Moving on to my great-grandma's side........

In the last couple weeks I've posted about my great-grandpa's parents.  I now want to write about my great-grandma's parents.  As I posted before, my great-grandma Doris Colson was raised by George and Anna (Buskirk) Colson but born to Charles and Freda (Johnson) Perkins.  Charles Ellsworth Perkins was born 15 Sep 1880 at Ashland MI.  The record states it's Muskegon Co but Ashland is currently in Newaygo Co so I'm not sure which is correct.  He was the 3rd of 8 children to Clarence Perkins and Sarah Etta Lambertson.  I've blogged several times about Clarence and am not positive how many 1/2 siblings Charles had but I know of at least 3. 

Record #517 on the bottom

Charles married Freda Maria Johnson 5 Apr 1900 at Fremont, Newaygo Co MI.  I'll blog about Freda next.

Charles and Freda had 2 children:
Milo R Perkins born 24 Jun 1901 in Newaygo Co MI, died 17 Jan 1964 at Lansing, Ingham Co MI.
Doris Lydia - my great grandmother.

Freda passed away 18 Mar 1904 at Ashland, Newaygo Co MI, leaving Charles with an almost 3 year old son and a 6 month old daughter.  As I stated in my blog about Doris, Charles moved to Lansing with Milo but gave Doris to the Colson family.  I do not know why Charles moved to Lansing or why he kept Milo but not Doris.

Charles remarried 7 Aug 1906 at Grand Rapids, Kent Co MI to Bertha Gertrude Edwards (1875-1943).  During my talks with my great-grandma she mentioned that her dad had married "Gertrude" (Bertha appears to have gone by Gertrude on some records).

Record #182, bottom, 1st hand-written entry

I only have one confirmed picture of Charles and Bertha and I've pondered whether or not to post it but decided that I will.  I'm not a fan of the picture but we're blogging about the lives of these people and sugar-coating parts of it doesn't accurately portray anything does it?  I got this picture during the visit that I talked about in the blog about Clarence Perkins.  His sister Eva's granddaughter Charlene Zufelt Henry (1933-2017) put a bunch of pictures on the table for my grandma and I and when this one hit the table, my grandma asked "who on earth is that", to which Charlene replied "that's your grandfather Charles Perkins".  My grandma's jaw then hit the table.  She of course knew nothing about this, as I'm sure her mother didn't.  All I can say about the photo is that it was a different time, with a lot of ignorance going on.  I hate to think he spent his entire life like this but I'll never know.

Charles' WWI draft card from 12 Sep 1918 lists him as doing machine repair for the Michigan Screw Company in Lansing MI, listing his wife Gertrude as his nearest relative.  Interestingly he lists 17 Sep as his birthdate, instead of the 15 Sep listed on his birth record.  He does the same on his card for WWII so perhaps the birth record is wrong?

Charles and Bertha had a 20 year marriage, until their divorce 4 Oct 1926 in Ingham Co MI.

I'll obviously never know what led to their divorce but I always speculate that there was an outside interference when the next marriage takes place so quickly after the divorce, as was the case when Charles married Anceretta (Walker) Slingerland 12 Nov 1926 at Lansing.  I'm guessing that he didn't get over his previous marriage in 5 weeks.

I have a couple of photos of Charles with Anceretta.  She was referred to as Anna on one of them so perhaps she used that as a nickname.

In his WWII registration he lists the person that will "always know his address" as Harvey Hosmer (name is butchered on the card), his sister Nellie's husband.  I'm not sure why he didn't list Anceretta as they remained married until his death.  He's working for the "Oldsmobile Div. of G.M.C."  His obituary also lists that that was his employer.

Charles passed away 8 Aug 1945 at Delhi Townhip, Ingham Co MI of acute myocarditis.  He was laid to rest at Deepdale Memorial Park in Delta Township, Eaton Co MI.  Anceretta lived as his widow for 34 years before passing away in 1979 and is buried with Charles.  The daughter Ruth listed in his obituary is actually a stepdaughter.

Lansing State Journal 9 Aug 1945

My great-grandma had 2 photos of Charles in her photo albums, and they are both better photos than the ones I posted above.  She had referred to him as a "motorman" and I wasn't sure what that meant but given the one photo I'm guessing he drove a trolley for awhile.  He looks considerably younger in that photo than any of the others.  I wish we could solve the mystery of why he was so willing to give up my great-grandmother, but not her brother.  There are a lot of questions with this particular ancestor that went to the grave a long time ago and will never be answered.