The Hyphen Family Lineage

Note: Researching Ernest Starr Vincent, his marriages, and his children

Ernest and his family have been particularly difficult to research, due in part to the number of marriages and children he had, the handful of gaps in the records to try and account for all of them, and the scattering of some of the children during their younger and adolescent years.

Ernest married first in East Mead Twp, Crawford Cty, Pennsylvania to Adelaide Ducray in Spetember of 1893. The two of them lived in Wayne Twp in Crawford Cty for several years - they were counted there in the 1900 US Census - and had at least four sons and one daughter prior to Adelaide's death in 1905:

- Alexander Joseph, b. 1894.
- Julian Augsutus, b. 1896.
- Albert Ernest, b. 1897.
- Ralph Ducray, b. 1899.
- Marie Isabell, b. 1901.

As a man in his late thirties, Ernest remarried to Zoe Berrier, a young woman still in her teens, in 1907. Though both of them lived in the same township, they married in Hillsdale, Hillsdale Cty, Michigan, a city nearly three hundred miles from their hometown. The two of them were counted in the 1910 US Census in Wayne Twp with Ernest's two oldest sons (Alexander and Julian) and his daughter (Marie) from his first marriage, and with an infant daughter born to his marriage to Zoe:

- Adelaide, b. 1909.

Ernest's two younger sons appear to have gone to live with other family - Albert may have been counted in his uncle Louis's household in Chicago, Cook Cty, Illinois in 1910, while Ralph was living with his maternal grandmother Margaret (Cayot) Vincent that same year. Zoe died in early 1911, just nine months after the federal census that counted her in Ernest's household, and was buried in the shared family plots where Ernest's first wife (Adelaide) was buried.

In the 1920 US Census, Ernest was recorded as living in Cochranton, Crawford Cty, Pennsylvania, noting his status as a widower and living with his known children "Alex," aged twenty-four, and Adelaide (misspelled as "Adlade"), aged eleven. Also included in the household were three other children - Edward, aged thirteen, Lillian, aged four, and "Iven," aged two. It should be noted that, on the original form, Edward's surname is clearly written as "Firster" but then is crossed out with a single line; this may be relevant in a paragraph to follow. I will note that no child of a similar age and name appeared with Ernest's family in 1910, suggesting that Edward is not a biological child of Ernest's.

Sometime between 1920 and 1930, Ernest appears to have married at least once more, as in the 1930 US Census his household included a fifty-three-year-old wife, Ellen, along with his oldest son Alex and the previously-mentioned Lillian and Ivan, now listed as ages fifteen and twelve, respectively. In the 1940 US Census, four of the same five appear (minus Lillian), but this time joining Ivan is his eighteen-year-old spouse Geraldine, and two more children - Ellen J. Vincent, aged three, and infant "Murl E." Vincent, aged eleven months.

Ernest's wife Ellen appears to have been Ellen Ann (Beringer) Firster, b. 1876, d. 22 Jul 1947; according to the listing for her on the FindaGrave.com website, she was first married to Homer Firster (b. 11 Dec 1875, d. 27 Mar 1908). The couple were counted in the 1900 US Census in Cranberry Twp, Venango Cty, Pennsylvania with a one-year-old daughter "Georgie T." I have not found further information on this daughter, nor have I found any confirmed information for other potential children born to the couple prior to Homer's death, but the potential connection to the boy noted above (Edward Firster) does suggest some possibility that Ellen may have been involved with Ernest's family prior to her appearance as his wife in 1930. At her death, Ellen appears to have been buried with her first husband, Homer.

For the other two children not fully confirmed - Lillian and Ivan - I have found little information. For Lillian, I have not found confirmed record of her after the 1930 US Census. Ivan appears to have remained married to Geraldline until her death in 1990, with his death following just five years later in 1995. Some peripheral records suggest that Ivan fathered betwen two and four children, though I have not confirmed this, either. I have no solid information on the parentage of either Lillian or Ivan, and must note that both of them were born several years after the death of Ernest's second wife, Zoe. If they are Ernest's biological children, then this would suggest he was married four times in all, with their mother being an otherwise-unknown third wife from a marriage that must have occurred after 1911 (Zoe's death) and ending before the 1920 US Census, when Ernest was counted as a widower.

Of Ernest's six known children, the following summarizes my findings:

- Alexander Joseph appears to have lived at home until at least 1940, and quite possibly until his father's death. Sometime in his later years, Alexander may have married to an older woman named Clara Alice, as the two of them appear to share a headstone. Alexander is not believed to have had any children.

- Julian Augustus married Marie Alva Mailliard prior to 1920, and had three or four children and several grandchildren. He appears to have lived his entire life in Crawford Cty, Pennsylvania.

- Albert Ernest appears to have moved to Chicago to work as a butcher in a retail market run by his uncle Louis Edward Vincent. He may have married, but I have found no marriage record and no spouse appears to have been recorded living with him in the available census listings. He may have served in the military during WWI, but this is unconfirmed. I have found no information that he ever had any children.

- Ralph Ducray married in Chicago to a young immigrant woman from Norway, and the two of them had two sons and at least seven surviving grandchildren. One of his sons married and stayed in the greater Chicago area, while the other married a Wisconsin native and moved to the area of Green Bay, Brown Cty, Wisconsin.

- Marie Isabell, Ernest's only daughter from his first marriage, married Leo Harrington and lived in and around Cleveland, Cuyahoga Cty, Ohio. The couple had at least one daughter, but more information has not been readily available.

- Adelaide, the only known child from Ernest's marriage to Zoe Berrier, was counted in her father's household during the federal census until 1920, when she was a teenager. In her mid-twenties, she was counted as an unmarried head of household in Meadville, Crawford Cty, with several boarders. I have not found further record of her after 1930, and so I am uncertain as to her fate after that time.