I’m taking a little detour from my search for my grandmother Velma Brown [Moore]’s education to participate in The September Genealogy Blog Party: Lost & Found, sponsored by Elizabeth O’Neal of My Descendant’s Ancestors. A couple of years ago, when I acquired The Family Archives, I discovered a photo album that rightly belongs with another family, and I’ve been meaning to track down the owners’ descendants to give it to them.

This handsome young man is Dwight Johnson STUMP from Chicago, Illinois. He was born on June 28, 1892 in Chicago to Horace E. Stump and Catherine J. Johnson.¹

Dwight married Leslie May BROWN (1890-1974) on May 19, 1917 in Lexington, Massachusetts.² Leslie was the first cousin of my grandfather, Ronald Dalrymple Brown (1899-1985).

Leslie was still alive when I was growing up, but I don’t recall anyone ever mentioning Dwight. When his photo album surfaced years later, the only thing I learned about him was that he and Leslie were divorced; he was therefore no longer part of our family.

According to the 1940 United States Census, Dwight and Leslie were still married and residing at 248 School Street in Belmont, Massachusetts.³ Dwight died in Middlesex, Massachusetts in October of 1965.⁴

I would very much like to give Dwight’s photo album to his family. If serendipity is on my side, and any of Dwight’s family happens to read this, please contact me, and I will mail you the album.

¹“Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers, 1871-1915,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7WV-YBW : 26 December 2014), Dwight J. Stump, 28 Jun 1892; citing p.424 no. 21238, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm 1,287,737.

²“Massachusetts State Vital Records, 1841-1920,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:23YR-T7S : 4 December 2014), Dwight Johnson Stump and Leslie May Brown, 19 May 1917; citing Marriage, Lexington, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States, certificate number 23, page 614, State Archives, Boston.

³“United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K4FC-719 : accessed 24 September 2017), Dwight Stump, Belmont, Belmont Town, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 9-57, sheet 5A, line 11, family 116, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 – 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 1602.

⁴“United States Social Security Death Index,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JTPJ-N6G : 20 May 2014), Dwight Stump, Oct 1965; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).