Notes for: William Heiss Bodine
From: Mari Wahlgren [mari.wahlgren at rcn.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2018
Subject: Alice Grace Bancroft Bodine
Hi,
I am writing in regard to your Bodine family history that I just stumbled upon. My husband's grandfather was given up for adoption in 1907-1908. He was born on 12/24/1907. His birth mother's name was Alice Bancroft. We know that she was the Alice Bancroft whose family lived on Germantown Ave in Philadelphia. It appears, through my recent research, that she perhaps is your Alice Bancroft. I see that there is a gap in children's births from 1901 to 1909. We have no idea why she gave up my husband's grandfather but we were hoping to connect with anyone in the family. He had searched for his birth family before marrying around the late 1930s and went to the Germantown home location, but the family had moved. He passed away in 1994. My mother in law, his daughter, however, is still living and would love to have a connection with the family that she never knew.
If you have any interest or information on the Bancroft family or of Alice we would love to hear from you!
Thank you,
Mari wahlgren=
From: Mari Wahlgren
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2018
To: Dave Bodine & Ronny
Subject: Re: Alice Grace Bancroft Bodine
We don't have a lot of information, but I will give you what I have. My husband's grandfather, Joseph Busch (adopted last name) was given up for adoption by an Alice Bancroft, who lived on Germantown Ave In Philadelphia. He was born Dec 24, 1907 at A catholic hospital ( St Vincent's?) which was also an orphanage. He was given a baptismal certificate that indicated his name was Joseph Bancroft and his mother was Alice. In searching records, we come across a household of a Bancroft family on Germantown Ave with mother Alice and daughter Alice. It appears that your Alice Bodine was the daughter. Her age would make her the most likely mother, however she was already married to a Bodine and not living on Germantown Ave in 1907. The mother Alice seems as though she would be too old, but I guess anything is possible. In a later census record she indicates that she had 5 children and three were still living. I believe there was a Robert who died at age 40 and a Sarah who must've been young when she passed. The elder Alice's husband, Tom had passed in the 1800s. The younger Alice Bodine has children Helen, Grace and Tom with large gaps between births so definitely an opportunity to have had a child in 1907 but not sure why she would give him up or use her maiden name.
It is a big puzzle that we have been trying to solve for years so I was glad to finally find some people connected to an Alice to hopefully glean some information.
Thank you for any information or connections you may have!
Sincerely,
Mari Wahlgren
From: Ronny Bodine
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2018
Subject: Re: Alice Grace Bancroft Bodine
Hello Mari,
It appears you have already down quite a bit of work on this. I will endeavor to see what I can uncover, but in the meanwhile, to explain why Alice gave up what appears to be her 2nd child may be that her husband was not the father. That would explain why the father is not named on the child's baptismal certificate. We are of course assuming here that this Alice Bancroft is the same as William Bodine's wife. When Joseph was born in 1907 Alice was only 30.
Alice Bancroft Bodine Garrett died 19 Feb 1963 and in her obituary are named 3 daughters, Helen Schlemmer (1901-1988), Grace Gunsser (1909-1992) and William Bancroft (1919-1980). Helen married Lawrence Schlemmer in 1925 and they had 3 daughters. The eldest is yet living at age 90 and may be your best chance to learn more about Joseph. The other two daughters are deceased, the youngest, Larretta Schlemmer Madill, just passed away in 2016. The daughter is Helen Schlemmer Lutz, widow of Roland Bruce Lutz. She was born in January 1928 and lives at 1515 The Fairway in Jenkintown, PA 19046. I believe it is a retirement community. I found a phone number for her and hope it may still be valid, 215-886-9086.
I will look further into this and let you know if I find anything. If you are successful in making contact with Helen do let Dave and I hear what you learned.
Best of luck,
Ronny Bodine
From: Ronny Bodine
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2018
Subject: Re: Alice Grace Bancroft Bodine
Mari,
The Pennsylvania birth certificate of Grace Maud Bodine, daughter of William and Alice (Bancroft) Bodine, born 21 July 1909 in Philadelphia notes that this is Alice's 2nd child. The 1910 census also records that William and Alice had only 2 children by that time. It could be that because of the embarrassment of what happened (assuming that to be the case) they preferred to ignore the existence of Joseph entirely. Or, Alice Bancroft was a different woman than the wife of William Bodine. Does Joseph's baptismal certificate list an address for his mother by chance?
To recap what you likely already know but which I had to look at to familiarize myself with the details, Joseph was born 23 Dec 1907 in Philadelphia and adopted by Henry B. and Catherine M. (Hillenbrand) Busch and was living with them in Easton, PA in 1910 where he is noted as being adopted. He remained with them through 1940. His parents also had a daughter, Marie, who died unmarried in Philadelphia in 1991. In 1940, he registered for the WW2 Draft as Joseph Henry Busch of Baltimore, Md and named his sister as his next of kin. He died 1 March 1995.
It would be helpful to locate his original birth certificate as Philadelphia certainly recorded them at that time, but I do not find him in the available indexes. Perhaps because of his subsequent adoption.
Should I uncover any additional details I will get back with you.
Ronny Bodine
From: Mari Wahlgren
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2018
Subject: Re: Alice Grace Bancroft Bodine
Thank you so much for your help. He had an original baptismal certificate not birth certificate. I reached out to the hospital many years ago and they said that he was born there and given up for adoption through there but had no birth certificate. The reason I have honed in on that Alice Bancroft is that he was told his mother lived on Germantown Ave. Alice Bancroft Bodine's family did live at that address then. the elder Alice also lived there but I feel was over 60 at the time of Joseph's birth.
This is great to at least get some information. I am not sure where the DNA tests were done through. Have you used ancestry?
From: Ronny Bodine
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2018
Subject: Re: Alice Grace Bancroft Bodine
You know, I tend to believe now that Joseph was the result of an illegitimate birth whether by choice with someone Alice knew or perhaps someone assualted her. Unless someone in the family knows the details this may be forever buried. Of course it is always possible that when Alice got pregnant a second time the family was in serious financial straits and William Bodine decided they could not support another child at this time and gave it up for adoption, but because he was not listed as the father and the birth was not officially recorded, it seems more likely it is the other scenario.
Now as to DNA. Your husband descends through a female line so Y-DNA will not be of any use and neither will mitochrondrial which descends in the female line. However, autosomal DNA may be helpful. That examines all DNA for several generations back and can identify matching DNA segments with second-third and fourth cousins. Right now Ancestry is offering a Family Finder special at $59 which does exactly that--examine the autosomal DNA. If Joseph was a Bodine that should reveal a relationship to other Bodines and if he is a child of Alice by someone else there may be matches to relatives on Alice's side. Family Tree DNA where I have set up the Bodine Project also offers Family Finder testing. And both, when the results are in can be loaded into GEDMatch for free and compared to tens of thousands of other test results from both companies.
If you don't mind, could you scan a copy of Joseph's baptismal certificate. I would like to see for myself all that it contains and maybe it will give me an idea.
Ronny
-----Original Message-----
From: Mari Wahlgren [wahlgren at rcn.com]
Sent: Friday, May 1, 2020
Subject: Bodine family genealogy
Hi
My name is Mari Wahlgren. My husbands grandpa was adopted from an orphanage in Philadelphia in 1907. When he was older and tried to find his birth family the orphanage gave him a few bits of information. 1 was his mother's birth name: Alice Bancroft and her address: Germantown Ave in Phil. He actually hired a private detective but all they found was the Bancroft family had moved from that location. Through the technology we have today I have searched every Alice Bancroft in the city at this time and Alice Bancroft Bodine seems to be the most likely parent. It seems odd that she had children so far apart and who knows why she would give up a baby and have more after that but we wonder if your Alice Bancroft is ours. Has anyone done any DNA testing?
Thank you for any and all information you may have
Mari Wahlgren
From: "Ronny Bodine"
To: "mari wahlgren"
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Subject: Re: Bodine family genealogy - DNA question
William Heiss and Alice Bancroft Bodine had three children of record:
Helen May Bodine 1901-1988 married 1925 Lawrence August Schlemmer 1899-1987. They had three daughters, Elizabeth Schlemmer Mckee 1929-2015, Larretta Schlemmer Madill 1933-2016 and Helen Schlemmer Lutz, living at age 92, widow of Roland Lutz. Her address if 1515 The Fairway, Jenkintown, PA 19046. This is likely a retirement condo. Two phone numbers come up 215-886-9086 and 610-776-0762.
Grace Maud Bodine Gunsser 1909-1992 had no children.
William Bancroft Bodine 1919-1980 married Emily C. Widmann who died in 2011. They had one daughter: Connie J. Bodine Lamparter, born 1951, wife of Gerald Lamparter. They live at 3217 Holyoke Road, Philadelphia,PA 19114. Phone 215-969-0885
...
Ronny
On Jun 20, 2020, at 2:05 PM, Ronny Bodine wrote:
Hi Mari,
An interesting development. The two families of Joseph Bodine and William Heiss Bodine are not related. Whereas William is descended from Jean and Esther Bridon Bodine, Joseph comes from Jean and Maria Crocheron Bodine. Going by what you know about Alice Bancroft having lived on Germantown Avenue, there was only one Bancroft family there at that time and it included Alice Bancroft, or rather two of that name, mother and daughter, living at 3627 Germantown Avenue. Alice the mother (1845-1916/20) was the widow of Thomas H. Bancroft (1835-1883), both natives of England. They had four children, Thomas (1863-1934) who married Mary Mitchell in 1888, and moved to Collingsworth, NJ taking his mother with him; Robert (1865-1906) never married; Sarah (born 1876, but appears to have died before 1900); and Alice (1878-1963) who married William Heiss Bodine in 1900 and James Garrett in 1945.
I ran a search on that address from Philadelphia City Directories for the period 1890 to 1910 and found Alice, Robert and Thomas listed 1892 to 1901. Perhaps it was 1901 or 1902 that Thomas and his mother moved to Collingsworth, leaving Robert behind who at the time of his death lived at 3210 Germantown Avenue.
It seems odd that William and Alice married in 1900 and had their first child in 1901 and not again until 1909 and finally 1919. Were they separated after 1901 for several years and Alice took up with another man and had Joseph, gave him up for adoption and returned to her husband to have Grace in 1909, but them waited nearly 10 years for the last child. A very odd situation that.
Ronny
From Ronny Bodine:
William Bodine was living with his parents 1900 in Philadelphia and was employed as an electrician. Following his marriage later that year he remained in Philadelphia working at his trade. In 1930, he worked in an electrical fixtures store. He registered for the World War I draft on 12 Sept 1918 in Philadelphia. In March 1945, Alice G. Bodine married James Garrett in Philadelphia.
From Pennsylvania Death Records:
William Bodine died 28 July 1934 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia County.
From Pennsylvania Federal Census Records:
1940 (April) Philadelphia, Philadelphia Co.: Alice G. BODINE 61 PA widowed, William 21 PA Clerk.
Newspaper Obituary, The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia , Pa.) of Thursday, 21 Feb 1963.
GARRETT.--On Feb. 19, ALICE (nee Bancroft), age 84, at Odd Fellows Home, Middletown, Pa., formerly of Phila., wife of the late James Garrett and widow of the late William H. Bodine, mother of Mrs. Lawrence Schlemmer, Mrs. William A. Gunsser and William B. Bodine. Relatives and friends are invited to services Fri., 11 A.M., from the Welliver Funeral Home, 4009 Decatur st. (at Fkd. ave) Int. Northwood Cem. Friends may call Thurs. eve.