Madness Monday - Abbott and Hines

I may have finally solved the Abbott mystery. Well, in reality, I may just be a little closer to the answer. This is not about ancestors suffering from madness, but the madness of trying to solve all the mysteries of this twig on my tree.

First of all I went to the Health Department where the original death records are to see if the "infant" Abbott listed in the WPA was my little guy. It was not. I was pretty sure it couldn't be before, now I am sure. Now I am doubting that his name was Percy at all. I am certain that he lived, just re-examining his death and his name.

First of all the story was that Cora Hines married an Abbott man who was a lot older than her. She had 2 children with him, Edna Catharine (Katy) which I have found, and a child who everyone thought was named Percy and died as a child. He had been a sickly child all his life and supposedly 'laid down on the floor and died' one day. But perhaps the story got turned around a little, and I know that deaths were not required to be registered until 1902, and what do I have left? Well, a child, perhaps a child just at the crawling age, still considered an infant, and a name, Percy Abbott. I also know that Cora divorced Mr. Abbott, date unknown, and the reason given was that he was abusive.

So I decided to be wild. :o) At FamilySearch I put in Percy Abbott, any spelling, date; 1850 - 1900 in Indiana. I got 2 entries. One was not even a close fit and the name was Pery, not Percy. The second was Percy Abbett, born Aug 1834, 66 years old, residing about 2 miles from my current residence, White, Male, DIVORCED (as per 1900 census, Seymour, Jackson County, Indiana). This entry made me stop. It could be the child was named for the father, Percy is not a common name. Or perhaps Percy was the fathers name in the first place and it just got lost in the retelling of the story.

I wish I could put this one behind me. It is driving me to madness. Though I do feel I am closer. If I can find some evidence of the marriage or divorce I will feel better.