The Hyphen Family Lineage

Note: The family of Myrtle May Martin

After being counted in her parents' household in the 1910 US Census, Myrtle married in Sturgis, St. Joseph Cty, Michigan in autumn of 1912 to William Edward Kraft, the Michigan-born son of German immigrants. Less than three years later, she died in late summer of 1915. In the summer of 1917, William's WWI draft registration card was filed, naming him a widower with a dependent child living in Sturgis.

Six months later, William remarried in Sturgis to Louise Fox, a widow with a young son named Arthur Yoder. Counted with the couple in their household in Mason, Ingaham Cty, Michigan in the 1930 US Census is Louise's son Arthur, William's teenaged daughter Maxine Kraft (from his marriage to Myrtle), and five children under the age of ten, all from William and Louise's marriage (and thus Maxine's half-siblings).

(It should be noted that Maxine is counted twice in the 1930 US Census - in addition to her inclusion in her father's household with her step-brother and half-siblings, she is also listed as living with her maternal grandparents, John J. and Rosa Martin.)

I was unable to locate either Maxine or her father William E. in the 1920 US Census, though the reporting of her half-brother William H. Kraft's birthplace as Indiana suggests the family may have been living there around 1920 prior to returning to Michigan by 1923 for the birth of their next child (Earl). I was also unable to locate confirmed records for any of the family in the 1940 US Census, though Maxine's half-brothers William H. and Paul D. seem to have been living in MIchigan in the early 1940s when they enlisted in the military during WWII. I was unable to find confirmed vital dates for Maxine's step-mother Louise, and am uncertain as to whether she and William E. remained married.

There is a burial listing in Oak Lawn Cemetery in Sturgis for William E. on the FindaGrave.com website, but without a photo and without links to any family other than a spouse, Ruth Verona Kraft. The supplemental information on her listing suggests she is buried separately from William and preceded him in death by a year. It seems likely that this listing for William E. is for Maxine's father, as her paternal grandfather Christopher G. Kraft is buried in that same cemetery according to the website. I have not found a confirmed death record for William E., nor any addtional marriage records for him after the previously-mentioned marriage to Louise.

Looking more closely into the records for Maxine's half-siblings, the obituaries for at least William H. and Chester D. each name a Maxine Gracie of Ohio as a surviving sister. This led to finding Maxine's obituary giving her date of death as 30 Dec 2012, and naming one son (Lennis Gracie) and two daughters (Linda Tabor and Jeannine Davis) as surviving children. The obituary names her husband as William Gracie, who preceded her in death, along with a step-son, Jack (also preceding her in death). The obituary gives her place of death as her home in Painesville Twp, Lake Cty, Ohio, near Cleveland.

Other than the obituary, I have been unable to find any records pertaining to Maxine after the 1930 US Census; I have not found a death record, nor any marriage records. I do not know how many children she may have had in total, nor whether the children named in her obituary were born to her marriage to William Gracie, and I have not found confirmed vital dates for him, either. (There is a burial listing for a William Gracie on the FindaGrave.com website, placing him in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Cuyahoga Cty, Ohio, though I cannot confirm that this listing belongs to Maxine's husband.)

Myrtle's line does seem to have continued through her only daughter Maxine, but without further details I have not included any of her grandchildren or great-grandchildren in my findings at this time.