Martin Lineage

Dessie Bettice (1881-1969) married George Martin (1870-1954). Their daughter Hazel Martin married, and later walked out on Roy Boughner in Foster, Indiana. After the marriage was dissolved through divorce, Hazel married Kenneth Reed. Less than two years after Hazel remarried, Roy died in Chicago.

Reed made my great-grandmother a widow, when he was struck by a drunk driver while he was working construction as a flagman.

Jesse Martin was my gggg-grandfather. He was married to Sarah Phebus. He was born Feb. 10, 1802 in Maryland, married 1824 in Fountain County, Indiana, and died there Nov. 25, 1874. (Those dates come to me through another researcher; thanks!) Their son Woodrow Wilson Martin was my ggg-grandfather.

Woodrow Wilson Martin (he apparently used "Wilson") was married to Mary Eliza Abernathy. He was born 17 February 1840, and died 4 July 1938 in Fountain County, Indiana. Their 4th child of 11 was my gg-grandfather, George.

In some really great information I received (again, thank you!), I learned that Wilson served in the Civil War in the Indiana Infantry, company B, 63rd Regiment; that he didn't need to wear reading glasses at the ripe old age of 95 (from a transcribed 1935 newspaper article), and that he was very well-liked in the community (from his transcribed obit).

George was the man my grandfather, Charles E. Boughner, called "Dad." He was born 26 January 1870 in Fountain County, Indiana, and died 25 September 1954 in Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois. He is buried in Lower Mound Cemetery near Covington, Fountain County, Indiana with his wife Dessie Bettice Martin.

George Martin and Dessie Ann Bettice married on 2 Dececember 1896 in Indiana. They had only one child, Hazel L.

My great-grandmother, Hazel L. Martin, was born 12 February 1898 in Indiana, and died 14 September 1991 in Fountain County, Indiana. She is buried in Lower Mound Cemetery near Covington, Fountain County, Indiana with her parents and second husband.

We're not altogether certain what was going on in Hazel's life that she left her son in the care of her parents. She married her second husband (Kenneth Reed), having divorced Roy Boughner at some point prior to 25 November 1916, which is when she married Reed. Her son was not quite 4 years old when her first husband died (6 February 1918), and we don't know for sure when that marriage ended. She had another child with Kenneth Reed a year and seven months after Roy died.

Hazel was a girl of 16 when she birthed her son Charles. That may be part of the solution there, but 16 in 1914 wasn't the same as 16 is now.

Visit the Martin message board at Ancestry/RootsWeb - for others looking into their Martin heritage, or try the mailing list.

And don't forget to try a Google search; who knows what will turn up!