As would be expected, finding details of someone's personal life from a hundred years ago is difficult without access to such things as letters. At present, census and other records found online are my only sources for most of what I know of the Evans family. While I have been able to track the family's movements fairly well, other information is difficult to come by. By far the most head-scratching has been Nelson's marital status. I know for certain that he was married at least twice, both in the last 3 years of his life, but there is some evidence of an earlier marriage (or two).
The first piece of information is found on the 1910 census. The entry is strange for several reasons. First, the Evans' are living in the Hartmann Hotel in dowtown Columubus. I'll need to find a deed abstract (county records from this time period were lost in a fire) to see if they had sold their Clintonville property around this time. Second and third, Nelson is listed as married, but there is no wife in the household.
The column on the far right of the image is the years of marriage. The '0' implies that Nelson's marriage took place sometime in the last year, i.e. 1909. He briefly attended Kenyon College in 1909, so it's tempting to speculate that he dropped out for some marriage-related reason.
The second piece of information is Nelson's draft registration from 1917.
Seven years later finds him still married, possibly to the same woman. Unfortunately, still no identification of this mysterious wife. Every possible search came up empty. Was it possible she died around 1917-1918? Or was there another reason I could not find her? The surprising answer will come in Part Two.
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