Obits and the story they can tell

 

 

I had been searching

relentlessly for this obit when I finally stumbled onto it at www.ancestry.com the other day,

. Since most of my father's family has already passed away or is as clueless as I am about the Texas Stauffer family,  this find was a treasure trove.

I knew my grandfather had worked for Humble Oil (AKA Exxon) in

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the early 1930's thru the 40's and had moved his family, my father, aunt and grandmother all over the US, I knew of only a handful of locations, all in Texas, where. This obit told me they lived in Hobbs New Mexico in May of 1940!  Texas neighboring state, involved in the oil boom at the time.

It also gave me many of the married surnames of his numerous sisters and locations of 2 of his surviving brothers. Stauffer men, it seems, back then had short lives. They either got shot in card games, or had car accidents. More in that at a later date...

Paw Paw lived the longest as far as I can tell to date, reaching his 70's before passing away. Old age for the wild Stauffer boys! They were handsome, very friendly with the ladies and had nerves of steel in there dealings and gambles they took in life.

Some were mild and settled on farming as a living but some had a bad case of wanderlust, like Paw Paw, and a wandering eye as well. I found a cousin, long dead of course, who worked as a merchant marine. He traveled all over the place, and I can only imagine the tales he could have told if he hadn't passed away suddenly in 1968. I am in search now for his children, or anyone who knew him back then. Since I  was just 10 when he passed, I may have some luck in finding a live relative!

Well, got to go, Happy and successful searching for all! Remember, read those obits!

A few brick walls were leveled with this short but sweet find!

Obits can mean the end of seemingly hopeless dead ends.

Remember to keep and read the whole page to get a better feel of the time line involved.. I try to get a copy of the whole edition if possible. More family info could lurk in the pages as well. One never knows!

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