Frank and Harry Tapscott

 

A recent blog concluded that Sam and Susie Tapscott had four children, three girls (Viola, Julia, and Stella) and a boy (Austin). But then ended with

 We May Be Wrong!

 What brings on this declaration?

 On Mon 30 Dec 1946 a news article on a court case in Decatur, Illinois, was published in The Decatur Daily Review newspaper. Lola Flint of Paris  and Stella McLain of Terre Haute (.Samuel and Susie’s daughters Viola and Stella) had asked the court to declare their brothers, Frank and Harry, former Decatur residents who had been missing for more than fifty years, legally dead. Who in the world are, or were, Frank and Harry? And what sort of estate would they have inherited? They have not been identified in any document other than the Decatur newspaper. That they had not been seen for more than fifty years implies a birth year prior to 1896. One possibility is that one of them was Austin, who may have had a middle name Harry or Frank (or vice versa). Another possibility is that they were illegitimate children of Samuel, or even of Susie. Or, or course, they could have just been two additional children born to Susie and Sam in the 1880s or 1890s.

 What do you think?