♂Frank Leroy Blanchard

Frank Leroy Blanchard (about 1858 – 30 May 1936) was a man of Lewiston, Maine, who moved to New York City, where he married in 1887 and lived for the rest of his life. He was the great-grand-uncle of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), the brother of her great-grandfather Wesley Blanchard (1844–1908).

Lewiston

Frank was the third of the five children of Joseph Knapp Blanchard (1820–1885), a grocer and property owner of Lewiston, and Elizabeth Trueworthy Blanchard (1825–1884). The family lived at Mount Vernon in Kennebec County in 1850, and a FamilySearch index places it at Lewiston in Androscoggin County by 1860. FamilySearch’s census indexes place him there in 1860, 1870 and 1880.

When his father died in September 1885, Frank was about twenty-seven. The will left him the northerly half of a brick block at the corner of Middle and Main streets, while the southerly half went to Wesley, who was running a grocery in it. The two brothers also received other Middle Street property in common.

New York

On 9 March 1887 Frank married Louie Streck Bricker in New York City, and the marriage index gives his parents as Joseph K. Blanchard and Elizabeth Blanchard. No children are recorded for them. The censuses of 1910, 1920 and 1930 place him in Manhattan.

His sister Ida Alice’s will of 1900 describes him as “my brother, Frank Blanchard of New York City”. It left him a year’s income from her lot at 42 Pierce Street and her painting of Lewiston Falls, and in 1902 he signed for his legacy as Frank L. Blanchard.

Death

Frank died at Brooklyn, Kings County, New York, on 30 May 1936, aged 77. His death certificate names his father as Joseph Blanchard and gives his mother’s maiden name as “Eliz. Truworthy”, evidently her middle name, Trueworthy. It also gives his burial at Milan Cemetery, Milan, Erie, Ohio, on 2 June 1936; the records do not explain the Ohio burial. The undertaker was engaged by Harry B. Blanchard, of 39 Plaza Street.

Notes

Harry B. Blanchard

The censuses of 1910 and 1930 list Louise M. and Harry B. Blanchard in his household, and the certificate names Harry B. Blanchard as the person who engaged the undertaker. A FamilySearch family tree gives Harry a birth year of 1878, nine years before the 1887 marriage, so he may have been Louie’s son by an earlier marriage; whether he was Frank’s son is not settled.

Another marriage

An index of Indiana marriages lists a Frank L. Blanchard marrying Susie T. Butler at Richmond, Wayne County, with his parents given as Elizabeth T. and J. K. Blanchard and no date. Both parties are shown with one previous marriage, and he is shown as living in New York. A FamilySearch family tree dates a marriage of Frank to Susan S. Butler to 15 November 1883. Which of the two marriages came first is not settled.

Birth year and residence

The three census indexes give his birth year as 1857, 1858 and 1859 in turn, and the 1887 marriage index gives 1859 in one entry and 1858 in another; the age of 77 on his certificate fits 1858. The two marriage entries also differ on the county, New York in one and Kings in the other. The certificate says he had lived thirty years in the city, which does not fit a marriage there in 1887 or his sister’s description of him in 1900.