I received in the mail another small mystery. My cousin sent me a book of poetry that belonged to my Great Grandmother, Italy M Bond Grimes. It is a small blue book, its pages steeped in time and blush colored from it. There are two inscriptions on this 1929 revised edition. (The one on the right looks to me to be written from an ink-well, or from a calligraphy pen. The one on the left looks as if it was from a ballpoint pen. Neither styles of handwriting are ones that I am familiar with, therefore I do not believe that it is either Italy's nor Dick Grimes' writing. When was this book given to Italy? Who gave it to her? Why? So, who are these Taylors? Why did they give Italy this book of poetry? A quick Google search for Dr. Gilbert H Taylor comes up with hits from across the US- Kentucky, Arizona, Michigan, Delaware, Maryland, Louisiana, etc. But I need to focus my current search just to Pennsylvania for now. Why am I narrowing down my search to that state only? I am using the date of the publication (on the copyright page inside) as the first possible year she could have been given the book. Italy passed away in 1955, so that narrows the dates down even more and we get a specific time period to look at - 1929 to 1955. During that period in her life, Italy lived in Pennsylvania, so we will start where she lived and look at neighbors, friends, people in her social circle, fellow members of church, etc. In this case, we have an address to go off of, in New Wilmington, PA. The I see one successful entry with Dr. Gilbert H Taylor in New Wilmington, PA. I click on it and it identifies that the Dr. Gilbert Taylor Memorial Scholarship is available, but no information about the man himself. I turn to Ancestry.com, since I have a current subscription and can search historical records from the comfort of my home. Again I see records from Michigan, Delaware, Louisiana, and more states which I do not want to explore at this time. I scroll down the long list until I come across a Pennsylvanian yearbook. It says Dr. Gilbert H Taylor was born in 1929. That doesn't sound right, so I keep looking, but find nothing else that seems to fit. I go back to the yearbook. It is a digitized 1952 yearbook for Westminster College. Westminster College is a prestigious, intimate college that happens to be within commuting distance to Bessemer, PA (where Italy lived). I click on the link and a bemused gentleman sitting in a suit grins sideways at me. I look to the pages before and after the picture and discover that this yearbook was dedicated (above picture, right) to Dr. Gilbert H. Taylor! It has a some biographical info and identifies his standing as a professor and globe-traveler. BINGO! Now I know why there were earlier hits in Michigan, Maryland, etc. I have found the man- but what about the woman - Francis W Taylor? The dedication indirectly mentions Dr. Taylor has a wife. In the second to the last paragraph "the Taylors' pet cat Catus Hogus" but does not name her. The Westminster College yearbook from 1947 mentions Dr. Gilbert H. Taylor again, chairman of the department of ancient languages - but no Mrs. Taylor is mentioned. Time for a different approach. From the pictures in the 1947 and 1952 yearbooks Dr. Taylor is a balding man. From my research he has been teaching since the mid to late 1920s. I will use these approximates to make a guess at his age, and try to find a death certificate for some time after 1952. After some searching I found a Pennsylvanian death certificate! TYes, this is definitely the right Dr. Taylor, retired college professor, widow and resident of New Wilmington, PA. There she is- Francis Williams Taylor! So now that we have this info- we can look more closely at her. A quick search on Newspapers.com (I used a free trial offer - but you subscribe to their service for a monthly fee) revealed 2,883,814 matches for Dr. Gilbert H Taylor. Francis W Taylor turned up 7, 769, 782 matches. I narrowed the search results down to PA between 1929 and 1962. The results I got were not great. I searched for Dr. Taylor and found a newspaper listing of their marriage in 1943. She was a musician, worked in a bank and graduated from Westminster College. But who was she? Is she the reason Italy got that book of poetry? When did Francis pass away? More info will need to be researched and gathered on this topic.
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