Newspapers.com uncovers Craven family history

Note: Before the Family History Expo in November, the Star asked readers to submit family names to see what could be found on newspapers.com. There were many submissions, so we spent 30 minutes on some of them to see what we could find and will present several in the coming months.

We recently presented research on the family of Margaret Ernestine Craven in the column on March 11. Now we do the same for her husband, William Wallace Craven Jr.

Craven had the names of his parents, William Wallace Craven Sr. and Mary Gwendolyn Keating (she went by Gwendolyn), and knew where they had lived and that they married in the 1930s.

This is what we discovered in 30 minutes of searching:

Craven’s parents were married Jan. 8, 1934, in Chicago, according to announcements in Minneapolis newspapers. Gwendolyn Keating’s parents were Mr. and Mrs. William Howard Souder. There is a possibility W. Howard Souder was Gwendolyn’s stepfather since his name is different. That would be something to explore later. William Craven Sr.’s parents are Mr. and Mrs. Britt Craven.

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Mr. and Mrs. Britt Craven’s daughter, Ruth, was married to Matthew Fellner in 1935. Mary Vivian Keating, Gwendolyn’s sister, was married in 1936 to Ralph James McGuire.

William Craven Jr.’s grandfather Britt Craven, passed away in October 1962. His obituary in the Minneapolis Star named his wife, Jeannette, and children as survivors. William Craven Sr., our subject’s father, passed away on April 19, 1969.

William Jr.’s grandmother, Jeannette Craven, wife of Britt Craven, passed away in 1977, in Minneapolis.

We don’t have Jeannette Craven’s maiden name, nor do we have the name of Gwendolyn (Keating) Craven’s mother. Those are what we would search for next.