Edlgar GILL & Helena DRAKE

#58 -Edgar GILL s/o #116 unknown & #117 unknown	#59 -Helena DRAKE d/o #118 unknown & #119 unknown
nickname-	nickname/also known as Helena McHUGH
Probable Ethnicity: English	Probable Ethnicity: English

Married

b	Liverpool, England	b 13 Apr 1859	Liverpool, England
d	TX?	d 1920	MO
bur	.	bur 1920	Meadows Cemetery, Bluff, Taney Co. MO
Hair:	Eyes:	Hair:	Eyes:
Height:	Weight	Height:	Weight:

Known Children

Name, Date of birth/death	Place of birth/death	Possible/Probable/Definite Marriage	Comments
#29-Margaret Elizabeth "Maggie" b 18 Mar 1876 d 23 May 1953	Brenham, Wash'ton Co. TX Kansas City, Jackson Co. MO	m 1st Joe COOK 1 Apr 1895 2nd #28-John BLANSIT 19 Mar 1899	married 1st as Maggie McHUGH; both marriages in Taney Co.
Henrietta "Etta" b after 18 Jul 1877	TX	Walter DYE b aft 18 Jul 1874 m 18 Jul 1895 Taney Co. MO	married as Etta McHUGH
Tom b bef 24 Aug 1880	TX	Ada BLANSIT md 24 Aug 1901	Ada the daughter of Maggie's husband, by his first wife. (See a picture of their son Lawrence and another mystery GILL)
Julie	TX	.	.
Arther/Arthur	TX	.	.

What We Know:

The story is this:
According to Ines BLANSIT HARRIS, granddaughter of Maggie and g-granddaughter of Edgar and Helena, all of these children were born in Texas. She was also the source of the names of the children. My best guess, at least on the 3 we know little about (Tom, Julie and Arther), is that these were either nicknames, or else at least the latter two died young.
Okay.
Helena supposedly came from a well-to-do "noble" family in Liverpool. She met Edgar, a poor school teacher/tutor, and against her family's wishes, they married. After being disowned, they left England and settled in Texas. "Brennan", TX.
And that's all there is.
Can't find a record of Edgar and Helena's marriage, can't find a census record of them, can't find them, period. Don't know who the apparent McHugh stepfather was; but Maggie, Etta, and "Tom"--probably not his real name--all married first under the surname of McHUGH. That's the name Helena's buried under, as well. Maggie's daughter Pansy's death record claims GILL as her mother's maiden name, adding to the confusion.
I don't know when the Gill/McHugh family came to Taney county, apparently settling in Jasper Township. McHugh is an Irish name, and if Helena married against tradition once, she'd do it again.
Greg says Ines told him that her father remembered Helena as being of a mean disposition. She wouldn't let the grandchildren call her "Granny" or "Grandma". She lived in Kansas City, but often visited Taney County and her family. I can't find any but John and Maggie in Taney, so maybe the others lived in Christian Co. Helena was supposed to be rich, from an inheritance of some kind. When I asked Greg if her family had forgiven her, he shrugged and seemed to think it was money from her last husband.
Then, maybe, Helena made the whole thing up. After all, she was a month shy of 17 when Maggie was born, if that date of birth is right. Maybe Helena's maiden name was GILL, and maybe she wasn't married until later in life, after having at least 3 children.
I'm going to have to do this the old-fashioned way, for after 2 years of online research, there is still nothing on these families, including uploaded GEDCOMS or LDS information. Rather odd, which makes me think somebody told a story, somewhere!

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