Beyond that we knew nothing.  Now, from the bowels of the Ramsey County Courthouse (actually the 6th floor, but close enough), we present here Harold & Hazel's divorce papers, along with related documents, from which we learn the following:

     In other words, Harold Jr. had just turned 11 when his mother walked out the door and never came back.  When Harold Sr. petitioned the courts for a divorce, Hazel did not challenge his claim for sole custody of their two children.  She did, however, ask for her tea set, telephone stand, and dishes.  Lacking marketable skills as far as we know, she had doubtless gone to live with her lover, Al Overwick, whose child she conceived some five months after deserting her husband and children.  No wonder Harry found it so hard to forge close emotional bonds with his own wife and kids.  Having your mother desert you at such a tender age is bound to create deep emotional scars.   (Left: earliest photo of Harry Schroeder that we've seen, age 23, taken on his wedding day, 19 Nov 1949.  Right: Harry in Jan 1999, three and a half years before his death in June 2002)  

     Harry's sister Betty Jean, on the other hand, seems to have transcended her mother's desertion and other childhood traumas, pouring her emotional energies into her husband Cliff, her three children Scott, Kathy, and Lisa, and her faith in God.  We remember her as a warm, giving, and loving person.  Another illustration, perhaps, that our emotional destiny is ultimately what we choose to make it.  (Left: Betty Jean Schroeder Tedmon at her home in Sacramento, California, July 1969)

     Regarding Hazel's death, Tom remembers that sometime in the mid-1990s he was at Harry's office for some business or other when he asked Harry about Hazel.  "Oh," Harry responded casually, "she died about ten years I think," before getting back to the business at hand.

     In fact, as we've seen (and thanks to the EagleEye and diligent research of Jean Morneau DeCoursey), Hazel died in May 1996-- right around the same time her son was telling his son that she'd been dead ten years, more or less.

Hazel's Ancestry

     So, we ask ourselves, who was this Hazel?  What was her birth surname?  What was her ancestry?  Where did her people come from?

     Let's retrace the path we followed trying to answer these questions.

      Hazel & Harold's divorce papers told us the date of their marriage.  That led us to their Ramsey Co MN marriage certificate ( ).  From this we learned that Hazel's name was Hazel M. Amons, and that Nell E. Amons (her sister?) witnessed the 18 January 1923 wedding in Duluth, Minnesota, along with Robert Van Arman.  

     After a lot of searching, Mike was able to find these folks, and their family, in the 1920 census ( ) in Superior, Wisconsin, a port city on Lake Superior just across the bay from Duluth.  Here's what the census data show:

    In this 1920 census, both Nellie and Hazel are listed as "granddaughters" of Sidney W. Van Arman, while John, Fitch, and Robert are Sidney's sons.  So, who were the parents of Nellie and Hazel?  Logic dictates that Nellie & Hazel's mother was one of Sidney & Martha's daughters, who married a German immigrant named Amans, and then either died or moved away, leaving her daughters living with their grandparents.  With this information we can take things further back in time:

     The 1910 census ( ) shows the same Van Arman family living in Superior, WI -- without Hazel or Nellie, but with Mabel Ammens (Amons), age 29 and married.  This Mabel must be Hazel's mother.  Curiously, her husband is not listed with her.  Neither are her presumed daughters, Nellie and Hazel.

     Taking things back ten more years to the 1900 census (   ), we see the same family in Superior, Douglas County, Wisconsin.  The data confirm that Mabel was the eldest daughter of Sidney and Martha Van Arman and very probably the mother of Nellie & Hazel:

     Let's summarize what we've learned thus far about Hazel's ancestry:

•      Hazel Amons Schroeder was born in Sept 1903 in Wisconsin, probably in Douglas County, to mother Mabel Van Arman Amons, born Oct 1882 in WI, and an unknown father Amons. 

•      Hazel's maternal grandparents were Sidney W. Van Arman & Martha Van Arman. 

      So now let's try to trace the ancestry of Hazel's maternal grandparents.

Sidney W. Van Arman    (Hazel's maternal grandfather)

•     1900 Census.  Sidney Van Arman, age 45, b. July 1855 in Wisconsin, both parents b. New York.  Wife Martha, b. Sept 1860 in Wisconsin, her father b. England, mother b. Connecticut.  Sidney & Martha started having kids in 1882 in Dane Co WI, with Mabel their eldest.

•    1880 Census ( ).  Sidney Van Arman, age 20, farm laborer in Burke, Dane Co WI, both parents b. NY.

•    1870 Census ( ).  Sidney Van Arman, age 15, village of Mazomanie, Dane Co WI, with father John V. Van Arman, age 39 (b. 1831 NY), "farming mill maker," his father born in the US; and mother Phylinda Van Armen, age 33 (b. 1837 in Vermont), and his sister Jennie, age 7.

•    1860 Census ( ).  Sidney Vannorman, age 5, Cottage Grove, Dane Co WI, only child of John Vannorman (age 27, farm laborer, father b. US) and Felinda (age 23), and uncles William (23) and Joseph (25).  Another Vannorman family two houses away:  headed by Hiram Vannorman (age 39, stone mason), wife Mary (30) and children Sarah (14), Jay (9), and June (4). 

     Thus it appears that Hiram (b. 1821), John (1833), Joseph (1835), and William Van Arman (1837) were brothers and/or cousins, all recent migrants to Dane Co Wisconsin from New York, probably arriving in the early 1850s.

     Van Armans are thick on the ground in NY state in 1850; there are several possibilities for our brothers/cousins Van Arman.

     Sidney's mother Felinda Van Arman, b. VT in 1837, might have been Felinda Huntoon, listed in the 1850 census as b. VT in 1838, living in Boston MA, only child of father J. S. Huntoon (age 60, laborer, b. NH) and mother Clarissa Huntoon (age 56, b. VT; she is the only person in the USA fitting Felinda Van Arman's profile).  There's a boatload of Huntoon's in New Hampshire in 1850.  Its ethnic origin is not yet known, though it may be a variant of the English surname "Hunton" (though we haven't yet confirmed Felinda's birth surname).

     The name Van Arman strongly suggests Dutch heritage.  The paternal side of the family traces back to at least the late 1700s, suggesting that these people had some pretty deep roots in the USA and, perhaps, British North America.  Remember how New York City and the Lower Hudson River Valley used to be called "New Netherland" until the English conquered it from Holland in 1664?  Remember that?  Ever been to New Amsterdam just outside Albany NY?  The Dutch in North America go, like, way back.

     We have Dutch ancestry???  So it seems, with Hazel's maternal grandpa Sidney.

Martha Van Arman  (Hazel's maternal grandmother)

•    1900 Census.   Wife of Sidney, b. Sept 1860 in Wisconsin, father b. England, mother b. Connecticut.  First child daughter Mabel, b. 1882 in Dane Co WI. 

•    Wisconsin Historical Society's online vital records index:  Marriage of Martha A. Pollard & Sidney W. Vanaarman in Dane Co WI, 25 Sept 1881 (marriage ID 1805997).  This jibes exactly with what we know of the beginning of Martha's childbearing years (eldest daughter Mabel b. Oct 1882).  It's got to be her -- which permits us, again, to go back in time:

•    1880 census ( ).  Martha A. Tallard (Pollard), age 18, b. Wisconsin, living in Cottage Grove, Dane Co WI, "servant," living with father George Tallard (Pollard), age 50, b. 1830 in England, laborer; mother Matilde Tallard (Pollard), age 38, b. 1842 in NY, parents b. England; and four younger siblings, all b. Wisconsin (Fred, 16; Frank, 12; Sarah, 9; and Allie M., 6).  Also in household George's mother Sarah Tallard (Pollard), age 79, b. ca. 1800 in England.  (Recall that Sidney Van Arman and his family lived in Cottage Grove, Dane Co WI in 1860.)

•      1870 census ( ).  Martha A. Pollard, age 9, b. Wisconsin; father George Pollard (age 32, farm laborer, b. England); mother Matilde (age 27, keeping house, b. England); grandmother Sarah, age 73; brothers Frederick, age 6, and Franklin, age 2.

     Thus the maternal line in Hazel's family, beginning with her grandmother Martha and going back into the mists of time, was apparently pure English.

     The ethnic background of Hazel's mother Mabel Van Arman was thus evidently half English & half Dutch.

      At this point we still didn't know anything about Hazel's father Amons, other than he was born in Germany, according to the 1920 census.

     So we went back to the 1920 census with the knowledge that Hazel's mother was named Mabel Amons, and that she was married to a German immigrant named Amons.   We finally found her and her husband ( ) living in Oakland Town, Douglas Co WI, with six children, born between 1906 and 1919 (predictably, Hazel & Nellie are not among them, since in 1920 they were living with their grandparents & uncles in the City of Superior, as we've seen).  Thus we discovered Hazel's father's name:

     How do we know this is the right Mabel Amans?  Because it jibes with the 1930 census, which shows Mabel Amans divorced, with her parents, brothers, and two of the same children (Lloyd and Grace) as appeared ten years earlier:

     Thus we discovered that Hazel had eight siblings!  Three sisters (Nellie, Grace, & Carol) and five brothers (Edward G., Harry, Frances, Lloyd, & Robert S.).  Who knew??  Let's list these siblings in their order of birth:

Children of Edward and Mabel Amons, 1901-1921, Douglas Co WI
Nellie E. Amons  (f)	b.	1901
Hazel M. Amons  (f)	b.	1903
Edward G. Amons  (m)	b.	1906
Harry Amons  (m)	b.	1912
Francis Amons  (m)	b.	1914
Lloyd Amons  (m)	b.	1915
Grace Amons  (f)	b.	1917
Robert S. Amons  (m)	b.	1919
[Leslie Amons  (m) *	b.	1919]
Carol Amons  (f)	b.	1921
*  Note:  all of these children except Leslie are listed in Mabel Amons' divorce complaint of December 1922; thus Leslie must have died between summer 1920 and December 1922, leaving Hazel with eight siblings.

 

     Mabel Van Arman must have married Edward Amons around 1901, the year of Nellie's birth, and stayed married to him until 1920 or 1921 at least, according to the data we've gathered so far.  Her divorce must've been between 1920 and 1930.  So we inquired with the Douglas County Clerk's Office, and sure enough her divorce papers still exist. 

     They show that Mabel and Edward were married on June 30, 1900, and that Mabel filed for divorce in 1922 alleging willful desertion, but never followed through with the paperwork.  Excerpts from her complaint for divorce are reproduced after Hazel & Harold's divorce papers.  Her complaint lists these nine children (all except Leslie, as noted above).  It also offers an exact description of the parcel of land that comprised the Amons farm.  And, an interesting version of Mabel's signature.

     So it turns out that Hazel was a farmer's daughter, the second of nine siblings, and that her father deserted her family in 1920, just as she was coming into adulthood.  Soon after this she must have moved to St Paul MN, where she met and married Harold Schroeder, nine years her senior.

     All of this is confirmed in the Minnesota Historical Society's Death Index online, which shows that she died on 26 May 1996 (Hazel M. Overwick, mother's maiden name Van Arman, b. 18 Sept 1903, d. 26 May 1996 in Anoka County, cert. no. 021009, record no. 2713029; the Social Security Death Index says her last residence was Minneapolis, SSN 473-26-6755).  

     This means Hazel lived to age 92, and almost outlived her son Harry, who died in June 2002 at age 76.

     For Hazel's sister Nellie E. Omans we find an online entry in the Wisconsin Historical Society for a girl b. 5 Oct 1901 in Douglas Co WI.  So of course Mike sent in the $15 for her birth certificate, from which he learned that the baby girl's full name was Nellie Engelina Omans, born at 1 a.m. on Oct 5, 1901 in West Superior, Douglas Co WI, to father Ed. Omans, a laborer born in Germany, and mother Mabel Veresman, born in Wisconsin.  Nellie was their first child.  (The midwife's name was Mrs. A. Bakka, and the birth was registered on Nov 5, 1901.)

     (We would post an image of the birth certificate here, but there's a red stamp on it that warns that it is illegal to make this document available to the public in electronic format, which is enough to give pause, though why on Earth posting this public, non-copyrighted document from the early years of the last century would be illegal is quite beyond us.  On the other hand the red stamp says nothing about making portions of the document available to the public in electronic format, and given our penchant for pushing the boundaries of copyright law and fair use doctrine at every opportunity (an idea Google stole from us!), we reproduce an electronic scan of Nellie's full name below:)

From the birth certificate of Nellie Engelina Omans, born 5 Oct 1901, birth registered 5 Nov 1901 in Douglas County, WI, reel 56, record no. 199, Wisconsin Historical Society

 

     There is no record of Hazel's birth in Wisconsin, at least that we could find after a thorough search of the Wisconsin Historical Society online index, which has complete county records up to 1907; there is an unnamed Amons, b. Douglas Co 1907, and an unnamed Oman b. 26 June 1904, which are the closest we could find (the latter might be Hazel, the registration made 15 months or so after her birth).  Nor is there a record of her mother Mabel's marriage to Edward Amons, at least in Wisconsin.  For some reason -- maybe because they were farmers -- all these events were flying under the vital statistics radar screen.

     One thing seems clear from all this:  Hazel evidently had a pretty unstable childhood and early family life.  We do not know where she lived or who raised her; we have no contemporaneous record of her until 1920, when she's in her late teens and living with her sister, maternal grandparents, and three uncles.  Yet her family life was not wholly dysfunctional; she was still part of her extended family, and she remained close enough to her sister Nell and Uncle Robert for them to witness her wedding in January 1923.  That the wedding was held in Duluth also suggests continuing family ties to the area.  Finally, we've opened up another can of worms with these Van Arman, Pollard, and Amons ancestral lines.  Who knows where those will lead?

  

The best photo we have of Hazel Mae Schroeder Overwick, summer 1973, taken by her son Harry Jr. at his home in St Paul; half a dozen such shots were taken, seemingly from as far a distance as possible.  On the right escorting Hazel through the backyard drink in hand, Diplomat Extraordinaire Betty Schroeder)

 

     These contexts established, and bearing in mind what we've learned about Hazel's ancestry, family life, and early years, we turn to Harold & Hazel's depressing, redundant, and revealing divorce file.   (All documents dated 24 April 1939)

The Documents   

Supplementary Documents:    Hazel's Mother's divorce complaint

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