A Tri-State Marriage

When I had found out what the names of my Great Grandparents were I had to ask a few more questions to get a few more clues. What I wanted to know is where they would have been born or where did they get married. The first question was answered with "it must be West Virginia" and the second was "it must be West Virginia", so Wheeling, WV is where I started researching for John Valentine Shablack and Norma Shablack since this is where my grandmother Wanda was born.

My mom and my Aunt Norma "her sister" had thought at the time that John Shablack and Norma Shablack came from the area around Wheeling, WV. So, I had started sending off for marriage certificates. The first place I had tried was the Wheeling area which is in Ohio county, WV. The results were disappointing. The clerks office had no record of a John Shablack and a Norma getting married in Ohio county, WV.

However that did not deter me and I did not stop there. I knew in my heart that they had to have been married close to Wheeling even if it was in a different county. The problem I had was pinpointing out which county they were married in, not to mention the fact that the area of Wheeling is in a Tri-State area. On the left of Wheeling, WV is the state of Ohio, in the middle is West Virginia itself, and on the right is Pennsylvania. So I drew up a little circle around Wheeling and started searching the counties that immediately surrounded it. There was, Washington County, PA, Brooke County, WV, Marshall County, WV, Belmont County, OH, and Jefferson County, OH. All counties but one turned up negative results for the marriage license. The winning county was Jefferson in the state of Ohio.

For weeks I checked the mail every day hoping to get a response. Finally, after about a month they started coming in. Every time I had opened one of the envelopes sent to me from each county it was like opening up a present. I was so excited each time, the sad part was that four of the times I was disappointed in what I had received. However, when I had opened the last envelope it was like I had one the grand prize. I remember calling my mom  and Aunt Norma and telling them about finding their grandparents marriage license.

The document was filled with new information and I now knew the date and place of which my great grandparents were married. John and Norma were married in Stuebenville, Jefferson County, Ohio on April 3rd, 1926 just 7 months and 10 days before my Grandmother Wanda Virginia Shablack was born.

What was even more exciting than knowing the date and place were knowing the names which were on the marriage license. It had listed the groom "my G-Grandfather" as John Shablack Jr being 21 on the 4th day of August 1925 and born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Also, his occupation at the time was listed as a plumber. The best information is that his parents names were listed as John Shablack Sr and Mary Kishlowski. This was really exciting news, I knew this information would help me further my research and hunt for my Polish roots.

The bride "my G-Grandmother" was listed as Norma Fullerton. The document states that on August 1st 1925 she was 18 years of age. She was born in Fleming, Ohio to William Fullerton and Myrtle Johnson. My great grandparents residence at the time of marriage says they lived in Yorkville, Ohio in 1926.

Looking for my great grandparents marriage license had taken me months, several postage stamps, envelopes and a few dollars, but it was well worth it. I now had even more information to go off from to help me in my search.

I now knew the approximate dates of births of my great grandparents which could help me to search for their birth certificates. I also knew my great grandmother Normas maiden name, so now I could research deeper into her side of the family. Not to mention, I had the names of both sets of Great-Great-Grandparents. That in itself was a win win for me.

Below I will post a few more photos, I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving. Gobble Gobble! 


On the left is my Great Grandfather John Valentine Shablack and on the Right is my Great Grandmother Norma Fullerton-Shablack.

John Valentine Shablack

How It All Started

I have always been interested in family history. I was raised by my dads parents and loved to sit at the dining room table and listen to my grandfather or grandmother tell story's about the past. Those stories intrigued me and I could never get enough of them. I count myself lucky to be raised by my fathers parents.

However, I did not know much about my moms side of the family. I had never met my moms parents and knew very little of them. I would ask about them but I never really was satisfied with the answers I received. My moms sister would call every once and a while and tell me story's about my moms dad but not to much about her mother. So, I had always felt a lack of something when it came to my moms parents. This lack of information fed my curiosity and I needed to know more, I wanted to know who they were and where they came from.

Fastforward....

In my late teens I started to do research and ask many more questions about my moms parents. I knew their names, my grandfathers name was Alfred Roy Shields and my grandmothers name was Wanda Virginia Shablack. I also knew that my mom as well as her mom Wanda were both born in Wheeling, WV.

My grandfather Alfred Roy Shields "whom I never had the chance to meet" died in 1986. He was buried alive in a land slide while working on a new elementary school in Ohio.  At the time I never understood why I was never able to meet the man that gave birth to my mother. To be honest I didn't even realize he was alive until we got a call at my Grandmothers house about his death.

Upon hearing of his death I tried asking my mom questions but she really could not answer them. I wanted to at least go to the funeral, but she didn't even go herself. I know now that she loved her dad, but at the time of his death she was just not able to leave Austin and go up to West Virginia for the funeral.

When I started my family research I found a lot of connections and family members that I had never met on the Shields side. I was actually able to trace back my moms dad Alfred Roy Shields family all the way back to Ireland. The first Shields ancestor of mine that came to America is my 8th Great Grandfather James Shields who was born in Ireland in the year of 1710. He settled down in the township of Newlin, Chester County, Pennsylvania and remained there until his death in 1769.

Tracing my Shields roots gave me hope that I would be able to do the same on my Shablack side of the family. However, I have found it much more difficult to trace my grandmother Wanda Virginia Shablask's side of the family. A lot had to do with the surname Shablack, I had always known it was Polish in origin, my mother had at least told me that. She also always said to "never let anyone know that we were part Polish, because people would make fun of us".

Well being made fun of never deterred me and I wanted to know when and where my grandmothers family came from. In fact just knowing that I was part Polish gave me a sense of pride that my mom to this day still asks me "whats wrong with you, don't you know that people will make fun of you if they know your part polish, its nothing to be proud of". However, my Polish pride held strong, I even got into trying different Polish food recipes, collecting polish hand made jewelry boxes, collecting a few polish Zlotys, I had an email address at one time that expressed my pride in my Polish heritage, I read a shortened story of Polish history, etc. I have even instilled in my own children a sense of pride for being part Polish.

My journey to find my Polish ancestors started over 20 years ago with my grandmother Wanda Virginia Shablack. I did not know much about my grandmother Wanda, she had died 5 years before I was even born. I knew that Wanda died in Austin, Tx and was married to Frank Johnson my mothers step dad, so I went down to vitals to get a copy of her death certificate under the name Wanda Johnson, and this was the first step in tracking down the Shablacks.

Once I received the death certificate it had a plethora of information to start my genealogical research. It stated my grandmothers birth as 11/13/1926 in Wheeling, WV and death as 08/30/1969 in Austin, Tx due to kidney failure. The certificate also listed her burial place as Austin Memorial Park Cemetery that was just rite up the street from where I had lived with my grandparents. Knowing that the cemetery was right down the street the whole time and never being told my grandma Wanda was buried there really disappointed me, but now that I knew I went to see her graveside and I still put flowers on it to this day.

The best information that I was able to get from my grandmothers death certificate was her parents names, which were Norma Shablack and John V. Shablack. The first name is familiar to me because I remember my Great grandmother Norma coming to visit my family when I still lived with my mom and dad before the age of 5. It is a faint memory, but I still remembered her, she raised my mom and loved her very much. My mom still thinks the world of her grandma Norma and her grandmas sister "Aunt" Florence Anne for which my mom is named. "Well sort of, but that is another story for another time"

Now that I had this information, my journey to find my polish roots could really and truly begin.

Wanda V. Shablack -Johnson

This is a picture of my Grandmother Wanda Virginia Shablack

Marguerite Norma Fullerton-Shablack

On the Left is my Great Grandmother Marguerite Norma Fullerton-Shablack and on the right is her sister Florence Anne Fullerton-Fritz