Today is “Madness Monday”.  According to Genabloggers I am supposed to write about “an ancestor who may have suffered from some form of mental illness or an ancestor who drives you “mad” because you have trouble locating them or locating more information about them.”

Hmmmm…what ancestor drives me mad?  Today I think I will pick Stella Beauchamp.  Stella, my great-great grandmother, mother of Bessie Firmiss, is quite an elusive ancestor.  Here are my notes on Stella, who I cannot find in the 1920 or 1930 census.

1900 Census lists her naturalization status as blank, that she arrived in the US in 1886 and has been living in the country 14 years.
1900 Census lists her as the mother of 4, 4 living.
1910 Census lists her as the mother of 12, 5 living.
Listed as a sister of Michael Reha in obituary of Michael Reha.
Listed as living in Chicago 65 years.

I do know that Stella Beauchamp died on January 24, 1951 and is buried in St. Mary’s in Chicago.  Her daughter Bessie purchased the gravesite.  What I do not know is where she is in the 1920 census.  In 1920, her husband Henry is listed as living with Harry Firmiss but I can’t find Stella anywhere.  She is not listed with any of her other children (Frank, Fred, Lillian and Dolly) so I’m really not sure where she is.  Plus, after I looked a little closer to the family’s 1900 census, it appears that their oldest son Fred, was born in March of 1890 and is listed as being 10 years old on the census.  I cannot find a marriage record for Stella and Henry but according to the 1900 census they were only married for 9 years.  Does this mean Stella was married previous to Henry?  And Fred was not Henry’s son?  Or maybe the census is wrong?

All I do know is that Stella drives me mad 🙂

Stella Reha Beauchamp, 1944.