Uncle Willie and His Children Week 1 of 52 Week Challange

Where was Uncle Willie and his children?  That is the question that has circulated throughout my family since around 1922.  Uncle Willie was my grandmother's brother.  I never got to meet him.  He disappeared in the 1920's after his wife died from complications related to child birth.  My grandmother, Mary Evelyn Regan Sullivan, told us Willie's story many times.  No one could find him.  His children were presumably given up for adoption.  Grandma and her sister, Edna Regan Keller, tried to find him and his children with no luck.  Where were they?  What happened to them?  Why did it happen?  That was the quest I began in 1998, and that is the journey I am sharing with you for my 52 Weeks Ancestry Blog Challenge.

Mary Evelyn Regan Sullivan
Sister of William Farrel Regan (Uncle Willie)
 

 William Farrel Regan (Uncle Willie) was born 03 Jul 1894 in Sharonville, Hamilton County, Ohio.  He was the middle child of Peter Augustus Regan and Mary Ann Aydelott.  He had an older sisters, Laura Edna Regan Keller, and  he had a younger sister, Mary Evelyn Regan Sullivan who was my grandmother.   Uncle Willie's mother died in 1902 when he was just 8 years old.  His father remarried but was tragically killed in 1911 in an elevator accident.  Willie was 17 years old.  He enlisted in the the United States Army in  1918 where fought in WWI.  He served until his discharge in 1919.   In 1920 he married Glenora Long (Glenna) from Harrison, Ohio.  By May 1922 they had two children when Glenna died of "perpetual fever" following childbirth.  She was only 24 years old.  My grandmother always told the story of how Uncle Willie placed the children in an orphanage where he was to pay for their care while he worked.  Uncle Willie stopped paying and disappeared never to of been heard from by his family.  



Uncle Willie standing by the post with my grandmother on the steps.

My grandmother remained heart broken about her brother, Uncle Willie and the children.  She would share with her grandchildren that story for many years.  Years ago, she along with  her sister Edna hired a private investigator  to find them with no luck.  She often told me how when Uncle Willie came back from the war he had changed and was different than when he first enlisted in the U.S. Army.  She told me how she was working and living with her sister after Glenna died. Times then were tough, and they were poor.  They could not take the children in as they barely had enough money for food.  My grandmother said that she had made a deal with Uncle Willie.   As long as the children were taken care of by the orphanage, she would bring them home with her for holidays and vacations.   One day she went to pick them up and was told that Uncle Willie had stopped paying for the children, and the children had been adopted.  She never found them.  My grandmother died in 1987 never knowing where her brother and his children were.

In 2004 I found Uncle Willie.  I was on the Ancestry.com web site when I plugged in his name which was in our family record.  As with many times, there were no hits leading to him.  I decided to leave his middle initial out of the search.  Suddenly there he was.  With a different middle initial  After all those years and heartbreak, there he was.   He was in California buried at the Golden Gate National Cemetery.   More research lead me to his death date of August 6, 1955, and he was married to Irene Regan before he died.  He lived in Woodland, Yolo County, California previously.  That meant from 1922 to 1955 he was alive, and he never reached out to his family.  Wow.  How sad I thought.  Why?


My next quest was to find his children.  For nearly 10 years I have searched for his children.  Driving through Kentucky and Ohio, I always thought of them.  What happened to them.  Did they ever wonder about their family?  Did they ever realize there were family who never forgot about them, who shared their story so their memory would not die?  Three weeks ago I discovered Joel R. Wiant listed in the updated Kentucky Birth Index on Ancestry.com as being born to Glenna Long on May 3, 1922.  Was this Uncle Willie's son?  More research completed by my sister uncovered his obituary where it states he had found his "blood" brother, William Steele, of Ashland Kentucky, "maintaining a strong brotherly bond".   The puzzle was slowly coming together.  Attempting several times to reach his family with only one response from someone who is related to Joel's adopted father, I have maintained hope that someone will answer us, and we can connect the families thus completing the broken circle. 

So the mystery of Uncle Willie has almost come full circle.  Why did he disappear?  Why did he stop paying for his children allowing them to be adopted?  Why did he recreate a new life for himself never reaching out to his sisters?  These are just some of the questions which answers I may never know.  We found Uncle Willie.  I believe we found his children.  If only my grandmother was alive for me to share this with her, but then... she probably already knows.

Death Living