Mildred Bloss is Carrie Bloss' daughter, not Roses'

I have wondered how we ended up with 14 kids for Rose and Richard Bloss when they reported on two different Censuses that they had 10 of 12 total children living.  If my count is right, they had 11 of 14 kids living in each census-- 1910 and 1920.  So I knew there were two kids listed with them that weren't their kids.  (Interestingly, Mildred is not listed with the family in 1900 when she would have been 6 years old.  Where was she?)

When I found Carrie's obituary, it named the surviving siblings to Carrie.  Instead of listing Mildred as a sister to Carrie, it named Mildred as the only surviving daughter to Carrie.  That was big!  I wanted to confirm this, as there could be two Mildreds-- a Mildred Lind (Carries' daughter) and a Mildred Bloss (Rose and Richards' daughter.)  After all, in those two Censuses I already mentioned, Mildred is listed as the daughter to Richard.  And there are a handful of papers that are addressed to Mildred Lind (the ones claiming Carrie's life insurance policy payout.)  So what was going on?

The confirmation came when I looked for a letter in the many papers that survived these two women.  (Remember that I have the effects of Mary Sophia, Rose, Carrie and Mildred.)   I wanted to see how they viewed each other.  I needed to find a letter written to or from 'Mildred Bloss' not 'Mildred Lind', and it needed to be written to or from Carrie.  I found that letter-- from Mildred to Carrie, with that written clearly on the envelope.  The letter is addressed simply, 'Dear Mother.'  I'll post it here.

Interestingly, Mildred refers to Rose as 'Ma' in her letter and Carrie as 'Mother.'  

So Mildred was born to Carrie and given the name of Bloss for a last name.  That would imply that there was no marriage prior to her birth.  Carrie would have been 21 years old, still living at home and helping her mom quite a bit.  The letters all describe Carrie as a big help to her mother.  I would surmise that Mildred was pulled right into the household and raised along with Carries younger siblings.  After all, Rose and Richard went on to deliver another child or two.  The last one was born when mother Rose would have been almost 45 years old!  Carrie would have been 25 years old at the time.

There is another child in the family that really belongs to a different family.  I suspect it is Willie, born in 1896 and died just a few months later.  He's buried in a different place in the cemetery, away from Rose, Richard, Carrie, Oscar, and the two children that died in their early childhood-- Archie and Kate.  He's about 40 feet away, and his name isn't on the large Bloss monument either.  Remember that Rose reported 10 of 12 kids living in 1900.  We have the names of the two who passed away on their family stone as Archie and Kate.  Does Willie really belong with someone else? Has he been lumped in with Rose and Richard without really having any idea that he belongs there?

Olive delivered 2 children and gave them the last name of Bloss-- Leland in 1901 and Margery in 1904.  Did she also deliver Willie in 1896?  Or did Carrie deliver him, as this was just 2 years after Mildred's birth.  Is there a birth record for him?  Many of them were destroyed by fire.  It's something to look into.  Until then, we can see what these letters reveal about any other mislabeled kids.