LAY Family: And the work begins

John David "Big Valley"
Dave Lay (Nancy Lay's big brother)

Nancy Lay (abt. 1768-abt. 1860) is the daughter of Jesse Lay, Sr., who is one of several children of John Lay, who died when young leaving his wife Elizabeth alone. There is so much to the Lay family story and for the genealogists among us, trying to sort through the Lay family as various parts made their way through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. There is an extemely short list of names each successive generation used, causing lots of confusion and consternation is sorting them all out. 

Then, I discovered the Lay Family Genealogical Association, Inc., a group who has been operating for many, many years and have several very serious genealogists who have unraveled much of the tree. Unfortunately, and this impression may not be 100% correct, it looks like the active pubhlished work of the organization died out in 2016. The leader of the group, a woman of great skill, died in 2017. Much of this research was published in Lay of the Land, a publication of the group. These are no longer in print. I got a copy from a very generous Wikiteer who also guided me to other sources, including some of his own scholarship.

I am sorting this Lay family information now, but I believe it will take some time to do so.  I also got a couple of resource names that are also out of print: Gilbert Lay's Lay Family Geneaology and Arlie Lay's Lay Family History.

If you have copies of any of these or know where to get them, please let me know by leaving a comment.

SMITH Family: Mary Adaline Smith Hoard Albert Burgos Albert (1890-1949)

The old Fort Jones est. 1852

My paternal grandmother, Verlie Smith, was one of 11 brothers and sisters. She was third from the 

youngest. Her sister, Mary, was the first child, born in 1890. She was married to her first husband Edwin Hoard and gone before my grandmother was even born. No one in the living family remembers her as she had passed away before we were all born in the 1960s. 

I tell the story of how I discovered so much about Mary here. The last time I wrote, I did not know what Mary looked like. My Uncle Harold, who sort of helped me unwind the story and who did know her, has since passed away. I still had questions even though the story was mostly told. Today, in a routine records update for her, I opened an entire new part to the story. 

Mary was married four different times to three different men. I think she had a bum picker or maybe she was no prize herself, who knows. Her second/fourth husband Donald Lee "D.L." Albert was the husband I had the least amount of information on, but now I think I have a full picture of him and tracked a total of three wives and four marriages, just like Mary. 

The Edwin Smith Family Late 1920s (Click to enlarge)

Mary's third marriage was to Greek immigrant Peter Burgos. She is living in Michigan with him as early as 1925. They married in Lake County, Indiana in 1937. Mary returned to Iowa in 1942 and stayed with her mom, Kate Smull Smith on Main St. in Plainfield. Then, she worked in Waterloo for a while - about 40 miles away. Her husband, Peter Burgos, who operated the Metropole Cafe in Mount Pleasant, Michigan died in 1943. I believe they were just separated then.  In 1943, she had a small apartment over a store on the on the west side of Main St. when on 06 Nov 1943, a major fire broke out in an empty restaurant on the east side of Main and ended up burning down the entire block of businesses. Mary was the one who called in the fire at 3:45 am that morning. The Plainfield and Shell Rock fire departments could due little due to a water shortage, but were able to protect the other side of the street. This was THE big news of the year in tiny Plainfield and impacted the entire community. It's believed that a faulty electrical switch in the Grover Mabb cafe started the fire. The Tourist Cafe and Hotel operated by Mrs. Gertrude Smith, the Dinilli Barber Shop, post office, R. L. Cagley residence, William Gritzner apartments, and Mabb Cafe were reduced to ash. 

I wondered these past years, why D.L. and Mary were in Yreka, California. I've been there - you would need a reason. D.L.'s first wife went to Los Angeles after the divorce, with their daughter Ruth. There was a lot of movement to the great Los Angeles area during this time. Jobs were plentiful and the weather was great.  In 1923, D.L., while married the first time to Mary, made an exploratory visit to Long Beach, Los Angeles County, California. D. L. and Mary moved to Long Beach in Los Angeles County, where D. L. worked as a oil worker. That was in 1924. By 1925, Mary was no longer in California. D. L. stayed in Long Beach.

Third wife third wife Cora Clark Jones, mother of six, moved to California in 1931, two years after the death of her first husband, B. F. Jones, an auctioneer.  She came from D. L.'s home town in Ladora, Iowa. They married, and in 1931 moved from Long Beach to Fort Jones, in Siskyou County. D.L. farmed and worked as a fireman. D. L. sold baled alfalfa and hay by the ton to area farmers.

Downtown Fort Jones Late 1930s/Early 1940s 

Fort Jones was at that time, an old western town not too far from Mount Shasta in very far north California, near the Oregon border. It's incredibly picturesque. The first structure was built in 1851 and the town primarily served as a trading outpost, supporting Fort Jones soldiers and miners. Other businesses included a bar and brothel. The Fort itself had been established in 1852 and closed in 1858.  Some of the more famous officers who served at Fort Jones included Phil Sheridan (Union), George Crook (Union), John Hood (Confederate), Ulysses S. Grant (Union), and George Pickett (Confederate). 

  

Cora died at Fort Jones in late 1936. Somehow reconnected, Mary and D.L. remarried in 1944 and Mary moved to Siskyou County. They lived there for the remainder of both of their lives. Mary died in Yreka in early 1949 of cancer and D.L., also ill, died at the end of 1949.

Photos Courtesy of the Office of War Information 1945
Downtown Yreka, California

His daughter also ended up living there with her second husband. Ruth Albert Kuebler Trent died in Yreka in 1877.

Mary's Marriages

Husband 1: Edwin Church Hoard m. 1907-div. bef. 1915

  Wife 2: Carla Hansen m. 1915-until his death in 1953

Husband 2: Donald Lee "D.L." Albert m. abt. 1915-div. around 1925 or so

  Wife 1: Mary Hope "Mollie" Nicholson m. 1900-div bef. 1915 (1 daughter, Ruth)

  Wife 3: Cora Clark Jones m. 1931-at her death 1936

Husband 3: Peter Burgos m. 1937-at his death in 1943 (they separated in 1942). She is referred to as Mrs Burgos starting in 1925, but their marriage license was issued in 1937.

Husband 4: Donald Lee "D.L." Albert m. 1944-until her death in 1949