52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #10 ~ Ruth Penrose Evans

Written for Amy Johnson Crow's Challenge 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. (click on the icon in the sidebar for details at Amy's blog) 

Ruth at 16

First, just the facts:
Name: Ruth Penrose Evans
Born: 29-Sep-1912, Broomfield, Colorado
Married: Jack H Quick, 03-Jul-1932, Denver, Colorado
Died: Unknown

Relationship: Maternal Grandmother
I am descended through:
- her daughter, my mother, Jacqulin Ann Quick

 One of the things that Amy mentioned in her original challenge was that our post could be anything - "It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor."  So this week I am going to write about my research problem.

My mother's parents were divorced when she was very young and her father was given custody.  For various reasons, my Mom had very little contact with her mother so it's always been a challenging research area for me.  Over the years I've discovered quite a lot - including Ruth's birth date.  I first found that mentioned in Ruth's own parents' divorce papers.  I then requested her birth certificate from Colorado which confirmed the date.

Without going into all the twists and turns, the thing I'm still missing is when (and where) Ruth died. Ruth remarried at least once after her divorce, but I've been unable to find a marriage for her in Colorado so at this point I don't know her final last name.

I talked about this problem with Harold Henderson during FGS in Fort Wayne last year and we searched the SSDI for Ruths born on the exact date that I have.  There are only 2 results with a final location of Colorado - and my Dad is sure that's where she was last living.  Of course "last" was in about 1958.

 

Harold encouraged me to look into those to see if I could prove or disprove them.  For the first, Ruth Koch, I found an obituary on GenealogyBank. It mentioned 2 daughters (my Ruth had no other children) and a sister (my Ruth had only 1 brother).  So, this was definitely not my Ruth.

I've asked my Dad several times is he can remember Ruth's name but no luck.  However he told me it's not Starr.  Also, Durango, Colorado is down on the southern boarder and Dad is sure that Ruth and her husband were living in Denver. 

I know my next move should be to order the second Ruth's SS-5, but I'm hesitant to spend that money when I don't think this is her.  All of her known locations were in and around Denver.

There are a total of 41 Ruths on the SSDI with the exact birthdate I have for my Ruth.

So, that's my problem.  I'm thinking about requesting that SS-5 but I'm open to any other ideas. This is a very abbreviated version of the story.  I have found Ruth in all the census records except 1940 as I am not sure of her name at that time.

I do have another picture of Ruth - she's in front on the right.  I blogged early on about how I received this picture - it was one of the first amazing things as I was researching Ruth.  Now I need a few more amazing finds.