Since I have started researching my genealogy about a year ago, I’ve discovered vast swaths of people I had no idea existed, but who are cousins of mine in some capacity or other. This is something of an academic exercise, as I don’t imagine ever meeting any of these people. (Actually, in most cases, that would be impossible anyway because they’re dead.)
Ancestry makes it easy to pore through the meat of government documents, such a Census, military and Social Security records, which gives you information regarding who was married to whom; Where did they live?; Did they have children, and how many?; When and where did they die? Over generations, it’s possible to see the growth and development of a family, or sometimes, the coming-apart of a family. It’s quite remarkable what you can deduce from the little information you get from these public records.
However, not everybody gets married and has a family. As a gay man, I am curious with regard who else in my family was gay. When I run across a life-long bachelor or spinster, I have to stop and wonder if this person was LGBT, and if so, consider how constricted his or her life was.
I have discovered one somewhat distant and obscure cousin who, just from a reading of the public documents, was unquestionably gay, and I’ll tell you what I have deduced of his story below the fold.
But first, a word from our sponsor!
Here at Top Comments we strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!
This particular family member was named Edward Kreiling. He was a first cousin to my grandfather, but we didn’t even know that that branch of the family existed until last year. I don’t remember either my father or my grandfather even mentioning them. I doubt it was anything dramatic, like a family schism. I suspect it was just that once the previous generation had passed, they had fewer reasons to contact each other and just fell out of touch.
I have a total of 8 public documents on Edward Kreiling: Census records from 1910, 1920 and 1930; an Army enlistment record from World War II; death records from Social Security, The U. S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and the State of California; and an item from the Vallejo (CA) Times Herald. Yet it’s pretty clear from these records that Edward was gay.
In the Censuses of 1910 and 1920, he is, of course, listed as living with his family in Baltimore, respectable people of German stock. His two older brothers went into business together, but Edward was having none of it. The 1930 Census finds him living in a boardinghouse in Los Angeles, supporting himself as the manager of a dry goods store. As you might imagine, it wasn’t the management of dry goods that brought him to Los Angeles. It was Hollywood, and dreams of becoming an actor. This is confirmed by the Army enlistment record, which lists him as being in the profession of “actors and actresses.” However, a search through IMDB comes up empty. He never did make it big.
He died in San Diego in 1974. Presumably, at some point, he got tired of chasing a career that had never even started, and moved to the quieter, but still sunny, city to the south to live out the remainder of his life in some peace. There’s evidence that he did do some acting in San Diego. The Old Globe Theater in Balboa Park has his head shot in its archive, so it’s reasonable to assume he performed in productions there.
How did I know he was gay? First, he never married. Second, he was drawn to the theater and a career in acting, as happens with many gay men. The final clue that made Edward’s sexuality undeniable, however, was learning how he died. I discovered this bit of information last week, and it’s the item from the Vallejo Times Herald, copied here. (Why this story appeared in a newspaper in a town 500 miles north of San Diego is a real puzzle to me.)
It was shocking to discover he had been murdered in his own apartment. Apparently, he had invited the wrong person home. It’s not clear whether that person was a homophobe specifically out to lure a queer into a compromising position and then kill him, or if a situation arose with the other person that got out of hand for other reasons. While the item ends stating “there was no evidence of robbery,” it is also noted that his car was missing.
This sort of violence, often ending in death, was not all that uncommon to the LGBT community. While transgender people still suffer great harassment and violence at the hands of transphobes, I think this sort of violence has lessened for gay and lesbian people for a variety of reasons. Homophobia has lessened in the past few decades, and the secrecy of the closet, which allowed these sorts of crimes to sometimes go unnoticed or unquestioned, has been blown up, for the most part.
I also wonder how it was that a 69 year old gay man who presumably had decades of experience navigating the gay world would have let his guard down long enough to let in a killer. Still, he might have just been lonely.
Any recent surprises in your family tree?
Now, onto the comments.
Top Comments (September 21, 2017):
From thurayya:
howabout drew attention to this comment by grannycarol and suggested it be sent to Top Comments. I agree! From 2thanks’ recommended post updating us on the health of BFSkinner.
From Chris Reeves:
Mr. Bojangles tells the story of an encounter between police and a mentally ill man, and how the responses of the officers differed depending on their levels of experience. From Chris’ recommended post on another police killing of a disabled man.
From your humble diarist:
KenBee tells the story of how his Republican doctor came around to understand over the years that single payer is what has to happen in this country. From otto’s recommended post about how some dude pasted the National Review’s attempt to take down Jimmy Kimmel.
Top Mojo (September 20, 2017):
Top Mojo is courtesy of mik! Click here for more on how Top Mojo works.
Top Photos (September 20, 2017):
(I don’t know why the photo quilt has so many holes in it. Maybe the Russians hacked in and removed all the pooties?)