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Of all the funeral cards, that circulate out there, I wonder how many ever find their way back to the families of origin. A simple funeral card is the summation of a life lived.
Enjoy the discovery process.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Della Edwards Dyche & her daughter Erma Dyche Kelly

The funeral card of Della Dyche is currently up for bidding on Ebay.  Every name a researcher discovers has its own path to a story.  Please allow me to share a few clues along the way.  A wise approach to locating a person that died before the year 1900, is to start with the known facts.  The adage, "Start with the known and move forward to the unknown," is applicable here.  What are the known facts that the funeral card provides?  The first clues were her name at the time of her death as Della Dyche and the date she died, November 19th, 1898.  Further examination of the funeral card yields valuable information, the poem and importantly from its memorial phrase we learn that she was a wife and mother at the time of her death :
Farewell, husband dear, farewell,
Adien, farwell to thee;
And you, my dear little babe,
Farwell, farwell to you.
Our mother is gone and we are left,
The loss of her to mourn,
But we hope to meet with her,
With Christ before God's throne.

The next clue available is the card is for sale by seller redfish22 of Magnolia, Montgomery, Texas.  At the turn of the century, Dyche is an uncommon name in Texas and the family tended to clustered in Denton County (north of Dallas). 
At Find-a-Grave, the tombstone of Della Dyche was located at the Bellew Cemetery in Denton County, Texas.  Her epitaph reads wife of W. E. Dyche. Next step in the 1900 Census, I traced two different William Dyche individuals but their criteria didn't match.  A second look at Denton County in the census, I was able to locate Edwin Dzche, residing as widowed son-in-law with the Noah Edward's family.  With the Edwards family also resides a granddaughter, Erma Dyche born August 1895.  To connect the Dyche and Edwards family, I looked for a family tree and found The Hyde Sides by Dan Hyde.  Although, later, I find discrepancies in his tree, Mr. Hyde is accurate about the Dyche/Edwards family connections.  From his information, we learn the complete name of our subject, Josephine Idella Delta Edwards, wife of William Edmund Dyche. By 1910, daughter Erma is residing with her uncle Henry Edwards and her father has remarried and moved to Dallam County in the Texas panhandle.
Erma Dyche married Carl Kelley sometime before 1920. Their only child is named Joseph Dyche Kelly.  Erma named her son after her parents, Josephine Della & William Dyche.  The next most sought after document for a genealogist is a death certificate and fortunately the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, Family Search Record Search had a free copy that had been indexed by volunteers.  On the death certificate, the informant is her son, Joe Kelly.  Most likely the card has been passed down through Joe Kelly's lineage .  And now, the funeral cards sits on an Ebayer's shelf pending to be sold.  Will it be rescued?
Update: Mr. Dan Hyde to the rescue--he is currently bidding on the funeral card.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi There~
My apologies for not replying to your email sooner.
I wanted to thank you for sending this message.
What a wonderful thing you do!
I read your blog and was really impressed~ Your research must be very interesting and rewarding~
My mourning card sold and did well and I have to think it was because of you!
So...Thank you!
I actually acquired quite a bit of documentation from the Dyche family so I knew a little bit of the information you listed on your blog...but not the entire story.
Thanks again!
Keep up the GREAT work~
Traci

Caroline said...

What a coincidence! Yesterday, I rescued Erma Dyche & Carl Kelly's Marriage License and a photograph from ca. 1897 of Erma & her parents at a local antique store in order to research & possibly find descendants who might like it. At the antique store were many items of Erma & Carl's son's [Joseph Dyche Kelly's,] like a childhood drawing of his, his high school & college graduation invitations, etc. He graduated Texas Tech in 1931 as an engineer, and for a time lived in Houston, Texas.

~Caroline Pointer
Family Stories

Dee said...

Caroline - Wow! It is amazing that you have found additional documentation regarding the Dyche family. Thank you for sharing.
Dee