Wiley, wife of Gerald Wiley. Gerald and Barbara weren't married, and he moves back to Texas. There is no son listed here either. Barbara's address was 506 1/2 East Osborne in Precinct 36. This is in Tampa and is near what was the Drew Air Force Base during WW II according to Google maps. Gerald was in the Army.

 My grandfather next married Katherine Bertha Shane in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1945. On November 6, 1945 he then plead guilty to being absent without leave for 36 days and was sent to Camp Pearry, in Virgina. On April 23, 1946 he was discharged and paid to travel to Missouri. In June of 1947, Katherine had moved to Reno, Nevada and filed for divorce. She remained there and remarried. I have spoken to her daughter, and her mother had no sons born before 1950.

That lead me back to Barbara Ann Combs. I find her remarried by 1951 to Charles Clifford Cathey, but here's the twist, she's been married, her last name is De Luca. The problem is, I can't find a marriage to a De Luca. I have managed to track down the only De Luca's in the area, she had to be married to John, Louis or Frank, as they are the only one's there. Barbara had a son born 1950 when she married. I have spoken with her step son, whose father adopted this son, but again, no son of Barbara exists prior to that to his knowledge.

Based on deductions, I think that my mother's half brother was an infant in 1945. That would put him as the "little guy" my grandmother met. So where did he go? I can't find a death record for 1948-1951 for a young boy named Deluca, Wiley, Combs or Hager in Hillsborough or Pinellas County.


I hate to think that my mother's brother has died, but I would love to know for sure. What happened to this little boy, my grandfather's son. At this point, maybe I will never know.