The ties that bind

I've been chasing down the family of Ezekiel Foster Lucas and Mary Elizabeth Rings for the past couple of days. I have been away from genealogy work since June and it's fun to get back in the groove. E.F. and Mary had a slew of kids, including one named Lucy B. Lucas. I was about to cross her off as one of the 2/11 who died young (acc. to the census) when I found her as an aunt in a wedding write-up in 1950. It turns out the B. was for Bertram and she went by Bertie.

A lot of this group went to Long Beach in the 1900-1920s. It must have been exciting for them to kiss the Midwest good-bye and head to the Golden State. Where is our land of opportunity these days?

It wasn't a bed of roses for them. A Lucas son-in-law was a fire battalion chief who committed suicide in 1926. His suicide note to his wife was reprinted in full in the newspaper and it made me feel so bad. People I never knew existed until yesterday.