Mary Carney Hodges mhodges@raex.com
Sun, 09 Nov 1997
Bill, weeks ago you responded to my search for Kalamazoo Co Carneys. You are quite right there doesn’t seem to be any direct links but that odd bit of fate you mentioned about Lansing connections does seem to continue. In your diggings you may have come across a Claude Carney from Kazoo who was active in Dem politics ( sorry for the dirty word.) He was a lawyer and unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1912 and kept active , if not successful. But the rather wierd story I just heard from the only living older relative I have found might be fun to track and when I’m in MI next summer I hope to get over to Lansing. It seems in I think 1938 or 39 a member of the State Liquor Board died while in office. The Gov. appointed my grandfather, Claude. It was not too many months before he too died suddenly after a meeting. He had not been ill and my father, Herschel, and his brother, Fletcher, did not feel right about the death report. June Carney Bailey maintains that the family refused to let thier dad be buried until they had had all the medical test available to prove whether or not he had been poisoned or not. They apparently had strong suspicions and June maintains they were proved right. She says dad did it for their own peace of mind and did not intend to do anything about it for what ever reason. I had wondered why there was such a long time between death and burial, but I guess that could be 1 reason. June further added that Claude was the 3rd person to die in that office. I have no idea where to go for any info on a autopsy, but I expect the deaths of people in the office would be pretty easy for me to find. Fact or fiction it is at least an interesting extra bit from family searching.
Your web page is VERY good as I’m sure you know, it was helpful for me with the state wide marriages. Thanks. In this process I have turned up two distant cousins from our first MI Carneys and I’m sure there are more. My husband is envious of your closeness to the state library. Historians have this thing about libraries being perhaps the most important places in our public buildings. I’ve been a little cool to them all these years, but…genealogy has brought me around. We may see you for a cup of coffee next summer if you are still in Lansing.
bye- Mary Carney Hodges mhodges@raex.com