Kuck Family History: Figuring Out the Black Sheep

Without anything new to post, I'm writing another genealogy post in the Kuck family series. It is a resurrected post from the past but with some new research to flesh out more of the story. Coming up, I have some posts pertaining to the Philippines and my visits to that country which I may start sprinkling into my schedule. 

 

Josephine Francis Kuck

Previously, I mentioned that my great great grandparents had only two children twelve years apart. My great grandfather (The One Who Went to War) born in 1895 and his younger sister Josephine born in 1907. I don't know where the Josephine part of her name came from but I assume the Francis middle name is from her maternal grandmother Frances Hubbard. I can't explain why Josephine had the typical masculine spelling ending in "cis" instead of "ces" typically given to females. I only have two records spelling it out and most used "cis" so it is correct or a typo repeated twice. As mentioned previously, I also don't know why the large gap in ages either. That question may never be answered.

Above is the clipping from the newspaper that my great great grandmother kept of the event and I get a kick on how she corrected the information by reducing the weight of Josephine back down to nine pounds. 

Josephine grew up during the time when her parents were still fairly wealthy and hadn't yet lost everything in the Great Depression. Her birthday parties sound like huge affairs and even made the newspapers.

Other than mentions of her birthday parties and one article mentioning she had her tonsils removed, I know little about her childhood except for one big event, her near death by drowning. The event was covered over the next several days as the newspaper identified the two young men who saved Josephine and her friend Ruth. Ned Hanson was the man identified as the one who went out initially but could only hang onto one (Ruth) to bring her into the shallows leaving behind Josephine who submerged for the third and final time. A Wilford Hoelscher, evidently dressed in heavy flannels, was the other hero who happened to be nearby in a boat and jumped in to find and retrieve Josephine. The articles say both girls were successfully revived though Josephine came around much quicker than Ruth.

After that, the life of Josephine becomes quite murky. My 2nd great grandmother's scrapbook if chalk full of articles on my great grandfather Victor but little was ever glued in there about Josephine. Years later when I first discovered her in the course of research, I asked my grandfather about her but he didn't seem to know much. He would just tell me that she had been married a lot, five times or more and that was about all he would say. Years later in an old blog post, since removed, I would write that I could only find evidence of three husbands and not five. But as time has gone by, I have pretty good evidence that there was indeed four husbands and probably a fifth though I haven't yet been able to prove it.

Marriage number one was most likely to a Joe Kress as mentioned in the newspaper article. I say most likely because the marriage license states that it was the first for both though that is only as accurate as whomever filled it out wanted it to be. The marriage took place on 3 May 1930 and apparently didn't last very long. On 1 Jun 1935, a second marriage license was pulled in Denver Colorado for the marriage of Josephine to Carl Albert Bartz.

Unfortunately, it doesn't state the number of marriages for either of them but if I had to wager, I would say this was probably marriage number two for Josephine. This was also a lot longer of a marriage than the first one because it lasted until at least 8 years when on 13 Apr 1943 her father died and his death notice in the paper listed a Mrs. Bartz as one of his survivors. I don't know how much longer it lasted but the next clue I have was six years later on 10 Aug 1949 when her mother died and listed a Mrs. Robert Bennett from Crown Point, Indiana as a survivor.

This threw me for a loop for many years as I couldn't figure out who he was and how she got all the way from Denver to NW Indiana. But as I was writing this post and researching, I finally figured it out by looking at the details. 

Above Robert Bennett's World War II draft card showing him in Denver Colorado, married to someone by the name of Eleanor and working for Klein-BARTZ Motor Co., emphasis added on the Bartz. Suddenly, the cross country move definitely made sense. Unfortunately, other than the name in my 2nd great grandmother's death notice and the above card, I have not found any marriage licenses or newspaper announcement to further prove this marriage but I'm still calling it marriage number three. The above card was filled out 16 Oct 1940 and the next record I have is the 1950 Federal Census when Robert and Josephine Bennett are living back in Crown Point, Indiana where he grew up.

The next record I have is a 1956 city directory for Albuquerque, New Mexico where Josephine is now Josephine Marten having married her final husband Fred Marten, a career navy man. I know he was her final husband because I have pictures from his funeral in 1973 that I have inherited with Josephine in them and also her death announcement in the newspaper.

Josephine Marten on the day of her husband's burial in 1973 Albuquerque

So I can say with good confidence, that she was married at least four times. But as the infomercials say, wait, there's more.

Above is a picture of Josephine, Fred, my mom and uncle probably taken around 1960.

Above is a picture of my grandpa, little fellow on the right, his older brother Keith, Josephine and Jerry Robinson as it says written on the back. It is one of many pictures I have that lists his name as Jerry Robinson, including the previously published one below that lists him as her unnamed husband but he definitely looks the same as the man in the one above.

This is where the mystery deepens. My grandfather was born in 1929 and Josephine married Carl Bartz in 1935 when my grandfather would have been six years old. I'm guessing by the above two photographs that my grandfather is six or more in both of them. She remained married to Carl Bartz until at least 1943 when she was listed as a survivor to her father. My grandfather would have been 14 years old at that point.  So I am left with two options:

My grandfather is younger than six in both those pictures and Jerry Robinson was married to her between her first husband Joe Kress and her now "third" husband Carl Bartz, or, the man in the above photo was mistakenly identified as Jerry Robinson but is actually Carl Bartz. I think the latter is probably the more likely scenario since she was indeed married four times in her lifetime and whomever labeled the photo might have confused one husband for another.

But then who is Jerry Robinson and was he ever married to Josephine. I can't find any evidence of him. There are a lot of Jerry Robinsons around but nothing that ties him to Josephine. Most likely if he existed, I would guess he would have came into her life sometime after Robert Bennett and before Fred Marten where there is a six year gap between 1950 and 1956 in the paper trail. 

Quite possibly, the above picture could be him. Josephine is easily identifiable in this unlabeled photograph but who is the man? When Josephine was 42, she was married to Robert Bennett and by the time she was 48 she was married to her last husband Fred Marten whom looks very different than the man above. Josephine could certainly be in her 40's in this photo so I may be looking at Robert Bennett or possibly the mystery husband Jerry Robinson. 

But wait, there's more. Somewhere along the line, I have made a note of a possibly child named Judith Ann Bennett, daughter of Josephine though for the life of me when writing this post, I can't figure out where I came to that conclusion. Also, looking through records and even her death announcement, I find no mention ever of a child. Josephine was married to Robert Bennett in her late 30's so it is possible she could have had a child. 

Perhaps one day with more persistence, I'll be able to figure all this out. Certainly as more records are released and captured up in searchable databases, perhaps I'll be able to someday find out these answers. Until then, I am only left to ponder if Jerry Robinson was indeed one of Josephine's "five husbands" mentioned by my grandfather and if so, where did he fall in her life. Oh, and also the kid thing too.