Part 713p – Smith Groh Genealogy – The Mystery of Brayton C. Placeway – 1916 Flint to Perry

Good Day,

Here is another article, actually a social news-note that I just stumbled upon, in my genealogy search to reconstruct the life and times of ggg-grandfather Brayton C. Placeway is dated 29 November 1916. This note is from the “Perry Paragraphs” of The Flint Daily Journal. “Mr. and Brayton Placeway… motored to Perry, Sunday…”

A logical conclusion could be that this was ggg-grandfather Brayton and his second wife, Johanna (née Plischke). The month is November 1916; the notice for his subsequent and intended divorce from Johanna appeared in The Flint Daily Journal a year later in November 1917.

A quick search of information of Flint, Michigan, details that the population of the area increased from about 13,000 in 1910 to somewhere in the vicinity of 86,000 in 1916. That is about a 560% increase. Astounding… and then I learned that in 1908 one William Durant organized the General Motors Company and these were the early boom years of the automobile industry. Sort of explains why “Mr. and Mrs. Placeway motored to Perry”, a short 35 miles away.

Now my curiosity is peaked. It is recorded that gg-granduncle Robert Arthur Placeway, all-things-being-equal was ggg-grandfather Brayton C.’s son, was born on 9 July 1916 in Cook County, Illinois. And then ggg-grandfather Brayton is living, as reported by the 1920 US Census, with his first wife, ggg-grandmother Mary (née Seigel), their daughter, gg-grandmother Edith (née Placeway) and son, gg-granduncle Robert. I need to now find the Birth Registration for gg-granduncle Robert Arthur Placeway.

This is getting a wee bit confusing… and I was warned.

Enjoy,

Jim