This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: Ford, Webb, Wolf
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/nh.2ADE/2414
Message Board Post:
Hello - I am Susan Neff, Historian for the Dr. James Ford Historic Home in Wabash (please
visit us at our web site listed below). I am searching for one of Dr. Ford's
gr-granddaughters who was born in Montpelier, Blackford County.
Helen Louise Ford's birth date is Feb 3 1918. She was the first child of James Oscar
Ford (1886-1957, a rural mail carrier) and Alpha Omega Drabenstott (1895-1991). Helen
first married Robert D. Webb on Oct 7 1933 (poss. in Blackford Co.); they divorced. She
second married a Mr. Wolf. There are reportedly four children born during these two
marriages. Helen was the older sister of James Richard Ford (1928-1996) of Hartford City
and Robert Lowell Ford (1934-??) of Washington state. Helen is also a neice of Edwin
Holton Ford, founder of the Ford Meter Box Co. in Hartford City.
Two Ford family records indicate that Helen Louise Ford Webb-Wolf died in August 1943 from
"an accidental fall out of a window in a high rise building in Indianapolis."
She would have been in her mid-20s leaving four children under the age of 10. We are most
anxious to locate Helen's children (and grandchildren).
A year-long search in Marion County has found no mention of or death record for Helen.
THE ONLY PUBLIC RECORD FOUND ANYWHERE IS THE 1920 BLACKFORD CO. CENSUS.
I am hoping that someone in Blackford County could:
1) please check your newspapers to see if any mention of Helen's death is included.
2) please check your 1933 marriage records
3) since her parents are buried in the Montpelier cemetery, perhaps she is also buried
there.
There is, of course, the possibility that the Aug 1943 family death records are somehow in
error.
Any assistance for clues to this mystery is most gratefully appreciated. Thank you in
advance.
Susan Neff, Historian (email susan.neff(a)gmail.com)
The Dr. James Ford Historic Home, Wabash, Indiana
www.jamesfordmuseum.org