A Mysterious Album and the Retallic and Blake Families of Pike County, Illinois

This story is not about my family. It's about a family entirely unconnected to mine. In 2021, I found an old photograph album at a local antiques shop. It was behind glass in a cabinet, but the page I could see contained 1800s-era photos, all clearly labeled with names. Scrolling through Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org on my phone, I could see that the people in the photos were easily identifiable. The album was expensive, but I couldn't bring myself to leave it there. It felt important to return it to a family member. I took it home, set up a family tree on Ancestry for the people pictured, added scanned photographs, and then reached out to a woman who had many of those people in her public tree. A short time later, I put the album in the mail to New York, where a very kind and grateful descendant was eager to receive it. That album contained the first photo of her great-grandparents that she'd ever seen.

While that experience was incredibly gratifying, I wasn't planning to repeat the effort. As fun as it was, it was also expensive and time consuming. Then, while browsing an online auction site for something completely unrelated, I stumbled across another album. Again, it was filled with 1800s-era labeled photos. I couldn't resist. I bought the album. Due to life craziness, it took me many months to actually open the box containing the album, but when I finally did, a mystery unfurled. The contents of this album provided all the highs and lows a genealogist might encounter, from outrageous stories to brick walls to big breakthroughs, and the realization that it's likely every single online tree related to this family is wrong. Come along for this one, it's quite the ride.

Adelle Retallic

Adelle Retallic

When you first open an album with notations, it's important to determine who wrote those notes. If photos are listed "Dad" and "Aunt," it helps to know who was calling those individuals their father and aunt. The owner of this album became obvious pretty quickly. The very first photo was of Adelle Retallic, who figured prominently in the rest of the album, too. Adelle was born in December 1884 in Pike County, Illinois. It was immediately clear from records searches that her family lived in Barry, Illinois for several generations. The second photo was of Adelle's father, Thomas A. Retallic, and was helpfully labeled, "Dad (T.A. Retallic)." Other relatives I could see in online trees also featured in the album. I started building a Retallic tree from scratch based on records found primarily on Ancestry.com. Quickly, I had some issues. The album was filled with photos of family members with the surname Blake, including a woman Adelle identified as her mother. Online trees listed Adelle's mother as any of three or four women, none of whom were Blakes. In fact, there wasn't a Blake to be found in any of the online trees related to the Retallic family. Why did I have an album full of Blake and Retallic photos if the families were not connected? Something was not adding up properly.

Thomas A. Retallic

Thomas A. Retallic

Thomas Retallic was married multiple times. Users on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org reported that he had 4-6 children, depending on which family tree I reviewed, and anywhere between 4-7 wives. Three of those wives might have been named Mary. At first glance, it was a huge mess. None of the trees agreed with each other. Actual sources, such as census records and marriage registrations, seemed to conflict. There are two FindAGrave.com listings for Thomas, each of which identifies different spouses and in-laws. I could tell there was going to be a significant amount of sleuthing required with this family.

                                        Leland and Lavin Retallic                           Frank Retallic

Roscoe Blair

Frank, Lavin and Leland Retallic -- plus Roscoe Blair?

There are multiple photos in the album of young children. At first, I just noted their names to see if I could locate them in existing family trees with Adelle and Thomas. There are enough photos of them that they were clearly important to Adelle, and likely closely related. However, online sources were a jumble when it came to how these children were connected to Adelle. It seemed clear that Frank Retallic was Adelle's brother. Multiple trees listed them as the children of Thomas Retallic and Nancy Ella Hoyt, but some claimed their mother was Mary Blair or Mary Blake. Lavin and Leland Retallic were typically listed as the twin sons of Thomas Retallic and Dora Blair, and they sadly died in 1887 aged about eight months. The only connection to Roscoe Blair was found on FindAGrave, where he was listed as the firstborn child of Dora Blair, from a previous marriage. Roscoe also died before his first birthday. The actual relationship of these children to each other, if any, seemed to be a bit of a mystery.

Frank Retallic and sister Adelle Retallic

The Many Marriages of Thomas Retallic

These are the documented marriages of Thomas Retallic:

1- Mary Radcliffe - Mary and Thomas were married on May 16, 1878 in Fayette, Ohio according to Ohio, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1774-1993 (Fayette 1874 - 1888). It appears that Mary was about 21 years old, and Thomas was 24 when they wed. Mary died two years later in 1880, at the age of 23. They had no children. Thomas and Mary appear together in the 1880 U.S. Census, living in Barry, Illinois, prior to her death.

2- Mary M. Blair - Thomas married again on September 18, 1881. Illinois, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1800-1940 lists his spouse as Mary M. Blair and the location as Pike County, Illinois.

3- Mary Anna Carroll - This spouse's name may have been Maria Anna, as she is listed in
llinois, U.S., Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield Sacramental Records, 1853-1975 or Mary Anna, as she's listed in Illinois, U.S., Marriage Index, 1860-1920. Mary, the widow of a man with the surname Carroll, married Thomas Retallic on March 5, 1889. This marriage was also brief, as Thomas' next marriage took place in 1892, just three years later.

4- Nancy Ella Hoyt - Nancy went by her middle name, Ella. She married Thomas Retallic on July 12, 1892, according to Illinois, U.S., County Marriage Records 1860-1920. Thomas was age 38 and Ella age 31 at the time of this marriage. Ella was the widow of Charles E. Mayes, whom she had married in 1881. The 1900 U.S. Census shows three children living with Thomas and Ella, Adelle Retallic, Frank Retallic, and Vie Mayes. Vie was not pictured in Adelle's album, so this was a new addition to the tangled Retallic web. Ella can also be found in the 1910 and 1920 U.S. Census in Thomas' household. Ella died in 1921, after 29 years of marriage, making this the longest of all the Retallic unions.

5- Anna C. Richards - In 1923, Thomas married Annie Richards, the widow of William Wassill and Ezekiel Blades, according to records found in Illinois, U.S., County Marriage Records 1800-1940. Thomas was 69 and Annie was 68 when they married, so Annie’s only child, Harry Wassill, had long since moved away and started his own family. Thomas and Annie appear in the same household in the 1930 and 1940 U.S. Census. Thomas died in 1944 at the age of 90, after 21 years of marriage to Annie. Annie died three years later, in 1947.

Dora, Dora, Dora

If that isn't enough wives to give one pause, online trees also featured another wife named Dora Blair, who is clearly listed as the wife of Thomas Retallic and mother of Lavin and Leland Retallic on her tombstone. FindAGrave and innumerable online trees listed her as the daughter of Theophilus Blair and Rebecca Farthing, and sometimes the mother of children named Roscoe Blair and Gracie Holloway. I couldn't find documentation of this marriage, nor a gap between Thomas' other marriages that seemed plausible for Dora to insert herself, however. Nothing about Dora made sense. 

Having hit a point where the records were spinning me around in circles, I abandoned my search and went back to my source of truth, Adelle's album. I had looked at it rather hastily at first, simply jotting down names that appeared in the album and then turning to the internet. This time, I looked more carefully. I removed photos from their places to see what was on the back. I got out a magnifying glass to clearly identify old handwriting on torn pages. This is who Adelle labeled in her album:

• T. A. Retallic (Dad) - Age 36
• Medora Blake Retallic (Mama) - Age 28
• Leland and Lavin Retallic - Twin Brothers
• Roscoe Blair - Half Brother
• Frank Retallic 

Retallic family members pictured included Uncle Jim Retallic, Grandma Retallic, Aunt Mary Retallic, and Kate Retallic Winemiller.

Blake family members pictured and labeled included Grandma Blake, Grandpa Blake, Milo Blake, and Randall and Troy Blake.

Adelle had indicated that she Frank, Leland and Lavin were all the children of one mother whose surname was Blake. In noting that Roscoe Blair was her half-brother, Adelle told us that her mother had an earlier marriage to a man named Blair, which resulted in a child named Roscoe Blair. Like the twins, Roscoe died in infancy. Perhaps finding information about this marriage would unravel the mystery of Adelle's mother.

I located a 1875 marriage record for a Calvin Blair and Dora Blake. [Source: Illinois, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1800-1940.] Calvin was the son of Samuel and Eliza Blair of Pike County, and he died in 1880 at the age of 28, not long before his infant son Roscoe. This meant that his widow, Dora Blake Blair, would have been able to marry Thomas Retallic in 1881. However, Thomas Retallic's marriage registration in 1881 had said his bride's name was Mary M. Blair, not Dora. Could Dora and Mary be the same person? To figure this out, I looked more carefully at the name Adelle had handwritten for her mother on a torn edge of the album: Medora Blake. Not once in perusing online trees and records had I seen the name Medora, but Adelle's note turned out to be the key to unraveling this family mystery. Adelle would certainly have known her mother's name. I ran a search for a Medora Blake in Pike County.

In the 1860 U. S. Census, Leander and Mary Blake can be found in their Barry, Illinois home with six children, including 2-year old Mary Blake. Ten years later, in the 1870 U.S. Census, 12-year old Medora Blake is listed in their household. Mary Medora Blake shared a first name with her mother, and as was common, did not use that name, but went by her middle name, Medora. She was called Dora for short. This Dora married Calvin Blair in 1875, becoming Dora Blair. She provided her legal name in 1881 when she married Thomas Retallic, Mary M. Blair. This means that Medora Mary "Dora" Blake was the mother of Roscoe Blair, Adelle Retallic, Frank Retallic, and the twins Leland and Lavin Retallic. 

Working my way up the Blake family tree, I found the other individuals featured in Dora's album. Milo Blake was Dora's cousin, the son of her father's brother, Jeremiah Blake. Randall and Troy Blake were Dora's youngest brothers, from her father's second marriage. All the pieces fit together now.

Mary Medora Blake Blair Retallic -- "Dora"

Gracie and Vie

While I was now confident about the identity of Adelle's parents and siblings, there are a couple of names that appear frequently in related family trees that I excised from mine. Some online trees show Dora Blair marrying a John Holloway and having a daughter named Grace. This Dora Blair is not the same person who married Thomas Retallic. While I'm not entirely certain, I believe that John Holloway's wife was Dora, the daughter of Theophilus Blair and Rebecca Farthing. That Dora was born about 1862, making her 4-5 years younger than Dora Blake Retallic. I believe the younger Dora married John Holloway in 1880, when the U.S. Census shows her living in the Holloway household in Spring Creek, Illinois. Their daughter, Grace Mae Holloway, was born in 1883. It appears that Dora died in 1885, at the age of 28. That was three years before Dora Blake Retallic died and was buried with her twin sons. Sadly, it appears that John Holloway also died around that same time, and young Gracie went to live with her grandmother, Rebecca Farthing Blair. The 1900 U. S. Census finds them living together in Pearl, Illinois. Grace later married Otis Sowers. She was not related to the Retallic and Blake families.

Vie Mayes, who appears in the 1900 U.S. Census with Thomas Retallic and his wife Ella, was born Elvira Mayes, the daughter of Nancy Ella Hoyt and her first husband Charles Mayes. When her widowed mother married Thomas Retallic, Vie, who was then about 10 years old, moved into their household. The census clearly states that Ella had one child, and that Vie was the stepdaughter of Thomas, the head of household. Vie later married Charles Johnson, a prominent local doctor. Johnson was murdered in 1922, shot by a deranged patient. His funeral was said to have been the largest funeral ever held in Pike County, with 1500-2000 citizens attending.

The Album

I had started with a tangled web and now had a Retallic and Blake family tree that made sense and was well sourced. The problem? The other Retallic and Blake trees tell a different story, and Dora is misidentified in all of them. I feel a little overwhelmed at the prospect of reaching out to so many people and sharing updated information about this family. 

I'm not sure how to determine who should have this photo album. These were Adelle's photos, so my first inclination is to find one of her descendants to contact. Adelle married George C. Berry in Pike County in 1904. They had two children, Marjorie Berry and Thomas Retallic Berry. Marjorie married Charles Neuberger and they had two children. Their daughter, Joan Neuberger, did not marry or have children. Their son, Thomas Neuberger, married Shirley Hardin. They had five children, four of whom are still living, and all or most of whom have children of their own.  

Adelle's son, Thomas Retallic Berry, married Alice Boyd and they had a daughter, Nancy Jane Berry. Nancy married Robert Delaney, and they had six children, all of whom may still be living. This means there are a number of Neuberger and Delaney family members out there who may be interested in this album. However, I suspect someone in these families also discarded the album, which is how it ended up at an auction house and then in my possession. I want to ensure I locate someone who is interested in their family history and will find the album meaningful. There are so many descendants that I'm not quite sure where to start. Like the last album, I have full faith that this one will make its way back to a family member, and I am honored to be a part of that process. I am not related to the Retallic and Blake families, and I have no idea how this album ended up in California, so far from its Illinois origins. Looking at the carefully written inscriptions next to well-kept photos, I feel I owe it to Adelle to help this album find its way home.