Cold Open On Names And Guilt

Crista Cowan 0:00

But he's not so callous that he forgets his family. That's because he names his children after his siblings.

Julie Merrill 0:07

That's right. But and then he takes his mom Anneliza, Elizabeth is one of the name ni middle names of one of the kids. And so his whole family, whether he's trying to honor them or he doesn't think he can escape his past, I don't know. And I don't know what he told his wife. I mean, what would she tell your wife? So my name, Julene Patria, my dad always told me it's from his first girlfriend. I mean, I don't know how my mom ever accepted that. But so you never know what that guilt was doing to him and what was going on back home was also tragic.

Show Mission And Season Setup

Crista Cowan 0:42

Stories That Live in Us is a podcast that inspires you to form deep connections with your family, past, present, and future. I'm Crista Cowan, known online as The Barefoot Genealogist. Counting down to the upcoming celebration of America's 250th birthday, you'll meet families from each state whose stories are woven into the very fabric of America. Tales of immigration, migration, courage, and community that remind us that when we tell our stories, we strengthen the bonds that connect us. So join me for season two as we discover From Sea to Shining Sea the stories that live in us. As a professional genealogist, I get to see a lot of family trees. And so do a lot of my colleagues. My guest today is Julie Merrill, and she works with Ancestry Pro Genealogists, and she has spoken at Roots Tech, and I've known her for years. But when we started putting out a call for stories from different states, she came to us and she said, I have a story for the state of Washington. And we thought, fantastic, can you share it with us and we'll let you know? And she shared the story with us, and we realized Washington wasn't in the story at all. So we went back to her and we said, Where's Washington? And she said, Oh, well, my client is from Washington. We had a little chuckle over that, but I realized that that happens a lot. That families don't always end up where they started. And the way that we put together those family trees sometimes takes us from one end of the country to another. So when you ask us about place as a character in the story, it sometimes gets a little jumbled. Well, Julie's client was from the state of Washington by way of California, but the real story starts in Georgia. And so we've waited all season to get to Julie's story about her client's family history mystery that starts in the state of Georgia. Enjoy my conversation with Julie Merrill.

Julie’s First Steps Into Genealogy

Crista Cowan 2:54

So Julie, I'm so glad that you're here. Um I know who you are because we work together, but I don't know a lot about you. So I would love to hear how you got into family history.

Julie Merrill 3:04

Well, it kind of starts out when I was born. My dad, so I'm one of eight kids, and my dad gave us all our middle names from our ancestors. So my name, my full name is Julene Patria. And so I go by Julie because no one can ever say Juline right or spell it right. Or they might start singing Dolly Parton to you. That's right. That's right. So, um, and then so Patria is my middle name, and I get that from my great-great-grandmother, and who is Amelia Patria. And when I was 16 years old, I was taking a typing class, and they said, You have to go home and type at home. And so I said, Dad, do you have anything for me to type? I need something to type. He said, Oh yeah. Here, you type out these long pedigree charts. So he's he said to me, start, so he would handwrite all the pedigree charts and I would then type them up. And so as I started typing, I would see that my here's Patria. And oh dad, is this me? Is this where I got my name? And he's oh yeah, I've got all the stories. So then we started being genealogy buddies. And we would go to the library and we'd at least once a week or be at home once a week. And I hear you do that with your dad as well. So it was even up until a week before he died, we had our genealogy buddy date, and we we'd do genealogy together. So, but yeah, so we I just developed a love for my ancestors at a young age, and because my mom would say, Oh, you get your music ability from such and such ancestor. Oh, you're just like, you know, you have you have the love of cars like Bob did, or you have you're like artistic, like your grandma dot. And and so that's how I got into genealogy is just asking questions and being curious about my name, and and then just starting, and then that light gets inside of you, and it you just can't like quench that light of just it just the curiosity of trying to find your ancestors. So that's been something I've done my whole life now. It's since I was 16 and it never stopped. And then I still like it's even better when you help people and and they get their joy because something they could not do, maybe I can help you with that. And maybe that's my talent, and maybe that's why I was here on earth, so that I could do that.

Crista Cowan 5:14

Well, I love that. Did any of your siblings get the bug too, or is it just you?

Julie Merrill 5:19

Well, they started to in the last couple of years. Okay. And it's been funny because like when we start talking genealogy, all my sisters and all my siblings are like, oh, tell us. We've heard this story so many times. And it's funny because then they'll go have their kids ask them a question and they don't know. And they'll say, Well, where did they where did they come from again? And they'll say it, and I said, Don't you remember? Haven't we told you the story a thousand times? No, I don't remember. I said, We've told you. We've told you, we've given you the books, we've given you the CDs. How about Jane? Have you even looked at those? It's too hard to look at those. Just tell me. So my husband's family too is the same way. I know more about their family now than they do. And so they always just call and ask me.

Crista Cowan 6:05

It's so interesting, though, because there's really usually just one in every family. That's right. And everybody's curious, but there's one that kind of becomes the story keeper that everybody comes to to get the stories. Right.

Julie Merrill 6:16

And then my sister, uh, a few years ago, her husband's parents had died, or were one of them had died, and one was getting pretty sick. So they gave them all of their stuff, which included a whole bunch of boxes of genealogy. And my sister's like, now what am I gonna do with this? Because I'm not even a genealogist. So then she started taking my dad away from me and saying, Dad, you gotta help me with this. So I was infringed upon. Oh. And I was like, You can't have my day. You had to go on a different day. There you go. No, but it was cool because then she got involved with it too. So I

Turning Pro And Learning New Skills

Julie Merrill 6:49

love that.

Crista Cowan 6:49

That's amazing. Well, so when did you decide to become a professional genealogist?

Julie Merrill 6:54

Well, so I was a stay-at-home mom. I have three kids and lovely husband, and we've been married now for 32 years. And when my kids were were LDS, and when they were, I have like two boys are 18 months apart, and they both were out on an LDS mission at the same time. And and if you know anything about that, that's paying a lot of money each month for the boys. And my husband was the only income at that time. And having two boys out and having all of our own bills, which we weren't very rich at all, we we I decided, okay, I bet I better go to work. And so the kids were basically raised. I mean, they were, you know, later older teenagers, when I said, okay, it's time for me to start to get to work. And so I did a five-year volunteer service mission for Family Search and at that and started learning all of the dynamics that I didn't know. I mean, I had kept up on it and done my own for so long and helped people, I felt like I knew everything. And then you go and start with people who do it for a living and think, oh my gosh, I know nothing. And then all of the tricks with the computer. I mean, being very computer savvy is really part of the job. And so I had to learn a lot of tricks. And so then after I put that under my belt, I had some experience and I heard that they were applying. The ancestry gen pro genealogist was hiring, and I went in and said, I want to be a research manager. And they said, Oh, little girl, you we're gonna start you out as an assistant, and you have to work your way up. So it's been, it's gonna be 10 and a half years now that I've worked there and worked my way up from an assistant, and I got my accreditation now, which is about equal to like a master's degree in genealogy. And and so that's kind of been my journey of just trying to support my kids. But then it got to the point where okay, now they're grown. Now we need to help them out, and now we need to get ready for retirement. So let's get the house paid off. And so I just kind of continued on. And hopefully Don't you love it? I do love it. I hate the business of it. Sure. I hate the red tape of it. I wish I could just do it for free. I shouldn't say that right. I shouldn't say that for free, but I I wish I could just do it for free because that's where you get the joy from it. I don't need the paycheck to get the joy. I I get the joy from seeing their reaction and giving that to them and and seeing where they came from. That means so meaningful to people. Now I I'm I'm pretty confident in what I do and and and feel like I can help a lot of people.

Crista Cowan 9:34

So I love that. You know, it's so interesting because as you say that, you know, I found myself in a very similar position where I had been doing family history my whole life and thought I knew what I was doing. And then you step into that professional arena and you learn very quickly what you don't know.

Julie Merrill 9:49

That's right. That's right. Like, I know how to track a person, I can do it. Yeah, but then somebody gives me their brick wall session that's starting in 1700. I'm like, I had no idea how to do that. And and I'd never even looked at a deed. I think I looked at one will, but that was it. But my whole job now is deeds, probate records, taxless, because that's what it is in the South. Yeah. And there really wasn't a lot of vital records before 1900. So that's my that's where I live and breathe right now.

Crista Cowan 10:17

So well, we're so glad there are people like you who do. And like, and those are skills that people like when you're climbing your own family tree, just as a hobby genealogist trying to learn about your own family. You know, if your family stays concentrated in one area, you can become pretty proficient at that. That's right. But the second your tree branches to somewhere else, it's like you're starting all over again.

Julie Merrill 10:38

Exactly. And so, really, every case I get, I learn something new. And they've been starting to give me stuff from all over the United States. I mean, they did, but more so lately, whatever they get in, if it's not southern, is it general US? And now even I'm I'm getting to kind of be the colonial girl of let's go do any colonial research anywhere, they've been given to me. So, and especially if it involves a DNA at all, then then it starts to come to me. But yeah, I would never have touched it if I wasn't it just on my own. But I've had to be thrown into it and and you have to teach yourself and have to be open to learn and not just say, some people I know are like, oh, it's outside of my wheelhouse. I'm not even gonna touch it. Rather than I'm gonna try and learn, I'm gonna ask a lot of questions, I'm gonna go to people who do know and let me try and build my knowledge base. So yeah, yeah.

Jane’s Mystery Missing Grandfather

Crista Cowan 11:30

Well, you have done a lot of client work, but there's one particular story that you shared with Lisa, and I am so excited because I don't know a lot of the details about it to hear about this. So tell us a little bit about this client and you know when she came to you what it was she was looking for.

Julie Merrill 11:46

Okay, we'll call her Jane. Okay, because we'll it's for privacy reasons. Sure. But Jane was is 83 years old. Oh, and she came to me and she said, Now I've been doing genealogy for over 20 years, and I've filled in all the lines of my family tree, but I don't know anything about my grandpa. And she started telling me the story, and it was just heartbreaking. You know, her mom, her mom is Marion, okay, and Marion is one of six kids. And then her grandpa was William H. Wheeler, and his wife was Lillian. And she knew from the time they got married in 1900 in Alameda County, California, she knew about them for about 20 years until about 1920. And then she was far then the family dis Lillian and William decided to get divorced. And in 1921, Lillian filed for divorce, and in 1923 it was finalized. And how old was their daughter at the time? So Marion was only about five years old, and she and her old her next older brother, Marshall, were farmed out to un to non-relatives. And in 1920 and 1930, they're on census records alone, really, with these people who raised them. Just as fostering. Yeah, and later on they were able to kind of meet up back with up their older siblings. The older siblings were able to stay with mom because they could take care of themselves. But she, I think she was five and her older brother was six or seven. And so, really, and her mom, so Marian was the mom, and her mom was Lillian, and Lillian herself was orphaned. She was on the 1880 census as in an orphanage with her older sister. So you think about that, she's young and she doesn't know anything about where she comes from, right? And her parents are taken away from her. Her mom, Lillian, didn't know where she was from and didn't have any idea of what was going on because she was taken away from her parents.

Crista Cowan 13:44

Do you ever wonder, like, like for somebody like Lillian to have been in an orphanage, how hard it must have been for her to do that to her own children, too? I know. Like, so how destitute she must have been to make that choice.

Julie Merrill 13:57

Yeah. And so so we we find out, okay, so where is William? Where did he go after this? After the divorce, we don't even know if he was at the divorce hearing because it was only in newspapers. We get these small little sniffs. Was Lillian the one who filed? Yeah, Lillian was the one that fired for cruel and abuse and and be destitute, like leaving her alone and be in in um, what is it called, abandonment. And and so she was all alone. And so here's William, and she's like, okay, either he was dropped off by aliens and picked up by aliens later on.

Crista Cowan 14:31

That is the excuse genealogists love to use.

Julie Merrill 14:33

I mean, it's so odd. Usually we we can't tell where they're from, but then we know what happened to them after they were adults. But this is like gone. So we know from her obituary, from Lillian's obituary, she said her husband died in 1931. Doesn't give a date, doesn't give a place. Even though he wasn't still her husband, they still Yeah, she still said that in other obituary. Well, I don't know if she said that, but uh the family. And and so I looked everywhere for him. Couldn't find him anywhere. Like we looked all through 1931.

Crista Cowan 15:04

Before or after.

Julie Merrill 15:04

Before or after. 1912 voter registration is the last time we see him in San Francisco, and that's it.

Crista Cowan 15:11

And they were still married at the time.

Julie Merrill 15:13

And yeah, in 1910, we had one of census together, but that's it. That's it. And and so they were he was just gone. And so there were a lot of rumors of what and she was telling me this. My cousin said this, my cousin said this, you know, my older sister said this, and she went and asked everybody, because she's like, I've gotta know. And she said, Okay, so one sa one cousin said that he had joined the military, been in the Spanish-American War, and joined the military in 1898 and died in 1928, and went off, and the one another one was he was he was walked up into the Sierra Nevadas one day and he committed suicide. And the third one was that he went off to Hollywood, he wanted to be in the pictures.

Crista Cowan 15:56

He wanted to be in Hollywood and go in the movie. He just do you ever wonder how these stories like sometimes family stories have like a kernel of truth, and sometimes they're so wild.

Julie Merrill 16:05

Yes. I'm like, okay, so which of the wild, what kernel of truth is there in any of that? And I do have to say we we didn't talk about um the siblings, all of Lillian and William's kids. So their kids were Ruth, Ruby, William, Bernard, Grace, and then Marion. So those names will be very important as the story unfolds for us to remember. Okay. Okay.

Crista Cowan 16:32

So

Brick Walls Then DNA Strategy

Crista Cowan 16:33

so Jane's got you chasing down all the things, and you were just hitting brick wall after brick wall after brick wall with William. Is there something that like finally breaks it open?

Julie Merrill 16:44

Okay. So when I kind of, you know, you go through the real the standard genealogy things. You look for other wheelers who lived near him, right? You look for obituary, nothing. Look for uh even a death record, nothing. I mean, I like it. But I am like William Wheeler. I know. So there were tons. There were like 10, but none of them seemed to even be in that San Francisco, Alameda County area. None of them had the wife Lillian, none were the right age. I mean, even I even looked for ones that even just committed suicide or whatever. I even went down to Los Angeles County to see you know Hollywood. Nothing. Nothing. Had Jane DNA tested at this point? Yes. Okay. So and we encouraged her to do that. We said we had to do this before because it was such a close relationship that she wanted to find out. And so we're like, you really should do this. If we want to get the full picture, we need to do this. So it's and the census records that we got, I need to back up just a little bit and say the census records we got, we're saying that one of them said he was born in Virginia and one said he was born in Georgia.

Crista Cowan 17:51

Those are very different places.

Julie Merrill 17:53

Exactly. They're not, they're not similar. And we think, okay, is he trying to mislead us? Or is he even the right age that he's saying that he's he is? And really, is this even one of them true? And so when we start looking at DNA, immediately you go with, okay, let me look for wheeler. Okay, it's the mom side of the family. So we we take off the paternal side, right? We look at the mom side of the family, we take off Lillian's side and say, okay, what's left? And and we and I mean, me, I get into this thing of I'm gonna create a theory and I'm gonna work so hard to make that theory work. And I don't care, it's gonna work whether it's true or not. I'm gonna push those puzzle pieces in and make them fit, right? And and so I what we're looking for is because William's the grandpa, we're looking for second and third cousins of of May of our client Jane that would match up to be either William's parents or grandparents.

Crista Cowan 18:51

Did it ever occur to you maybe William had gone off and had another family?

Julie Merrill 18:55

Yes, it it did. And so that's why I was looking. Is there an obituary for him that would mention his kids or do his kids say anything about their dad? And so we had looked through all of those and none even showed up. And so when I I said, let's look for this, I I immediately said had to toss a coin. Am I gonna look for Virginia or Georgia first? And said, I'm okay, Virginia. Virginia sounds good, right? Good Virginia family. So I I said, let's look for Virginia, and I said, let's look for William, for Wheelers. At the time he was married, he was Wheeler. He seemed, you know, he was a bartender and a hotel keeper, and he was a he was a uh press agent when he uh on the 1898 voter registration, he's a press agent. So he's done all of these things. But anyway, so I'm going to look at DNA, and I see the wheel uh a cluster of wheelers in Virginia and get really excited. Okay. But they are fourth and fifth cousins, and they share a very small amount of Centa Morgans. And that's what we use to define how close a relationship you have to your ancestors. And we were looking for someone that's a lot closer related because we would think even if William was an only child, he should at least have third cousins that are showing up. And and I may, I was really set on this Virginia family that I found, okay, well, maybe it's just because I haven't documented the whole family, and maybe those people haven't tested a lot, the whole cluster. So let me build out this family. I build out this family. You know, this one I felt like I really had to dig in for this lady who just was so desperate to know. And so I really tried to look for any of the family that were in this cluster of wheelers, and I looked for anybody who had left the family that was about William's age, couldn't find anybody. I looked for anybody like a daughter that married a wheeler of this family, but nothing. Nothing. I couldn't, and I all the people were all accounted for. So I just had to swallow my pride and say, okay, Julie, you have to start over again. Go back to what do we know? And is it possible that he could have married, like his mom could have married a wheeler? He wasn't born a wheeler. That was a thought I'd had. Or was it that he changed his name? And what he changed when he changed his name, that wasn't even on my mind at any of this, because we all think all our people are honest, good work, right people. So then Ice Car centered in on this Simmons family that was from Gwyneth County, Georgia, was another cluster that I had found.

The Georgia Simmons DNA Cluster

Julie Merrill 21:40

And once I decided to get off my horse of the wheeler side and just say what's there, I just find that that Simmons family. So Okay. So tell me about the Simmons family. So all of the Simmons cousins, and I found like 30, 40 cousins in the DNA matches. In this DNA matches that were all from this family that stemmed. From the patriarch that was John James Pinckney Simmons, who was born about 1813 and died about 1894. And all of his kids seemed to kind of live in that area, kind of in Gwinnett County and around and then went down into a Lake Atlanta area. So they I was centered in that family and was trying to look, and just with the DNA and how things lined up, it would seem like I was guessing that William Wheeler was the grandson of James Pinckney. And that's kind of my theory. So I was looking for what parent, you know, which one of James's kids could be the parent. Yep. So that's kind of where I was at. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Father or mother. And it was hard because I didn't know. So that's kind of where that left in.

Crista Cowan 22:48

That's and and it's so crazy because when you start working these DNA matches, you know the answer is there, but there's so many variables that you're trying sometimes. We build out massive family trees just trying to find the right thread to pull. Yeah. Yeah.

Julie Merrill 23:04

And and so yeah, I looked for where so he had eight children. And of the eight children, there were three that didn't have kids. One, one, two adults that never married, and then one that died as a child. So I had five adult children to work with. And as I worked my way through all five, I said, okay, all of their children are accounted for. They all stayed in the family. This one didn't have any sons. This one, you know, okay, they had sons, but they all stayed with parents. They all were documented in census records and obitu and obituaries and and um and death certificates. And so I was just left with one girl. That's amazing. Well, that was a lot of work. Yes. That was a lot of work. And then I was also, like I said, looking for any wheel wheelers who could have married into that family. Yeah. And and didn't find any. So Anna Eliza Simmons was daughter of James Pinckney. And I found that she married a guy named Marshall Kelly, Marshall Bernard Kelly. And they got married around 1871 in Gwinnick County. And they had moved around a little bit down to Mobile, Alabama, but then back up to uh Atlanta by 1900. And they had three kids. The oldest one was Simmons, and their next two daughters were Ruth and Ruby. Huh. I don't say you know anything. Does that sound familiar at all? I always said remember those names. So so that we got those three people. And now we're stuck with, okay, what do what can we find out about this family? And does this their only son, Simmons, he's about the right age. He was born around 1870, which is our guy was born around 1870, but does he leave the family? Yeah, because if he stays, it's not him. That's right. Simmons Kelly. Yep, Simmons Kelly. Now he so he obviously took his mom's maiden name as his first name. Right. And and so it was pretty interesting.

Crista Cowan 25:06

That is crazy. And so like but the fact that DNA can lead you to somebody, but then how do you how do you figure out what happens?

Julie Merrill 25:15

Okay. So usually it's okay, it's fine a couple census records, maybe an obituary, right? And you and so I start p plugging his name into the newspaper databases. Hundreds of articles come up. What? And I'm like, And newspapers are where the story is always buried. It is, it is. And and usually, you know, you think, okay, normal people don't really have a lot in the newspapers. I mean, there's in the social columns somebody grew a big tomato or something like that. But you or they went to the dance or visited somebody, but you usually don't hear this big story unfolding. And and so, you know, let me tell you a little about Simmons though.

Crista Cowan 26:00

Okay, for here's here's what I want you to do. Let's see if we can do this. Because you have just led us on this like research treasure hunt, and I love it, and you've landed

Meet Simmons Kelly The Golden Boy

Crista Cowan 26:08

on this guy. But now I want you to just tell me the story of Simmons. Like, remove yourself and just like if you were like, how did you tell this story to Jane when you finally told her?

Julie Merrill 26:19

So I was I described Simmons Kelly as Tom Cruise. Okay. He was the playboy, the preppy guy, you know, early 20s, who went to every party. He was the dapper. Was the family wealthy? Yes. The family was wealthy. And they, I mean, he was the guy who, like in Gone with the Wind, you know, you've got this Clark Gable kind of a guy who just was every girl loved him, every guy wanted to be him. He was at every party. Was the oldest son. Yes. He's from a wealthy family. Exactly. So he had a good job at the King Hardware Company, and he was their head accountant and very well respected. Their family had a great reputation. And uh they one of their uncles actually, so it was uh Anna Eliza Simmons, uh her brother was a judge, a circuit court judge, and so he was the really the wealthiest of the fan. So they're not just wealthy, they're influential. Exactly. And and so the circuit court judge, though, he was the one that had the most wealth and had the biggest home and everything. So but as we're starting to hear everything, everybody loved him so much. And it there was nothing that could ever say anything, and nobody could say anything bad about him.

Crista Cowan 27:42

Aaron Powell And he's an accountant for a company, so he's obviously a little bit older. No, he's in his early twenties. I mean, that's okay.

Julie Merrill 27:49

But still single. Yeah, but he had the promise of becoming like the next millionaire kind of thing. Of he's he could be he could be that guy that makes his own way in the business and and makes those millions on his own because he had that influence, he had the family, he had the knowledge. He's not a politician, exactly, yeah. Exactly. So he he was this guy that that we thought this was perfect.

Crista Cowan 28:11

And what happened?

Julie Merrill 28:13

Well, so he like I say he he had this uncle that was this judge. And so he goes to see his uncle William, William Simmons, and and so he he said he's named for him, but he took his mom's surname. But he said I was named for my uncle. But um, he wants to go visit his uncle, and his uncle lives in this beautiful plantation home, and he gets real along really well with the family. And what year is this? This is 1894. Okay. So he's he's there and he's he's visiting with them and just he likes to visit his family, right? Right? So it just comes he's there for a week or so, and then it comes time for the uncle to go out on his circuit court duties, and he leaves her him home with his wife and the family to visit. And he gets on well with them. They're having a great time. And then he and then he says, Oh, Simmons says it's time for me to go home now. And he goes back home, and he go, my mom told me I can't stay

The Plantation Safe Theft And Chase

Julie Merrill 29:10

for more than two weeks. And not not long after he leaves, they decide they discover that the family safe had been broken into. What? And all of the family jewels were taken. All of the heirlooms, all of the gold watches, the diamond rings, the jewelry, the pins, everything that they had, which was about $2,000, was stolen. And has Simmons been there by himself? Did he have friends with him? He was there with only with the wife and like the maids and the butlers and everything, but he knows the family. Yeah. And so it was about $76,000 in today's money that had gone missing. And they they don't think of Simmons at all because he's so well respected and well like. They said it has to be someone else, one of the servants, somebody else broke into the house. But then they thought, who else knew the combination? Who else was in the right place at the right time? Who just left? Kind of, okay, he leaves right when they find this thing happening. And so they're all in shock. They can't figure it out. And the sheriff's like, duh, he has to be him. And they said, Well, you don't know him. He's everybody loves him. He never could do anything wrong. And so the sheriff says, No, it has to be him. We've eliminated all these other candidates because he was in the right place at the right time. You know, he we rounded up all the other suspects and we, it has to be him. And so they take the sheriff from the this Lawrenceville, Alabama county place where the uncle lived, they took him back to they the sheriff took three and his guys with him back to Atlanta because they thought that's where Simmons was gonna go. Up to that time, he didn't know he was convicted of anything. And the family said, we really want to keep this quiet because I mean they were kind of influential people that we want this solved quickly, we don't want any scandal at the family, and we we need to make sure this doesn't get out. And so they were trying to be real quiet. Handle it themselves. I know they were trying to handle it themselves. And so that's why the the sheriff went himself with these three other guys to try and find him. They couldn't find him in Atlanta. People kept saying, Oh, we saw him here, we saw him there, but they never could catch up with him. The judge himself says, I'm gonna take it into my own hands, I'm gonna go talk to my sister. So he goes to talk to Anna. He says, Anna, this is what's going on. And I said, Oh no, not my boy. My boy would never do that. And he's her only son. That's right. Yeah. And I mean he has all this prospect and all this future. And she's like, No, it can never happen. And so she she just says, No. And you don't know at this time if if Simmons is hiding with them. Could he be in the cellar? Could he be in the attic? And she's just hiding from him from somebody. We don't know that protecting him. Or is he hiding with some trusted friends? We don't know. And and so the sheriff just spends a few days out there trying to look for him and just can't find him. And he kind of gives up. He's like, he's gone. He's not here. And obviously, if if I were Simmons, I would say, okay, people recognize me. I'm too well known here in Atlanta. I've got to get out of town. And so he the sightings of him have disappeared. There nobody sees him anymore. And the sheriff's like, I don't know where he went. So he's clearly either gone or gone deep in hiding. That's right. That's right. And and we also hear about the before he left to visit his uncle, he had been starting a relationship with someone in this Mabel Page theater company. And they're like the a vaudeville company that toured around. And we're pretty well known. And so I'm not sure if it's Mabel Page herself that he was in love with, but it was with somebody from her troupe. And he he starts sending her flowers and cards and everything. Now, this Mabel Page company traveled all over the United States. So the thought might have been is that he went undercover and traveled with the tour company out of town. So, and and then when we hear that part of it, we think, okay, is that the Hollywood connection that we find out, you know, that Jane is telling us at the beginning that he wanted to go to Hollywood because we find out later that Mabel Page Company went around the United States and went and ended up in Hollywood. So performers, yeah, little kernel of truth. Yeah. So after the fact, though, a couple weeks later, we've we wonder where he went, right? So we're looking through newspapers and the Atlanta Journal says, okay, follow-up. Sightings have been seen. Simmons Kelly is seen in New York City. Oh. And guess what he's wearing? You know, and the top hat and the new cane and the diamond rings and all the Paris clothes. And he's spending the money, obviously, because he wasn't that wealthy before. Do you think these are actual sightings of him? Or do you think these are just people reporting? No, because it was a fri somebody that he knew as a business part as a as in his business had gone up to New York for something and they saw him. It was somebody he knew. Okay. And and wired back to Atlanta and said, we saw him here. And when he saw somebody knew him, then we think, okay, he's got to leave even New York. He might have thought he could have disappeared in New York. Everybody can disappear in New York. I know, I know. So um they went it they after he was seen in New York, that was that one sighting, and that was it.

Crista Cowan 34:51

That's the last sighting of Simons Kelly. Simmons Kelly. That's right. Okay. And so how do you connect, other than the DNA, how do you connect the dots between Simmons Kelly and William?

Julie Merrill 35:03

So with him disappearing, now it's it's 1894, end of night 1894, and it's starting to be in 1895. We don't see any sightings of him anymore. And the first time we see him in California in that voter registration was 1898, 1890. He's got a four-year gap. And is he touring with the c with that Mabel Page company at the time? He obviously could have made his way to New York. He could have made his way to to just as easy to California. Yeah. And where he was was spotted in New York, maybe he thought he wouldn't have been noticed and to California and he could have reinvented himself there.

Crista Cowan 35:41

Yeah.

Julie Merrill 35:42

We've until I know until I traced him and I saw he never came back to Atlanta, you know, looking in all the obituaries of his sisters and his mom and dad, they nothing nobody ever said anything about him ever again.

Crista Cowan 35:56

And yet, do we have any idea

New York Sighting And A New Identity

Crista Cowan 36:00

why he did this?

Julie Merrill 36:01

No. And it was so funny though, I it's not funny, but his mom, as she's kind of kick getting to grips with this, she had put an article in the paper a few years before this happened, and she had a diamond pin that was stolen a couple years before. And so maybe this wasn't the first time he was in there. And I think she was coming to grips with that and kind of letting that sink in and not wanting to accept it, but then thinking this is what makes sense now. And and so and then and then when this happened too, the hardware company that he worked for, the King Hardware Company, starts getting into their books. Uh-oh. And they noticed there's some huge discrepancies. He'd been cooking the books for quite a long time and embezzling a lot of money from the company.

Crista Cowan 36:55

Where is all the money going? I don't know. I mean, I have no idea. I mean, he doesn't have a wife and children. He's not investing in property or like buying businesses or and you know, maybe there's a whole nother story there.

Julie Merrill 37:10

Maybe. Because I all I could see was what was following in the newspaper. Sure. Maybe he changed his name more than once. And I don't know where he was during that time frame when he left New York, came in, and then reappeared in in in San Francisco. I don't know where he was.

Crista Cowan 37:28

Maybe he was so in love with this vaudeville one.

Julie Merrill 37:30

I know. He just spent all the money on the company. I don't know. Gave him all the money to keep going. I don't know. But yeah, he didn't I mean he was this press agent. It's the first time we see him. Is that pretty not in California. Yeah, in California. And so he really didn't have money then. Yeah. And he didn't act like he had money. I mean he was So he probably spent it all by then. Yeah. Or or kept swirled it away somewhere because he didn't want to bring it to notice that you know that he had some money that where did that come from? Kind of thing.

Crista Cowan 37:59

But he's not

California Life And The Trail Goes Cold

Crista Cowan 38:00

so callous that he forgets his family because he names his children after his siblings.

Julie Merrill 38:06

That's right. But and then he takes his mom Anneliza, Elizabeth, as one of the name n middle names of one of the kids. And so his whole family, whether he's trying to honor them or he doesn't think he can escape his past, I don't know. And I don't know what he told his wife. I mean, what would you tell your wife? So my name, Julene Patria, my dad always told me it's from his first girlfriend. I mean, I don't know how my mom ever accepted that. But it so you never know what what that guilt was doing to him and what was going on back home was also tragic.

Crista Cowan 38:41

Yeah.

Julie Merrill 38:41

Is a couple months after what after Simmons left and all this scandal happened, his dad died. Oh. So his dad, he died at 50. And you have to think that this had some really emotional impact on him. I know whenever I worry about my kids, it affects my health. And can you imagine how that would be? You know, just the family's reputation and and everything just went down the tubes. And so Marshall dies, and by 1900, Anna and her girls have moved up to Manhattan. Did they follow? Did they try to find Simmons? Or were they just trying to escape that that drama that was going down along in Atlanta?

Crista Cowan 39:25

Yeah. Don't know. So Wow. So uh Lillian divorces him, and so you've connected him to who he was before. Do you find out what happened to him after ever? No. So still complete mystery. Still a complete mystery. Is is there any world in which maybe he went home?

Julie Merrill 39:43

Well, so Ann Eliza so Ann Eliza, his mom, in 1900 and 1910, she said she has three children that she is giving birth to and three that are still living. So she's holding out hope or she knows something. Right. And and so that's the only kind of little glimmer that we have that maybe there was some contact there. Well, if there was, she wasn't saying it. And the papers didn't get any whiff of it. Um and we don't know. It but we know he never went back home because we I looked at all of the back to Georgia. Yeah. And and he the the family and Lillian and the family in California never heard from him again. Right. And so we we just don't ever know what happened to him. And I'm and you asked about is was did he have another family? It's possible. He could have changed his name again. He could yeah, he could have changed his name again. He could have been Cart Gable. He could have been Cart Gable in the and he said, I have to tell my story from Gone with the Wind. I don't know. But um, you know, you just never know what happened. And yeah, you have so many hours you've got to do this session in. And and at some point I had to just say, This is enough. And at least I was able to give that part to her.

Crista Cowan 41:00

Yeah. Well, and who knows? Like if you did have another family, the DNA match may pop up someday.

Julie Merrill 41:06

Yeah, we hope. Yeah. I mean, uh as soon as I c centered in that Simmons family, I didn't look at everything else. Sure. So there's a lot of undiscovered country in that, in those DNA matches, too, that could eventually end up somewhere.

Crista Cowan 41:21

Yeah.

Julie Merrill 41:22

But you know, you just have to kind of say, let's try and tell the the story as succinctly as you can tell it without spending an enormous amount of time somewhere else. That's not really part of the goal. So I I had to kind of draw the line somewhere. And we hoped that she would renew again. And and I don't know if she if she didn't renew. So I she either held had that enough. I have had enough that's all I need to know. Yeah. Her her biggest thing was she wanted her mom to know. She wanted her mom to fight to know the story because her mom didn't know her dad. And she said, now I can tell my kids what happened. And I don't have to say, I don't know.

Crista Cowan 42:02

Yeah.

Why We Tell Painful Family Stories

Crista Cowan 42:03

Well, as you think about like Simmons and his family in in Georgia, like to be such a prominent family and to like to be raised in that environment. I think a lot of times when we think about Georgia, we think about the ruralness of Georgia. We think about, I mean, I have family from Georgia and they're all like dirt poor. Me too. Me too. Um, and so there this family was having a very different life experience and had some political influence and some financial influence. And and like I don't know, you think about people who are poor wanting to run away and reinvent themselves. Yeah. But to have somebody who had all the promise in the world do that, it's really, it's kind of baffling.

Julie Merrill 42:43

It is. You know, sometimes you you feel like they have everything. Maybe there was too much pressure to become that next millionaire, to become the the success in business his uncle and his dad had had. I just think some people just can't stand that pressure and they and they feel like they've got to fix it somehow. Yeah. And they don't know how.

Crista Cowan 43:04

Well, maybe someday the rest of his story will turn up.

Julie Merrill 43:08

We hope so. Maybe. Hey, if you're out there, if you ever know what happened, you know, maybe this is part of of Jane's family wanting to be out there and tell that story, let me know. You have my number, right? So please let me know if you know anything about this story because uh Jane would sure love to know and before she's gone, and and so that she can tell her kids too. Yeah.

Crista Cowan 43:31

Well, Julie, thank you. You're welcome. Such a great story. And and as you think about the connections to Georgia, both from this story, from your own family, like like what does Georgia mean to you in in this context?

Julie Merrill 43:47

You know, so many times I hear people that say, I don't want to talk about my family. I don't want to talk about it either. Something that's too painful. We were just poor farmers. That's all we did every day. We dug the deep the we dug the beets out, you know. Alf and Stad would say that all we did was dug dig sugar beets. And I don't have anything to tell you. Or it was just too painful. There's I just don't want to talk about it. And and so you hear these stories, but that's what makes me curious. Don't tell me you don't want me to know, because then I'm gonna dig. And then you think, why was it that he didn't want to tell? And and so that's that's the genealogist in me. That's that nerd that wants to come out and say, that's that light that never will be dimmed, where I have to find out what happened. And because they can't talk to me, we have to let them talk. We have to be able to give that story back to our family. We have to talk for them. And whether that means me spending 10 hours here or 100 hours to tell that story, I want to tell that story. And even if they did something bad, I still want to know. I've maybe he was that horse thief, or maybe he was that guy who got hung because he did something bad. I still want to grow from that. I still want to know that even my family came from this tragedy. We have come from there. We've come from that. That made us who we are. Who was that person who gave me that musical ability, who gave me that will to keep going, who gave me that that drive to be perfect. And I want to know who that was. And and maybe I can still learn from that. And and I want to learn from that. And I don't ever want my kids to think they can't tell a story if there's a skeleton in the closet. I want them to be able to still tell that. And and even if you were that Georgia, Georgia poor farmer, you have a story to tell. And and somebody wants to listen. You know, my my grandma wrote little journals of her all through her teenage years, and she's like, Oh, this is so boring. I ironed shirts today, I did this today, and I and she drew little drawings out in the cut margins, and she did all these things, and she says, No one will ever want to hear this. This is so boring. But I treasure those journals today. Yeah. And I say, I want to hear that story. Don't think no one wants to know. So please tell your story and don't ever forget that because people will grow from what you've done as well.

Crista Cowan 46:17

So beautifully said. Thank you.

Julie Merrill 46:19

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