The Hyphen Family Lineage

Note: Researching Emmett Forst

Like his older brother Emanuel, Emmett has a unique enough name that finding his records in the indexed online resources should not be difficult, but I have not found anything in the records after 1880 that ties those records to the Emmett Forst that was the youngest child of Conrad and Sarah Forst. As I did for Emanuel, I will keep track of those records and work here, rather than including them in the individual record itself, until such time as I can find more definitive information to put everything together.

The last confirmed record for Emmett is the 1880 US Census for his widowed mother's household, which included twelve-year-old Emmett among his four older siblings still living at home. Everything that follows may or may not pertain to our Emmett.

The next record I can find for an Emmett Forst is a marriage record in Huntington Cty, Indiana, on 4 Feb 1893, to Lizzie Gelzleichter. This record does not include any vital dates, nor any mention of parents of either the bride or groom.

I have not found a 1900 US Census record for Emmett and "Lizzie," but in the 1910 US Census the two of them are listed as living in Huntington, Huntington Cty with Elizabeth's sister Anna Gelzleichter.

In 1913 there are two marriage records of note - the first on 17 May 1913 in Lake Cty, Indiana for Emmett Forst and Jessie Swanson, with no other information given. The second is for Elizabeth Forst (with parents named as Philip and Bina Gelzleichter, both deceased) to Charles Webster Zent, on 23 Jun 1913 in Huntington Cty. This record for Elizabeth and Charles states that Elizabeth was married once before, and divorced on 22 Jan 1913. (Charles himself was also married once previously, and divorced in 1898.)

Charles died in early December 1916, and so the next record we find for Elizabeth is her marriage record to Clyde Jones in Huntington Cty on 13 Oct 1919; she is named Elizabeth Zent, and her parents are named again as Philip Gelzleichter and Bina Vogel. I have not found Clyde and Elizabeth in the 1920 US Census, but the two of them are listed in the 1930 US Census in Huntington, Huntington Cty (with Elizabeth's brother Peter Gelzleichter) and in the 1940 US Census in Bippus, Huntington Cty (this time with no one else living with them). Clyde was previously married twice before - his first wife, Gertrude Snyder, died in 1913, while his second marriage ended in divorce in May 1919. Elizabeth died in 1952, and Clyde in 1964; the two of them are buried with a memorial shared with Clyde' first wife, Gertrude (with Elizabeth's name spelled "Elizebeth") in Pilgrim's Rest Cemetery in Huntington.

Returning to Emmett, after his 1913 marriage to Jessie Swanson, the next record we find for him is a WWI draft card (dated 12 Sep 1918) in Chicago, Cook Cty, Illinois; his birthdate is reported as 10 Oct 1876 on the card, which would make him nearly ten years younger than I believe him to be, and I would suspect this record applies to a different Emmett Forst but for the closest relative listed - Garnet Forst of Huntington, Huntington Cty, Indiana. (The card even gives her address on Jefferson Street.) About ten weeks later, there is a marriage record in Chicago for an Emmett Forst (age forty-two, birth year 1876) to Addie Gill (age thirty-nine, birth year 1879) on 27 Nov 1918. The indexed record does not include any other information about marital history or parentage for either of them. This is the last record I can find for Emmett - and as such I do not have a death date or burial location for him.

The connection to Garnet showed up in a record from the previous year - in her marriage record to Paul Randal Fisher in Huntington Cty on 25 Jun 1917. In that record, Garnet's full name is given as Garnet Bernice Forst, b. 22 Apr 1900 in Huntington Cty, with parents named Emmett Forst and Elizabeth Gelzleichter and her residence at the time as Roanoke, Huntington Cty, Indiana. Garnet and Paul would later be found in Portage Cty, Ohio, starting with the 1920 US Census where they would raise their four sons and one daughter. (That daughter, Vivian, married in Allegheny Cty, Pennsylvania on 19 Jan 1946, with the record naming her parents Paul Fisher and Garnet Forst.)

I have no specific explanation for where Garnet might have been living during the time of the 1910 US Census, as her parents were still married and would not divorce for another three years. All four of her grandparents had died by that point, and I have not found her living with any of the aunts or uncles on her father's side in 1910. She may have been living with one of her mother's siblings, but I have not pursued that avenue yet.

Unlike his older brother Emanuel, Emmett's only daughter does appear to have had children, so if all of these records do tie together to the Emmett in our family tree, then his line presumably continued for at least another generation or so.