52 Ancestors in 2022 - Week 12: Joined Together

It’s Week 12 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. The prompt this week is ‘Joined Together’. I tried to find a creative way to use the phrase, but I kept coming back to ‘joined together’ in marriage. The hard part there is that, like everyone else, I have a lot of married people in my family tree. How can I choose only one to write about?! So I am choosing to write about the most ‘joined together’ person in my tree—Effie Mae Wood. Effie was 'joined together' in marriage FIVE times!

But first, a trigger warning. Effie Mae Wood is not related to me. She is very loosely connected to me through many marriages. She was the ex-wife of an ex-husband of the ex-wife of my relative, Paul Sebastian Kolk. I enjoy researching, so I often research loosely connected people. And occasionally I have found these people connected in another way. I know that there are people who get upset about this kind of research. They don't like that a ‘stranger’ researches someone who is ‘not even part of their family’. If this kind of research annoys you, please read no further.

Okay, now on to Effie Mae.

Effie Mae Wood was born on June 2, 1909 in Franklin, Morgan County, Illinois. She was the daughter of George Wilson Wood and Daisy Mae Brooks.

Effie Mae was very young when she married for the first time. She married John Henry Luckeman on August 7, 1926 in Morgan County, Illinois. 

clipping from Morgan County, Illinois Marriage Register
August 7, 1926
found on FamilySearch.org
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q292-53FF

 Effie was divorced from John. They had two daughters together, Rose and Irene.

Effie married for the second time to Norman Pate. They married sometime before Norman registered for the draft in October 1940. They were living in Peoria, Illinois at the time. Norman and Effie divorced in Madison County, Illinois on May 14, 1943.

Divorce of Effie M Pate vs Norman Pate 29 Mar 1943, Mon The Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois) Newspapers.com A few months later, on August 12, 1943, Effie married for a third time. She married Alex M Nottoli in Gadsen, Alabama. Alex was a private in the U.S. Army at the time of their marriage. It was the second marriage for Alex. On the marriage license, Effie claimed it was also her second marriage.

Effie’s fourth marriage was to John Howard Reddick. I have no information on when or where they married. I do have a notice of their divorce in Edwardsville, Illinois in March 1953.

Divorce of Effie M and John H Reddick 23 Mar 1953, Mon The Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois) Newspapers.com

Effie’s fifth and final marriage was to Oscar C Peal. They married in Bethalto, Madison County, Illinois on October 16, 1953. 

  Marriage license issued to Oscar Peal and Effie Reddick 29 Oct 1953, Thu The Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois) Newspapers.com

Effie and Oscar remained married for the next 18 years, until Oscar’s death in October 1972.

Effie died in August 1992. She is buried in Diamond Grove Cemetery in Jacksonville, Illinois. You can view her memorial on Find a Grave.

My connection to Effie Mae is through Alex Nottoli. Previous to his marriage to Effie Mae, Alex was married to Marcia V Sanders. They married in June 1933, and divorced in May 1943. In October of that year, Marcia married my grandfather’s cousin, Paul Sebastian Kolk. Paul and Marcia divorced in November 1951.