I find this fascinating but someone else may not.  I have written a journal on the Everts and Crites family and cannot even find my own mothers birth certificate.  Her older brother Ross Crites, was indexed at the Clerks office as CRITZ.  Her name was Stella Mae, so it is probably listed as ELLA MAY CRITZ.

My mothers name is Stella Mae Crites (or Critz, same doctor delivered she and Ross) Everts, born March 24, 1901 in Coffeen, Illinois.  Ross Critz, born March 26, 1900 in Coffeen, Illinois.  Ina and Louisa Crites born December 28, 1902  at 1501 North Jackson Street, Litchfield.  Hazel Blanche born March 25, 1905 on North Douglas Street, Litchfield. and James Crites born September 23, 1910 in Hillsboro.  There is no birth certificate filed for my mother Stella, (some other name perhaps), nor one of the twins, Ina.  And there are two kids missing completely as having never been born.  Ross is first, Stella is second, Ina and Louisa are 3rd? (I will never understand that!) Hazel is 4th and James is seventh.  No one in the family has the faintest idea of what happened between 1905 and 1910 and who the 5th and 6th kids are.

Hazel lived one month and 23 days and she is the only one with a filed death certificate in Montgomery County although Louisa, Ina and Hazel all died there.  Stella died in Macoupin, James died in Cape Girardeau, Missouri and no one has ever found ROSS CRITZ.

The Crites side of the family is mostly from Montgomery, Macoupin, and Pike Counties. The Everts side of our family is mostly from Madison County.

The 1910  census for Montgomery County in Hillsboro, Illinois shows the following:

James Crites and Myrtle Crites him 36 and her 33, (their AGES are incorrect).  Living on School Street 4 Ward Hillboro. Son James Crites Jr 12, Son Lester Crites 9, Son Henry Crites 4. We have a conflict of Crites so to speak.

My mother, daughter of Jim and Myrtle was  born in 1901 and was 9 years old in 1910 and the FIRST BORN child of Myrtle.

Followed by: No. 2, Ina b. 1902 followed by, No. 3, Louise b, 1902 Yes twins, No. 4. Hazel, No number five child, (Lester?) No B/c IN Hillsboro, and none for the next one, No number six child (Henry?), No. 7. James Crites born in Hillsborn in 1910, No 8, Myrtle Crites born in Quincy Il (Adams County) in 1915. I have the birth certificates of the first 4 kis and the last two kids of Myrtle Crites. I don't have five and six because they don't seem to exist.

In the 1920 census it shows the following in Quincy: Ross, 19 (All of a sudden I get an Uncle Ross.?), James, 9, Dorothy 4. By 1910 Louise and Hazel had died. Ina was to die in 1917. Stella had married in 1917.

Here's the clincher. In the 1900 census it had John and Eliza Crites, their son Jim and his wife Myrtle. (showed one child born and one living in 1900; no gender and no name and no age) and Ben Wheeler, Myrtles Dad.  Who was listed as a widower except he was divorced by his wife years before and was a divorced man.

I'll end this as a mystery. Was James married before?  On their wedding license on the back side it has a smudge where it shows number of marriages and 1st in large writing is written over an almost invisible "2".  Myrtle Wheeler Crites was authorized by her father to get married under the age of 18 but Ben Wheeler did NOT sign it. It was signed by an unknown woman (to me anyway) and John Crites.  Myrtle was listed as being 17 in 1899 and James was listed as 26.  She was born in 1884 and he was born in 1874 and she was 14 in 1899 at the time of marriage (census came later) And if that OLDEST child is hers, it must have been, (all together now). OH YEAH???  What happened to James Jr of the 1910 census who was 12 years old making him born in 1897,  It was NOT Myrtles child if Stella was her number one child who was born Mar 24, 1901, as a matter of fact. Jim and Myrt were bound in marriage on 5/30/99 and cheese is also  binding.  (My humor shineth through). and even more so when I searched for 4 years and finally Barb Heflin found her.  Her true given names are Lilly Myrtle Crites Everts.  It was the first time I ever heard of LILLY.

I am 76, a minister, an ex-records searcher in the Courthouses for 20 years and I just thought you ladies might like to read this.  It is out of my book on Everts/Crites, a family.

Rev. Dewey Leon Everts Jr.
Santa Barbara CA 93101.

I almost forgot; Myrtle died in 1931, her mother Maggie, died in 1933, (under her new name, Goodan) both in QUINCY. evergeal@webtv.net.

© Debbie Quinn - all rights reserved