G is for Gaulthair

Imagine at age 13 you are told that you are not the biological child. Imagine you are told that your "real" mother is Lydia Gaulthair and you father is Ramon Montoya.

You look at your parents with a blank stare and ask them to repeat what they just said. That's what my husband did when they told him.

Fast forward 30 some years. Gary asks me to see if I can find his missing parents. It's not like we haven't already tried to get information from his mother. She tells him Ramon Montoya was a one-legged Mexican man nicknamed Stumpy, and he took the other two children and fled to Mexico. We know there was another child after Gary who disappeared. We know, in fact, Lydia had 13 children but we don't know where to start looking. We have one picture. It is labeled Francie and Ricky. Gary thinks that's wrong because the little boy looks like him.

Ricky and Francie

I am good at genealogy and have been working on my family for years so I stop what I'm doing and start on his.

We do know that Lydia was the first cousin of his mother. By looking at Ancestry, I find two kids showing their mother as a Lida Gaulthair but have no way to verify it. I find another child who has passed away listing the mother as Lydia Gaulthair. I finally find a death record for Lydia which appears to be the same person. Dead ends everywhere I turn.

In desperation, I add another line to my tree listing Gary as a Montoya and the mother as Lydia. Not holding out much hope, who could possible be on Ancestry looking for the same person?

Three months later I get a message. It says "PLEASE CONTACT US LYDIA'S CHILDREN NEED INFORMATION ABOUT THEIR MOTHER I'M THEIR COUSIN"

Wow, beyond shocked we have an answer. They don't know it yet but they have contacted their missing brother. The cousin, Esther, is also shocked when I tell her. Ricky and Francie are no longer just a picture. They are very real people.

Gary, Frances and Rick

And since this is a really long story, here are the highlights. Ramon Montoya is not Mexican and has never been to Mexico. Stumpy is a nickname for another of Lydia's men and we found two more children with him. No one is missing a leg and everyone involved with Lydia lied. The three original children I found have been verified and except for the one who passed away, all the seven known kids have become family and we talk to them all the time. Lydia gave all of these children away and never looked back. Some went to foster care, one to an orphanage, and some were left with family.

We have five kids to go. We think some are Garcia. So I'm posting a picture of Lydia in hopes the remaining siblings can be found.

Lida Mae Gaulthair or Lydia Mary Gaulthair, born September 30, 1925, in La Farge, Wisconsin. Died March 18, 2002, in Dallas, Texas. Lived in Wisconsin, California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. First child born in 1941, last known child born in 1960.