Back in January, I posted a brief bio on Charles Bausman, the brother of Nicholas Bausman Jr.  (Nicholas was my maternal grandfather’s grandfather.)  Since then I’ve learned a bit more.

Late last year, I contacted the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives in Butte, Montana, to see if they had any information on Charles.  Since he served as an Alderman of the Fourth ward, I thought there might be a chance they would have something.  Well, most of the information they sent I already knew , but they did access the school census records from 1890-1893.  I had the name of Charles’ wife as Lucy S. Roy, and according to the 1900 U.S. Federal Census she had two children. I didn’t think that they were Charles’ children since they were born before the date of their marriage. But I wasn’t positive since census data can be off.

Anyway, the school records provided the names and ages of Lucy’s children: Lyman and Pearl.  The first names of her children, specifically Lyman, was all I needed to unravel a mystery.

Since Lyman is an uncommon name, I looked for a Lyman living in Butte, Montana, in the 1880 and 1900  U.S. census records.  I used FamilySearch.org, since it has a fantastic filtering tool. MUCH better than Ancestry.com. Plus it’s FREE!! I discovered a Lyman Royce living in Butte.  A promising lead since he was the right age.

I also searched through newspapers and found a bunch of articles on Lyman, his sister, mother, and other relatives. I discovered his mother’s name was Lucy (Webb) Royce, and yes, she was married to Charles.  I also found Pearl Royce’s marriage certificate, which listed Charles as a witness.

Being able to confirm that Lucy was Charles wife was great.  The icing on the cake is that Charles had some NUTTY in-laws.  I can’t wait to share the insanity that were the Webb sisters.  Usually I wouldn’t care about in-laws but you know the saying that truth is stranger than fiction?  That sums up the antics of his in-laws.