This was the beginning of the most exciting and fulfilling genealogy hunt I’ve ever experienced. I had no idea how it would turn out, but knew I would pull out all the stops to find her father’s picture. I requested they make copies of any and all information they had on her father. I dropped off a lineage chart the following day and requested they fill it out as best they could. I also made arrangements to meet them the following weekend to review what information they had.

“When I was about 5 years old I remember sitting at the kitchen table. My stepfather was also sitting there looking at old pictures. He found a picture he didn’t recognize so he tore it up. About that time my mother walked into the room and saw what he had done, and asked; 'Why did you do that? That was the only picture of her father'".

The following weekend I sat down with Diana and asked her to tell me her story: “When I was about 5 years old I remember sitting at the kitchen table. My stepfather was also sitting there looking at old pictures. He found a picture he didn’t recognize so he tore it up. About that time my mother walked into the room and saw what he had done, and asked; 'Why did you do that? That was the only picture of her father'".

"This is when I began wanting to know who my real father was, and what did he look like. Now I don’t want you to get the wrong impression of my Stepfather, he was very loving, and good to me growing up."

I asked her how long she had been searching. “About 50 years. He died March of 1953 in an auto accident in Indio, California. I was only 20 months old when he died." She showed me all the information she accumulated over the years, which was more than I expected. Most of it turned out to be key items. “I would get a lead but it always ended up at a dead end.” She said her father’s name was John Warner Hanks, born in Oklahoma.

She had copies of his birth certificate, his death certificate, social security application and her parent’s marriage certificate. She had copies of letters and the replies to all the places she had contacted such as: the Genealogy Society in Enid, Oklahoma, a letter to the school district where she thought he may have attended school in CA., A small death notice, and his burial locations at the cemetery in Coachella Valley, California where he was buried.

So you can see, I had a good deal of information to start with. The one KEY item I spotted right away, was his mother’s maiden name. Florence Mildred BISHOP born in KANSAS. This is going to be easy, I thought. (Why oh why did I ever have a thought like that.)

Now the hunt began. I went to Ancestry and located the California Death Index which confirmed his death date, and also his mother’s maiden name (BISHOP) but that was it. Next, I went to FamilySearch. Again, only the California Death Index came up. I didn’t expect that! There had to be more information! I knew he was married in California in 1950. Why didn’t that come up? I went to Google and checked for free Marriage records in California. (Do you have any idea how many free sites are not free?) I checked anyway to see how many they offered and to see if it was promising enough to pay the free fee. The first site came up with 1600 marriage records (Yes, I requested California ONLY) The next site came up with no results for JOHN WARNER HANKS in CA.

I could not find a record of the marriage using Johns name, so I went back to Ancestry and looked for the marriage of Beatrice Moniz. There it was!

He was in the Military according to the marriage record, which said under his usual residence was U.S. Army Letterman General Hospital, in San Francisco, California. So let’s see what I can find here. Diana mentioned he was an M.P. Checking Ancestry, FamilySearch and Fold3, I found no Military Records.

The second marriage record shows a James W. Hanks & Florence Mildred Bishop, he is age 31 and she is age 18. They were married in the presence of P.L. (Pascal Leslie) Hanks & G.L. Powell, both from Enid. Pascal was his father, it was dated 26 October 1926. This last one connects him to Pascal L. Hank. ( I researched him at length).

My next breakthrough came when I checked the City Directories in Enid and located James W. and (Florence) Hanks in Enid in 1933, along with Pascal, just 6 blocks away. FOUND HIM. John Warner (his grandmother’s maiden name) Hanks was born in Tulsa in 1930 to James William Hanks and Florence Bishop (born Kansas). At the time of his birth they were living at 309 W. 11th Street in Enid. Now to find a picture of John Warner Hanks.

I located the obituary of Stanley Oliver Hanks who died in the Rancho Mirage hospital in the Palm Springs area. It listed the name of his two sons and two daughters all living up in the Placerville area. This was my next breakthrough.

Did John have siblings? That was my next search. I knew they had moved to California by 1945 from John’s request for a Social Security Number. After weeks of searching, I finely found a connection. I checked the California Death index for Hanks with the mother’s maiden name of Bishop. There it was! On the California Death Index, I found Stanley Oliver Hanks born in Oklahoma, died in Riverside in 1990 with his mother’s maiden name of BISHOP. I located the obituary of Stanley Oliver Hanks who died in the Rancho Mirage hospital in the Palm Springs area. It listed the name of his two sons and two daughters all living up in the Placerville area. This was my next breakthrough.

I looked for all the Hanks living in Placerville and there were 6 prospects. So, I called all of them. First 3 knew nothing about a Stanley Hanks. There was no answer at Larry Hank’s number, and no answering machine. David Hanks turned out to be a wrong number. Something about David Hanks made me doublecheck his phone number. Sure enough, I had transposed a number. I called; there was no answer but an answering machine. I introduced myself and explained why I was calling.

Two days later, I received a call before 8 am. Anyone who knows me would not call that early; the person on the other end said: “Hi Dale, do you know who this is?” I knew right away it was David, I just laughed and said David Hanks. He was interested in the fact that someone was doing Hanks family genealogy. He knew about “Johnnie” but assured me that there were NO photos of him. I asked him if he could ask his brother Larry, or any other family member if they remember seeing Johnnie’s picture. It was then he told me that Larry has died the week before. I apologized for calling at such a difficult time for the family and said I would wait a few months and we could talk then. He said his brother’s remembrance service was scheduled in a few days and he would get back to me later.

At the pool that weekend, Connie, Diana’s sister asked me; “So have you made contact with the Hanks family?” Diana was standing there, and I didn’t want to give her false hope, so I didn’t answer her. When she was alone I told her where I was with the research, about David’s brother dying and that things have come to a halt.

“I have three pictures of Johnny”. ...... and they were the originals.

Less than a week later David called back and told me he had mentioned my call to the family at Larry’s memorial. Terry, Larry’s wife said, “I have three pictures of Johnny”. It seems when Larry’s father Stanley Hanks was getting rid of things; he asked if anyone was interested in some old photos he had. She picked out three photos thinking they were of Larry when he was younger. Stanley explained it wasn’t Larry but his kid brother Johnny, who died when he was young. For some reason she decided to keep them and said, “Now I know why”. She told David they were packed away in the garage somewhere, he told me it would be a while before she found them, considering everything that
had happened.

A week later, I received another call from David asking where to send the pictures. He told me there was a picture of a little girl with her father and mother. I knew what her mother looked like so I asked him to send me the copies. I explained to him Diana does not know about the pictures yet, I did not want to give her false hope so I chose to say nothing. I did keep Connie up to date with what was happening. A week later I received the photos, all three of them, and they were the originals. Terry felt the originals belonged to Diana. In the family picture, I recognized her mother and Diana right away in the photo. Her father’s shirt was even engraved with his name Johnny. Also in the picture was Florence Bishop Hanks, Diana’s Grandmother!

I jumped up and down I was so excited. I called back right away and confirmed it was her parents. I asked permission to give Diana his phone number, then it was time for me to step back and let the two of them speak to each other. I called Diana after she returned from work, (9:30-10:00 p.m.) and asked if I could come over. She wanted to wait until the weekend for us to get together. Are you kidding me? There was no way I could wait. I told her I had a lead and found a picture of her mother, but I needed her to confirm it. So, she agreed to have me come over first thing in the morning before work.

I got there at 8:30 a.m., I said to her; “Before I show you the picture of your mom, I think you would like to see your father’s picture first and handed it to her.” She had a look on her face that said, is this really him? She studied every aspect of the photo, turning it over, reading what he wrote on the back of it. She even went to the window to get a better look at it. Then I said “Here is a picture of your mom” and handed it to her. Connie looking over her shoulder said excitedly, “Di, that’s you and Mom!! And your DAD!!”