A Letter From "Uncle Roy" to Mary E (Miars) Best

Recently I started (again) to organize and catalog the many wonderful artifacts that my family has collected over the decades.  Specifically, I've been going through the items left by my maternal grandfather's sister, Mary E (Miars) Best.  She and her husband, Robert J Best had no children so much of her personal items were given to my mother and her two sisters.  Thankfully so many of the family history items she had survive.

Aunt Mary and Uncle Bob spent all of their married life living in Brimfield, IL where my parents and my siblings and I grew up.  Among her papers I found a letter that caught my attention.  It was still in the original envelope with a return address of "508 Hanssler Pl  Peoria, Ill.". it was postmarked "17 May 1976". The address and handwriting were not familiar to me and I was curious about who would be writing to her from Peoria rather than calling her.

Return address on letter to "Mrs. Robt Best" (1)

Here is the letter I found in the envelope:

"Yours sincerely Uncle Roy".  Uncle Roy?  Who is this?  The only "Roy" I know of in the Miars branch of my family tree would have been Aunt Mary's older brother, Roy Saltonstall Miars.  But he passed away 11 June 1947. (2) Also, I doubt whether correspondence from her brother would have been signed as "Uncle".  Uncle Bob had no siblings name Roy so I thought that it was unlikely that the sender was from the Best family.

I read the letter a few times and thought about it for awhile to try to get some context on what prompted the letter to be written in the first place and who the people where that are mentioned.  The writer mentions talking to "Luella".  Aunt Mary and my grandfather have an older sister named Luella (Miars) Maher which is likely who the writer was referring to.  The writer goes on to say that he heard about "Bob's additional trouble."  Hmm....what "trouble" did Uncle Bob have? 

The writer goes on to talk about his own similar situation he  had faced and how he got through it and expressed the belief that Aunt Mary will get through this time as well with the help of her family.  It's not specific at all about the "additional trouble" or his relationship to my family.  All I know is that the writer knows Aunt Mary and Aunt Luella and that he's heard that Uncle Bob has "additional trouble".

The postmark on the envelope was May 17, 1976.  What was going on with Aunt Mary and Uncle Bob in the spring of 1976?  Uncle Bob died on 6 March1980. (3)  He died as a result of complications from a stroke he had experienced some years prior.  Could that be what this letter was about?  I thought about this letter for some time; thinking about when Uncle Bob had taken ill. I remembered that I had graduated from 8th grade in May 1976 and Uncle Bob was unable to attend.  Some further digging in that led me to determine that he had his stroke in March 1976.  I am pretty sure that this letter from "Uncle Roy" was about that event.

Now...who is "Uncle Roy"?!?!

A few years ago, I decided to put together a collection of newspaper articles from the Brimfield News (Illinois) about each of my parents.  This small town newspaper had the usual items about births, marriages and deaths in the community but it also contained "gossipy" items as well like who visited with whom and when and how people spent their leisure time.  As part of that process I came across a small item that named my maternal grandparents and my mom.  It was about a Christmas dinner they attended in 1946.  I was pretty sure in thinking back that I had questioned my mom about it because I did not know all of the attendees that the article listed. Here is that article:

Article from The Brimfield News section "Everybody's Business," 10 Jan 1946 (4).

Bingo!  I found Roy Gray listed with members of my family (including my mom).  But this article still did not identify his relationship to me or my family. (5)  The Christmas dinner, according to this article, was at the home of James P "Jay" Maher.  He was the husband of my great Aunt Luella. How were the Gray's connected to Aunt Luella and Uncle Jay?

It seemed the right time to talk about "Uncle Roy" with somebody who might remember him and who attended this holiday dinner.  Thankfully there are still two people living that are listed in this article.  One of them is my Mom!  I sent her this article clipping and after discussing it on the phone she remembered the Gray's as they attended several family gatherings when she was growing up.  She thought that maybe he was related to Uncle Jay Maher but was not sure how.

I turned then to a source that has proven very useful in my research for family in Peoria County, IL - Find A Grave.  I found the memorial page for Roy Ellis Gray with little trouble. (6)  His memorial page was attached to his wife's page and when I clicked on it I found the answer to my question.

Roy Ellis Gray was married to Kathryn Helena (Maher) Gray.  There were several siblings of hers attached to hers.  Among them was a brother, Thomas Maher, I knew to be the father of James P "Jay" Maher.

The writer of the letter that started all of these questions was Roy Ellis Gray.  He was married to the aunt (Kathryn Helena (Maher) Gray) of my great uncle, Jay Maher (husband of Luella Miars Maher).  He has no biological relationship to me or my family but evidently had a long familial relationship with his wife's extended family.  That would have included my maternal grandfather and his siblings, Mary (Miars) Best and Luella (Miars) Maher.

In May 1976, "Uncle Roy" Gray found out that Bob Best had had a stroke some weeks earlier and wrote a letter of support to Bob's wife, Mary.  Thank goodness for extended families.

Lessons learned -
1.  Talk about the questions that are identified when working on your family tree or history.
2.  Rome wasn't built in a day.  Neither is the uncovering of our family history. Contemplate and think about the issues and questions that we uncover and only then document a research plan to resolve and answer them.
3.  Think about the time and place of the issue or question to get a context of what was going on and not sure the bare bone facts.
4.  Finally.....start with the obvious explanations or sources first to try to resolve the issues or answer the question.  There might be a quick solution available.

Related Blog Posts -

An Abundance of Marriage Records for Frank and Katie (Saltonstall) Miars
Bramble School and the Miars Family of Jubilee Township
A Teacher's Contract - Mary (Miars) Best - 1843-1944
Mary Best Miars (1906-1986) - Happy 113th Birthday!
A Teacher's Teacher - Lulu (Petty) Eicher
20 Years Ago - The Passing of Robert T Miars
Robert Miars and Bessie Purcell - Breaking Down Barriers to Justice
Clara (Miars) Barker - 123rd Birthday - October 12, 1896

Bibliography -
(1) Correspondence from "Uncle Roy" Gray to Mary (Miars) Best, postmarked 17 May 1976, Peoria, IL, personal  papers of Mary E. (Miars) Best; privately held by Diane Minor, Plano, Texas, 2020.  "Uncle Roy" is likely Roy Gray who was the uncle by marriage of James P "Jay" Maher who was Mary's brother-in-law.  Also, for the location of this return address see Goggle Map link.
(2) Peoria County, Illinois, death certificate no. 26213, Roy S. Miars, Peoria County Clerk.
(3) Peoria County, Illinois, death certificate no. 127189, Robert J. Best, Peoria County Clerk.
(4) "Everybody's Business," newspaper article, The Brimfield News (Illinois), 10 Jan 1946, p. 4, col. 3; digital image, Historical Newspapers collection, Brimfield Public Library (http://brimfield.advantage-preservation.com : accessed 30 Apr 2020).
(5) I told you that this paper had gossipy items in it!!!!
(6) Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 30 April 2020), memorial page for Roy Ellis Gray (23 Oct 1894–2 Jun 1990), memorial no. 23427076, cemetery marker in Saint Patricks Cemetery, Kickapoo (Oak Hill), Peoria County, Illinois, USA; maintained by "Heather (Angel_Graver)," contributor no. 46809426.