Exploring down a rabbit hole!

While trying to think of a post to do for Halloween this year, I was searching through Halloween newspapers from various years. I found one article in the News Star on Halloween of 1935, page 5. It talks about how the first girl born at St. Francis hospital had returned and given birth at that same hospital to a little boy. That caught my attention, since I have posted the girl’s photo before on this blog, which hangs on the wall at St. Francis. Her name was Beverly Louise Gimler. The article called her Mrs. A.P. Monceaux. Ok. I have some information now.

I went on Ancestry, curious to know what happened to Beverly. No luck, but I kept getting links to a family with the last name of Heslep. I found their Findagrave entries under the Heslep names buried in Texas. Adam Peter Helsep and his wife Beverly Louise Gimler Helsep. Beverly had the right date of birth listed on her photo in the hospital and the right name. What gives?

I think I found it in a wedding photo seven and a half months earlier (whoops!) printed March 3, 1935 in the Morning World:

Apparently, the groom was a band leader and Monceaux was Peter’s stage name! If the Findagrave links are right, he took the Monceaux name from his mother (her maiden name). Genealogy research can lead you down some strange trails!

Peter’s Findagrave Memorial: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70765024/adam_peter-heslep

Beverly’s Findagrave memorial: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70765042/beverly_louise-heslep

As an addendum, the birth article named the first person born at St. Francis, Henry King Wolff, who was a student at Tulane at that time.