My maternal grandfather, Truman Udell Kelly, grew up knowing very little about his past. He knew that he was placed in a St. Louis orphanage because he was redheaded at a very young age. He was placed with a family in Kentucky and then was sent back at the age of eleven but he did not return to the orphanage he ran away and lived the life of a hobo until he meet and then married my grandmother Margaret Ann Arendell on June 22, 1934.
Grandpa grew up thinking his name was Red Kelly. It was not until he met Granma and he started searcheing for his mother Susie Catherine Shelton that he found out his name was really Truman.
So I began trying to find those oh so common roots of a John Kelly (it does not get any more common.) so here is what I know from family stories from my grandpa and from internet searches.
My granpa's mother Susie Shelton was born 26 September 1879 in Bollinger, Missouri. She was the daughter of John Bunyon Shelton Jr and Mary Elizabeth Poston. She married her first husband, Orlando Dennison in 1897 at the age of 17. He was many years her senior. They divorced and she married John Kelly February 21 1910 in Marquand, Madison, Missouri. In the 1910 US Census from St Francois Township, St Francois, Missouri she lived with her husband father and one of her children from her first marriage. The name on the 1910 census was John and Susen Killey. My grandfather Truman was born in November 25, 1910. Then his only" full blood" brother is Robert Harry Kelly. Robert was born June 13, 1914. It is unclear when John died but Susie married again to William Luther Chumley on April 7, 1915.
I have found the marriage certificate for Susie and John and the 1910 Census but that is all I can find I have looked for the death certificate for John in Missouri and Illinois and none of the John Kellys that fit the age.
This is a very large brick wall I would love to scale.
