Shirley's Extended Family: The Robbinses

Shirley mentions extended family often in her diary, because both her father's and her mother's families lived either in Muskegon County or in adjacent counties.  Several family members lived within walking distance, too.

Here's some background on Shirley's paternal grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins.  Her paternal grandmother was born Mary May Kimball in 1873, but she had many names.  Mary's mother, Lucy (Dickinson) Kimball, died when she was one week old, and her maternal Aunt Mary (Dickinson) and Uncle Phillip Weaver adopted her.  They already had a daughter named Mary, so three Marys in the household were probably too much!  She was nicknamed Lula after her mother.  Although never officially adopted, she went by the last name Weaver more often than Kimball until she married.

In 1892, Mary Kimball/Lula Weaver married Angelo Merrick Robbins who was born in 1874. They had seven children; six who survived infancy: Floyd Arthur (1893), Lloyd George (1894), William Bryan (1896; my great-grandfather and Shirley's dad, a.k.a Bryan), Reva L. (1898), Angelo Merrick Jr. (1904), a stillborn baby boy (1906); and Donald Charles (1914), another "bonus baby", born 10 years after his next-oldest sibling. 

The Robbins Family, 1917
Left to right: Mary Kimball/Lula Weaver Robbins, holding Don on her lap; Angelo Jr.; Lloyd; William Bryan; Angelo Sr.
Probably taken in Muskegon, shortly before Lloyd went off to war. Bryan followed the next year.
Not shown: Reva, who was mentally ill and institutionalized at the time.

By the time this diary was written in 1936, Angelo Sr. (1923); Floyd (1916); and Reva (1926) had all died.  Lula married Orlando Horace "Pat" Kenfield, a widowed farmer, in 1928 and was known ever after as "Grandma Kenfield".  She and Pat lived within walking distance of Shirley's family, just down the road and around the corner, so to speak.

Pat and Mary/Lula Kenfield
c. 1941
at their home at 2782 E Broadway, Muskegon Heights

Lloyd and his wife Josephine Huff lived in Grand Rapids, Kent County, where he worked as a carpenter in the construction industry.  They never had any children.  If they appear in this diary, it's not frequently, probably because they're much older and live further away.  This uncle is whom Shirley's brother Lloyd Jack was named for.

Angelo Jr., often called "Angie" or "Ang" and his wife Elsie Vogt, appear frequently in the diary.  They marry in the first month of 1936 and live close by.  Elsie seems to be a favorite aunt of Shirley's.  Don, although 10 years younger than Angie, married three years earlier, to Bertha Barringer.  They also live nearby, with their toddler, Don Jr. ("Sonny"), born in 1934.  Don Sr. often hung out with his nephew Bob, Shirley's oldest brother, as there were only six years' difference between them.

There may be a little bit of confusion that may occasionally need clarification throughout the diary: Shirley had more than one Uncle Don and Aunt Bertha.  Her mother, Marie Lewis, had siblings with those names.  We'll visit the Lewis family tomorrow.