NOTE: Before I got around to making this post public – I figured it out. When you look at the record book pages below the date stamp on the left does not match the wedding or return date all the way on the right. The pages are out of order. How did I discover this? Well, I did some search through local records and saw that Denis Margaris was married to a Velva Miller Williams…and was like wait. I have her married to Henry Sanders later…so I looked at both images and realized the the page with the groom (left page) and page with the bride (right page) are not matching up. The Jan 1921 stamp on the grooms page below matches with the Jan 1921 date of Denis Margaris and Velva Williams marriage. And the November 1920 stamp on the other record book (NOT pictured below) matches with the Nov 1920 date of Henry and Florence’s marriage. I’ll admit I was a little disappointed that there was no crazy scandal and that we are in fact, not Greek at all, but also happy that there was no crazy scandal and everyone can go on thinking their parents and grandparents were exactly who we thought they were. Anyway, I decided to still post this because I still want to know more about Florence and also to show how easy it is to get wrong info while searching your family history. -Kassie
Florence is not a complete mystery to me, but I don’t know much. She is my grandmother’s (Shirley) grandmother. Here is what I do know…
Florence M DuPrez was born April 28, 1903 in Muscatine, Iowa to Paul Edwin DuPrez, age 20, and Ida M (Rehmel) DuPrez, age 18. She had one younger brother, Harold, born in 1906.
On November 20, 1920 she got married to…well, for now we will just say to Henry August Sander (more on this later). They moved to Davenport, Iowa and she had two children. Richard Sander, born in 1922 and Dorothy Mae Sander (my great grandmother), born June 5th 1923.
According to the 1925 Census, the family lived in Pleasant Valley, Iowa.
On May 8, 1927, her father, Paul Edwin, passed away at the age of 44.
On May 12, 1931 Florence passed away at the young age of 28 as the result of a car accident.
Also, who is Elmer Kundert? And, I need more information on this car accident.
Okay, so here is what I find confusing – I found two records about her marriage. Same date, two different men. Henry Sander is the man my grandmother called her grandpa – so that is what we have always known. The other record I found while doing research on Ancestry.com. Maybe it’s wrong? I don’t have a clue.
The record is the first entry on the pages below. The image is a bit small, so I included some close ups of the entry.
Groom: Denis Margaris; Residence: Davenport, IA; Occupation: Hatter. Hatter? Like he makes hats? Ok I’m not done. Groom’s place of birth: Patros, Greece.
WHO IS DENIS MARGARIS? Maybe that should be the title of this post. Ha.
K, still not done. Over on the far right, item 22. Witnesses. Mrs. Henry Sander …as in Henry August Sander’s mother!? Is this entry a mistake…or did my great great grandmother, Florence DuPrez, marry a 40 year old greek man when she was 18?
Here’s the thing. I have a “text entry” from ancestry.com tell me that on this very same day, November 20, 1920, Florence Mae DuPrez married Henry August Sander. And what I mean by a “text entry” is that I don’t have an image like the one above. Not from anything. I have an image for when Henry married his second wife, but nothing for Florence Mae. So.
What is going on?!
This obviously requires more research. I am going to try to get a copy of a marriage certificate for both of these marriages. Supposedly, they both happened in Davenport, so maybe I can even get it through Scott County instead of the State. One reason I feel the need to absolutely figure this out is I’ve taken the ancestry DNA test and it came back with trace amounts of Greek. And we are all like…oh, that’s probably nothing, because we have no Greeks in our family. Or do we?
Okay, so like I said in the note at the start of the post, this mystery is now solved. But, I would still like more info on Florence DuPrez – mainly stories about her life. If you have any, please contact me!
-Kassie
ONE GINGER'S GENEALOGY 
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