What happened to Baby Louise?



Louise Mary Valley abt six months old

Up until recently I had a little girl, Louise Mary Valley, living with my Great Grandparents, Stanley and Lillian Lardie.  That's how Louise showed up on the census.  I had one of those moments where it finally occured to me that Louise's last name was Valley, not Lardie, not to mention I knew she wasn't my grandma's sister...or at least I hadn't heard of her from Grandma.  When I asked my Grandma about her, all she could remember was vague details.  So I set off to find out who Baby Louise was.

Louise as a toddler

I actually discovered who Baby Louise's parents were when I came across the article about John Peter Valley's death.  John was killed from injuries resulting from a car accident on 26 October 1917.  In the article is lists that John is survived by one daughter, Louise.  I found John and Louise's death certificates online at Seeking Michigan.  Louise's death certificate lists her parents as John Valley and Mildred Evans.  I also found that Louise was born 10 January 1912 and died 23 December 1920.

I knew from previous research that Mildred, or Millie as she is frequently listed, was John Peter Valley's wife.  Another search of Seeking Michigan's website revealed the Millie died from complications due to childbirth seven days after Louise was born.  Again this information was obtained from Millie's death certificate online at Seeking Michigan. 

Louise about age 8, I believe this was taken the summer before she died

So the sad death of both parents explains why baby Louise came to live with my Great Grandparents.  Sadly Louise contracted diptheria and died at eight years old.  At the same time my Great Grandparents, Stanley and Lillian's oldest son, John George, also died of complications of diptheria.  Baby John died on 18 Decemeber 1920, only seven months old.   Louise and John George were both laid to rest in St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery in Mapleton, Grand Traverse County, Michigan in the family plot. 

The Lardie/Valley family plot in St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery in Mapleton, Michigan

A closeup of the plaque on the center of the cross with the names of the family members buried in the plot. 

Tombstone Tuesday

Valley/Lardie Family Plot in St Joseph's Catholic Cemetery, Mapleton, Michigan



Close up of the cross that marks the family members buried in the plot




Mary Elizabeth Deverney Valley

 Mary Elizabeth Deverney Valley
b. 11 Feb 1837, P. Eulia(?), Wisconsin
d. 3 Jun 1916 Peninsula Township, Grand Traverse County, Michigan
buried 6 June 1916 St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Mapleton, Grand Traverse County, Michigan
m. Isadore Valley
Find a Grave Memorial

mother to:
Rose Magdaline Valley
Mary Catherine Valley Lardie
Frances J. Valley
George H. Valley
John Peter Valley

I edited this post to include the link to the Find A Grave memorial that I created.

Research, Research and more Research

Last Thursday I spent almost all day at the Traverse Area District Library (TADL) working on my own research after I completed a couple quick Random Acts requests. I made some progress and I had one of those 'oh duh' moments.
Records are still being added onto the Seekingmichigan.org website for the death records, so after a quick search I was able to find several death certificates for members in my database. It helped put things together. One person of interest was John Peter Valley, s/o Isadore and Mary Valley, who died from a skull fracture. Obviously not a normal natural cause of death so my curiosity lead me to the microfilm where I found an article on the car accident that lead to John Peter's injuries that ultimately caused his death. I also confirmed that he was the father of little Louise Mary Valley, whom I had listed with my greatgrandparents, because she died at their house from from complications of diptheria. Anyway, John Peter was driving with William Emory when the car rolled and both men were thrown from the vehicle. William was unhurt, but is was stated in the article that John's head appeared to have hit a rock causing his injuries. In the article it stated the John was a widower and he left behind his daughter, Louise. I still don't for sure know the name of Louise's mother, but I have a tentative name of Mildred Evans. Further research is required for this to be sure.

Monday I spent most of the day with Kathi adding information from my research to our Oakwood Cemetery records project. I feel that I have added a valuable amount of information to the project. CDs will be available hopfully this fall. Once the group has finished with the records in the office we will be working in the cemetery to walk the cemetery and verify information on the headstones. It should be fun.

I also worked this week and finished adding several hand written pages of notes to cemetery cards that were complied from the Immaculate Conception Church death records. I was also able to sort by cemetery and put the cards in alphabetical order.