The In-Law Nightmare: (Pt. 1)

   My Mother-in-Law's family has always been a genealogical nightmare for me.  Let me explain....  

   I began searching my in-laws in 2004.  My married name is Hardin, and the family stories say we are related to the infamous John Wesley Hardin, of the old west fame, an infamous gunslinger and murderer.  However, I must say on reading his biography, he claims to NEVER have killed anyone that DIDN'T deserve it.  

   Finding information on the Hardin family seemed to roll pretty easily.  By December of 2006 I was able to give my Father-in-Law a Hardin Family Genealogy book covering about 14 or so generations.

   I was then asked about my Mother-in-Law's family.  I was asked if I could find my Mother-in-Law's sister.  Whoa!  Wait just a minute!  After nearly 33 years of marriage I had NEVER even heard of a sister/aunt.  Where did she come from?  And, so began my nightmare!

   My Mother-in-Law was born a Weaver.  Okay, so I began my search of Weavers in Kentucky where she met my Father-in-Law.  I could only go back to 1920.  Now I knew that there HAD to be more family than that.  Only one generation back, NO WAY!  There just HAD to be more!!!  Where were they?????

   Two years later, I was told that the Weaver family had changed their name to Weaver between 1918 and 1922.  Well, no wonder I could only go back one generation.  Now I needed to know WHAT their family name  HAD been...  Woeber, now I finally had a surname that I could follow back in time.   

   Let me just stop here to say, it REALLY, REALLY helps to have the RIGHT name to search!!!!

  I was then able to find the family in the 1930 U.S. Population Census.  They were living in Brooklyn, New York.  There were two children, Gerald and Roberta, my Mother-in-Law.  Her mother's name was Ismay.  No maiden name for Ismay was known.  See, Roberta was raised by her paternal grandparents.  No knowledge of what had happened to her mother, but her father became a racing jockey, racing horses all across the U.S.  

   She never had any contact with her mother, and that side of the family was lost to her.  She knew that she and her siblings had been put into an orphanage about 1931 or 32.  Her paternal grandmother came to the orphanage and took her back to Kentucky, but was not able to take all three children.  That's when the trail went cold, and remained that way until last month.

   How would I EVER find information when she was the only surviving person in that family and she could not answer any questions for me.  She just didn't know, so she couldn't tell me what she didn't know.  

   I was on my own.... Who, What, When, Where and Why?  All I had to go on was the 1930 census.  A father, a mother, a brother and herself.  Living in Brooklyn, New York.  And then....           N O T H I N G  ! ! !