Kiwi William Leonard Parker and His Life in Mexico

Husband of Joyce Hartzell (1899-1975)

Angangueo by Carlos Adampol Galindo. CC by SA 2.0 source

I ran across a brick wall. It wasn’t mine. I didn’t have to test it. Well, I sort of did. See, the brick wall contained the closed door one of my distant cousins was propped against.

Okay, that metaphor got away from me.

But I think you get my point.

William Leonard Parker was married to Joyce (Hartzell) Dalferes. Joyce is in my Lincoln lineage. By the time I finished that lineage, I was pretty certain she didn’t have children and the only vital fact I couldn’t locate was her death (and burial if there was one). But William - he was a brick wall to more than just me. I ran across a 14-year-old Reddit post of someone trying to trace him, and by extension Joyce.

So I grabbed my sledgehammer. Why wouldn’t I? I’m already here, the equipment is available, and I waived the insurance for workplace injury. Besides, I had an itch to disprove some of the original Reddit post - he was not “already married with Joyce Hartzell” when he went to Mexico in 1930.

And I have the proof.

But also, this wasn’t actually a brick wall. It was a curtained window because, long story short, the residents of Angangueo, Mexico, know the Parkers very very well. They documented life there for decades and left behind diaries, film, photographs, and so much documentation that they’ve been studied.