Some time in the early 1970s, I had a long conversation with my dad. That, in itself, was unusual; we didn’t talk very much. But this one was different, though I can’t say why it then took an odd turn.

Roy revealed something that I had never known in all my twenty-five years: that my grandfather had been married twice. That was interesting but not earth shattering. Then Roy told me that she had died in child birth and that he suspected he was that child, which meant that Clara was not his mother. And that she had never been my grandmother, just a stand-in for Nellie Laurine Kemp Ramsey [1889–1912]. If you know me, you know this sort of doubt and uncertainty can’t be tolerated for long. Now, these many years later, I still don’t have the full story.

One source has the Ramsey family living in South Bend, Indiana, plausible but as yet unexplored.

Stay tuned.