To Whom It May Concern

Posted a letter this morning to Osterhout Free Library.  While googling my grandmother last night, I found that her obituary might be available in their records.  I'd never have guessed.  Osterhout is in Pennsylvania but she died in Detroit, Michigan.  I'm thinking now that she may have been buried in Pennsylvania.  She was born and raised in Wilkes-Barre.  She is listed in the 1900 and the 1910 census there.  I've been unable to find an obituary in Detroit records.  Since she met my grandfather in Wilkes-Barre, I requested that they look for a marriage announcement as well. 

My grandmother, Mary, is listed in the 1910 census as a "fore lady" in a Lace Factory in Wilkes-Barre.  She was 22 years old at the time.  I assume that "fore lady" would be like a "fore man"....her younger brother, Robert, worked as an apprentice there.  Interestingly enough, she had another younger brother named Henry.  Years later, she named her second son (my father) Robert Henry.  Not to hard to figure out where she got the name from.

                          ( Photo of home in Wilkes Barre circa 1900's taken from Wikipedia )

I never knew my grandmother.  My father didn't know her well either.  She died of tuberculosis at the age of 48 when he was in his mid teens.  She had been divorced and was raising her two sons alone in a city far from her home.
I'm hoping that finding her obituary will lead me to other sources....like surviving siblings perhaps.  I have no photographs of Mary.  I hope to locate someone who may be able to provide me with one.  Right now, her appearance exists only in my imagination.