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Left: Jean (Chipman) Crom.  Right: Carl Victor Page.

Taken in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, probably early 1990’s.  They were first cousins.  My grandfather Beecher, who died in 1959, was their uncle.  Carl Victor Page, who died in 1996, was the father of Alphabet CEO Larry Page.  Alphabet is the holding company that owns Google.  Some trivia: on his father’s side Carl Victor Page was the second cousin of pin-up icon Bettie Page.  Carl Victor Page’s grandmother was Annie Drucilla Pardue and Bettie Page’s grandmother was Emily Corilla Pardue; they were twins who usually went by their middle names.

Below: Obituary for Carl Victor Page in “The State News” of Michigan State University.  The obituary names his family members: parents Pauline Aquilla Chipman Page and Carl Davis Page; sons Carl Benjamin Page and Lawrence Edward Page; and sister Beverly Budzynski.

Above: marriage record for Carl Davis Page and Pauline Aquilla Chipman.  At the time Pauline was living with her brother Beecher Edgar Chipman on Foss St. in Flint.

Following is a screenshot of the 1940 Flint, Genesee Co., Michigan federal census, ED 85-132, Sheet 7, showing the Carl Davis Page family:

Here we see Carl Davis Page and wife Aquilla P. (Pauline Aquilla Chipman) with their two children Carl V. (Carl Victor) and Beverly A.  (Beverly Ann).  The census gives Carl Davis Page’s occupation as “Material Loader/Auto Mfgr,” a floor labor position, which may have entailed loading upholstery fabric onto the assembly line.

Below: delayed birth certificate for Carl Davis Page naming his parents as Henry Horace Page and Drucilla Pardue. Delayed birth certificates were filed so that those born prior to their state’s requirement to register births could obtain Social Security benefits.

Next: grave site for Carl Davis Page and Pauline Aquilla Chipman in Hollywood cemetery, Jackson, Tennessee.

Below: grave marker for Henry Horace Page and Annie Drucilla Pardue Page, Cotton Grove cemetery, Madison Co., Tennessee.

Above: death certificate for Henry Horace Page, giving his age upon death on August 18, 1932 as 61; and therefore born in 1871, which agrees with his grave marker.  Parents are listed as “J.B. Page” (actually “John D. Page”) and Emily Sullivan.

Below: death certificate for Annie Drucilla (Pardue) Page, wife of Henry Horace Page, listing  death as occurring on February 17, 1948.  Parents are “Jeff Perdue” (actually “Jefferson Davis Pardue”) and “Bettie McCaig” (“Mary Elizabeth McCaig”).  Drucilla was born on December 5, 1876.

Above: death certificate for Drucilla’s sister Emily Corilla (Pardue) Page, also born on December 5, 1876, and therefore Drucilla’s twin.  Corilla was Bettie Page’s grandmother.

Above: Corilla’s grave marker at Cotton Grove cemetery in Madison Co., Tennessee.  Corilla was the wife of John Benton Page.

THE WAY IT WAS IS THE WAY IT IS AND THE WAY IT WILL ALWAYS BE: WE RELATE IN ’58

I ran across this item from “The Burlington [Iowa] Hawk Eye Gazette” of Feb. 22, 1958, p. 6, while looking for a mention of the birth of my sister Mary.  It’s a snapshot of my family shortly before we moved to Illinois.

We ultimately moved to Downers Grove.  My father left the railroad and went to work for State Farm Insurance.

In genealogy, you can never have too much documentation.  I collected a lot of it.  My sister Debbie is also a collector, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale.  One day our collections will merge.

Newspapers are an under-utilized source of genealogical information.  They may contain information unavailable elsewhere.  An easy way to get started with newspapers is the website “Chronicling America,” a free database maintained by the Library of Congress.