Jay C. Barker (1894-1958)

Jay C. Barker was born on August 16, 1894, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Julia Isabell Smith (1867-1936) and James Barker (1857-1918). He married Gertrude N. Mordecai on September 9, 1913, in Lake County, Indiana. They had one child during their marriage - James Benjamin Barker (1914-1964.)

Here is a portion of Jay C. Barker's ancestry tree. His family on the Smith side goes back to the Dunhams, and the early days of our country.  (You can read much more about the Dunhams elsewhere in this blog.)

He died on January 9, 1958, in his hometown at the age of 63, and was buried in Lemont, Illinois. It took me decades to actually find Jay and track down his grave and death certificate.

He is buried in Mount Vernon Cemetery in Lemont, Illinois, next to the first wife of his nephew, William R. Maschner.

The graves belong to his sister Amy Gertrude Barker (1896-1989), who had moved to Arizona by the time he died. Amy married William Maschner, thus the ownership of the grave, as I noted on my post in 2013. There is no headstone on his grave, but I am planning to put one there some day when I can save up the money.

Jay is my greatgrandfather, and my Dad was quite fond of his grandfather. When I began doing genealogy and asked my Dad about his family, he told me that -- had I been born a boy, he wanted to name me Jay, after his grandfather.

Here is Jay & Gertrude's 1913 marriage application:

Jay's father was James Barker (1857-1918) who was born in Manea, Cambridgeshire, England, and emigrated first to Ontario, Canada, and eventually to Chicago, His mother was Julia Isabell Smith (1867-1936) who was from East Gwillimbury, Ontario, Canada. You can reach much more about the Canadian side of the family, and my trip to East Gwillimbury to see their homes elsewhere in this blog.