Flew the Coop: Bertha Colomy French’s Divorce, Part 2

Last time, I wrote about my great-grandmother Bertha (Colomy/French/Spratt) Pleau’s divorce from her first husband, Frederick Morton French. (I figured divorce also fits in nicely with the #52Ancestors theme of “Flew the Coop”!)  The newspaper indicated that the Superior Court of Essex County granted the divorce and gave her custody of a minor child. Since I couldn’t find anything anywhere about this child, I proceeded to order the original divorce papers from the Massachusetts Judicial Archives.

The archivist responded within a week and I received the entirety of the divorce papers, which was fifteen pages long.  Before I get into the meat of the document, let me first answer the burning question:  nowhere in the entire package was there a mention of a child and/or custody.  For something like custody to be granted by the court,  it would certainly be mentioned if it existed.  That, coupled with the fact that I found absolutely no record of a birth or a death of a child in a city and state that’s always proved to have phenomenal records, tells me that there was never a child in existence.  I can only assume that the newspaper mistakenly put in the phrase about custody of a minor child.

Now on to the divorce itself!  Since the paperwork is relatively scant, there aren’t loads of information; however I can piece together a timeline of the entirety of Bertha and Frederick’s marriage and divorce:

• June 27, 1900:  they married in Lynn.
• By on or about November 20, 1901, Frederick “was guilty of cruel and abusive treatment towards” Bertha.  Apparently this happened on more than one occasion.
• On or about August 15, 1902, Frederick deserted Bertha and never returned.
• On February 12, 1910, Bertha signed the papers requesting the divorce and outlining the above facts.  (Side note:  she had a very beautiful signature!)  Ironically, these papers were filed in the Essex Superior Court on Valentines Day, February 14.
• February 15:  the Court ordered that the sheriff summon Frederick to appear at Court on Monday, March 7.
• February 19:  the sheriff delivered the summons to Frederick at 71 Fremont Street in Somerville, Essex County [sic], MA.  Bertha’s brother Edwin accompanied the sheriff to verify Frederick’s identity.
• March 7:  Frederick’s attorney’s appeared in court for Frederick.  This was just a simple slip of paper.
• April 6:  Frederick’s March 1 answer to the divorce action (which the court called “libel”) was filed.  He stated that he “admits that he was married to the libellant [Bertha] as therein alleged, and that they lived together as husband and wife at said Lynn, but denies each and every other allegation therein contained as fully as if the same were herein specifically set forth.”
• April 16:  Bertha filed the request that Frederick pay for the expenses she incurred in filing the divorce “and a further sum for the maintenance and support of the Libellant during the pendency of the libel.”
• June 27 (ten years to the day after their wedding):  Frederick’s attorneys filed to “withdraw our appearance for the libelle [Frederick].”  
• June 30 [per the newspaper, not the divorce file]:  Judge Bell issued the decree for the divorce, which at that point was no longer contested.

Excerpt from Bertha French’s filing for divorce from Frederick. Courtesy Massachusetts Judicial Archives.

The following February 11, Bertha married her second husband James Spratt.  I have to wonder if she delayed filing for divorce from Frederick until she knew she might want to marry again.

So was there a child that may have belonged to the other divorce that Judge Bell ruled on that day?  No, there was not; but that is yet another family story for another day!

Contacting the Judicial Archives

Just a few words about contacting the Judicial Archives in Massachusetts:  according to their website, many (but not all) of the court records in the archives have been microfilmed by FamilySearch.  I highly recommend first navigating the FamilySearch Wiki to see if your court papers might be on file.  

If they’re not on FamilySearch, gather whatever information you might have on your court case.  Knowing the exact court in which the action was filed will really help, as well the exact date filings or decisions were made.  

Here is the link to the Massachusetts Judicial Archives, which has links that will lead you to ask your specific question with the information that you’d gathered.  I also noted that I could not find my documents on FamilySearch so the archivist would know that I did check there first.

In the News: Bertha Colomy French’s Divorce

One of my burning questions about my great-grandmother Bertha Elizabeth (Colomy/French/Spratt) Pleau has been about her divorce from her first husband Frederick Morton French.  I knew they got married on June 27, 1900 and were divorced by the time Frederick appeared in the 1910 census; however, that’s a large window to look into!

Through city directories, I discovered that Bertha was living separately from Frederick by 1903, but the local newspaper, the Daily Evening Item, was not online between 2017-early 2022.  However that eventually changed!  As more years came online, I scoured the Lynn Item for all my Lynn ancestors and occasionally switched up how I was searching (such as adding Bertha’s middle initial or searching under Frederick).  

It was during these past three months that I was able to get some answers!  I discovered that Bertha finally filed for divorce on April 12, 1910 at the Superior Civil Court in Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, and that Frederick contested the divorce.  I wondered why Bertha wanted to divorce him; certainly it had something to do with her separating from him after just a few years of marriage.  

The Superior Court in Salem, Massachusetts, where Bertha would have filed for divorce from Frederick French. Courtesy Wikipedia.

Well, just a little over a week ago, I found out why on page 8 of the June 30, 1910 Daily Evening Item.  That day, Bertha was granted her divorce by Judge Bell:  “In 1901 or 1902, [Frederick] was very cruel and abusive toward her.  Decree for cruel and abusive treatment, with custody of minor child.”  (emphasis mine)

A minor child?  What.the.heck!?  My grandfather was not born until 1921; who was this half-sibling of his?  I looked in FamilySearch and in the newspapers and could not find any record of a birth or death of a child of Bertha’s.

The 1910 census would certainly give me an answer, but as I wrote here, I could not find Bertha on that census, either by name or by place.  There was no child on the 1920 Census, but of course they might have even married by that point; however, Jennie Starbard’s 1915 obituary mentions grandson Roy Colomy (Bertha’s nephew) and no other grandchildren.  The most logical conclusion is that maybe the child died by 1915, but FamilySearch shows nothing, nor does FindaGrave show any Frenchs, Spratts or Colomys of the right age being buried in Lynn.  

“Start with what you know” is the best advice in genealogy, and here, what I knew was that the child was mentioned in the court’s decision.  I imagine that the child’s name and age even might be mentioned in the court documents, so I started looking into that.  FamilySearch didn’t seem to have the divorce court records and pointed me back to the Essex County Superior Court.  I wasn’t sure if the court would house documents that old, so I just googled “Essex County Superior Court historical archives” and I found out that Massachusetts has a Judicial Archivist that might point me in the right direction!

So I filled out the online form with everything I know, which fortunately is pretty specific thanks to the newspapers.  And now we wait!  Stay tuned!

Curious: Some of My Questions

Growing up, I always pestered my mom with endless questions about everything.  But I’ve found that this is a good quality for genealogists to have!  You never get an answer if you don’t ask the question.  So for this week’s #52Ancestors prompt of “Curious”, I decided to post some of my most burning questions, in no particular order:

• Who were George W. Colomy’s parents? FamilySearch says Daniel Colomy and Rebecca Pinkman, but the tick marks on the 1840 Census don’t seem to match up, and there are no solid sources to support this.
• After George W. Colomy changed his surname to Chesley, I’m sure he ended up marrying either Mary Jane Coleman or Sarah Van Wie and lived in Albany, NY.  Which George W. Chesley in Albany was he? And where did he actually end up?
• Why did Frederick French and Bertha Colomy divorce?  I found that they separated by 1903 and were divorced by the 1910 Census.  The local paper (the Lynn Item) is not online after 1899.
• How did Job R. White die, and where is he buried?  I know from family stories that he died in Florida.

Genealogy research is like a maze!
Courtesy Library of Congress.

• What town did Stanislaus Markoski come from? I haven’t even been able to find a passenger list for him.
• I want to find the passenger lists for Adam Valek and the rest of his family!  His Declaration of Intention states he doesn’t remember the name of the ship he came over on.
• What are the personal stories behind my Filles du Roi ancestors?  Since my post on Louise Gargottin, I have found several more Filles!
• Who are Levi Taunt’s parents?  I’ve found some candidates, but nothing definitive.
• Who are Anna Capernaum’s parents?  Online trees give some unsourced parents; again, nothing definitive.

• Where was Altie May (Williams) (Atwell) Woodlock between 1900 and 1943? And how did she come to move to New Rochelle, NY?  
• I want to find Frank L. Colomy’s birth record.  I’m still not sure whether he was born in Maine or New Hampshire, and the birth records there are sparse.
• How did William Gordon Atwell die?  All I know is when he died, not how.

U-Turn: Great-Grandmother Bertha Colomy

So long ago, I touched on Bertha Colomy’s June 27, 1900 marriage to Frederick Morton French. At the time, all I knew was that they divorced by 1910. Thanks to online city directories, now I know a little more! (Thank you, HeritageQuest!)

In the 1903 Lynn, MA Directory, I found that Bertha French was living at 63 Autumn Street (where her mother Jennie and stepfather James Starbard lived). It looks like Bertha lived with her mother until about 1905, then in other locations in Lynn.

63 Autumn Street, Lynn. Author’s collection.

So Bertha was at least separated from Frederick after about three years of marriage. Although I still don’t know when the divorce took place, this clue narrows down the timeframe a bit.

Great-Grandmother Bertha Elizabeth Colomy: Between Percy and George

Once Bertha returned from her escapade with Percy St. Clair in 1892, she settled back at home in Lynn, Massachusetts. She witnessed the dissolution of her parents’ marriage and eventually got a job as a stitcher with one of the many shoe manufacturers in town.

Despite the stain on her virtue, Bertha still managed to attract a man her own age who asked to marry her. Frederick Morton French was a dry goods salesman in Lynn, and he and Bertha were married on June 27, 1900 by Rev. Tillman B. Johnson (probably of First Baptist Church). I know nothing about the nature of their marriage; but in any case, they were divorced before 1910. I found Frederick in the 1910 Census living with his family with a marital status of “D”.

For some reason, I could not find Bertha in the Census (typical of the family, I think!). However, I don’t think she was very far away. In 1911 she lived at 32 Autumn Street, just down the road from her mother Jennie and stepfather James Starbard. On February 11, 1911 she was wed to James Spratt by Donald H. Gerrish (of St. Paul’s Methodist Society).

On December 28, 1915, Bertha’s mother Jennie passed away, just four years after James. Bertha apparently inherited the house at 63 Autumn Street, for James is listed at this address in the city directory in 1916.

63 Autumn Street, Lynn. Author’s collection.

By a very odd coincidence, December 28 brought death once more in 1919. James had contracted and died of lobar pneumonia. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Pine Grove Cemetery. Once again, Bertha was a single woman. I don’t know how long it was before she met George Edmund Pleau, but it was obviously no later than February 1921 (nine months before the birth of my grandfather).

There are little bits and pieces about Bertha that I’ve gathered from my grandfather and aunt (who never knew her but knew of her). From the 1930 Census, I know she still played piano since she gave lessons. In fact, my aunt claimed that the piano that my grandfather had actually belonged to Bertha first. Bertha obviously loved music, and perhaps that is what attracted her to George. There had been some opera glasses in the family that were supposed to belong to Bertha. Finally, Bertha had a talent for painting. Growing up, a beautiful life-like picture of a leopard hung in my grandparents’ basement. My grandfather claimed that he also had her painting of a lion, which got lost in one of his moves. Today, my sister has this beautiful painting in her living room.

Painting by Bertha Pleau. Author’s collection.

And so that is Bertha’s life up until her third marriage. The remainder of her time can be seen  here. I think her mother Jennie is deserving of the next look at the family.

Great-Grandfather George Edmund Pleau

When I first started delving into my family, perhaps my most elusive ancestor was my great-grandfather, George Edmund Pleau. I knew that he was my great-grandmother’s third husband and that he died when my grandfather was just a boy. Both my grandfather and father were named for him and supposedly were all part of a “long line of George Pleaus”, according to my grandmother. My grandfather had almost no information on his father’s family.

My aunt Cherie (known to our family as Cheryl) managed to determine that George was from Rochester, Monroe County, New York. Since my in-laws live close to that area, I had offered to do any on-site research for her. She adamantly refused my offer. At this point, I think she felt quite possessive about this family line, so I left it alone until after her death.

Once she had passed away, however, I began my pursuit, as I explained in About. The following is a basic outline of George’s life, based on my best information:

• Born on December 27, 1875 in Rochester, NY to George Pleau and Emma LeClair, who were originally from Quebec.
• He was the third child and second son in the family. His older siblings were Napoleon Charles and Cordelia. His younger siblings were Albert Joseph, Eugene Jule, Evelyn L., Ida (who died during childhood), Ella Jane, and Lucy (who also died during childhood).
• His family moved often within the heart of Rochester.
• Attended Our Lady of Victory parochial school, where he began to perform in musical plays.
• Worked primarily as a shoemaker like his father and sometimes as a musician; particularly playing the piano.
• Married Agnes Jeanette Kowiak on July 19, 1899 in Rochester.
• Between 1900 and 1910, two children were born to him and Agnes and subsequently died.
• In December 1910, he and Agnes bought a home at 17 Lochner Place in Rochester, which does not seem to exist anymore.
• As of 1918, he had dark hair and brown eyes.
• In 1918, he and Agnes appeared to be separated. He lived with his sister Evelyn.
• Moved to Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts in 1919. The 1920 Census shows that he was a shoemaker boarding at Catherine Beard’s house at 41 Buffum Street. My theory is that, after the death of both his parents and in the face of his failing marriage, he probably felt he needed to get away from Rochester. I know that Lynn was even bigger in the shoe industry than Rochester, so perhaps it had more job opportunities.
• Sometime before early 1921, he met widow Bertha (Colomy)(French) Spratt.
• On November 22, 1921, his son (my grandfather) was born to him and Bertha.
• In June 1922, he sold the deed to the Rochester house to his wife Agnes.
• On July 22, 1922, he and Bertha were married in Bath, Sagadahoc County, Maine. She claimed it was her second marriage, and he claimed it was his first.
• In October 1922, the Supreme Court in New York issued a final decree of divorce in favor of Agnes, the plaintiff. (Yes, you are reading this timeline correctly!)
• By June 1925, George and his little family moved to Brooklyn, Kings County, NY. He worked as a shoemaker.
• In 1927, they moved to Baltimore, Baltimore City, Maryland. He worked as a shoemaker and then as a salesman.
• On the afternoon of March 4, 1932 he was struck by a car while walking at the corner of Harford Road and Glenmore Avenue, not far from where he lived on Mary Avenue.
• On March 15, 1932, he died from his injuries in St. Joseph’s hospital.
• On March 18, 1932, his funeral was held at E.I. Fanning & Son, with religious services at Church of the Messiah (an Episcopal church). He was buried in Baltimore Cemetery without a gravestone.

As you can see, I found a lot of information on George, primarily thanks to online city directories, census information and newspaper articles. What I don’t know is what he was like as a person. Was he funny? Did he sing tenor or bass? (My guess is bass, based on my grandfather’s voice.) Did he love his family? Maybe I’ll find out someday.