That is not a typo in the subject. Apparently, our family name was McDannald. See the attached 1930 census and the zoom to the lines for our clan.

Our mother (Elsie Jewel McDonald) was 12 years old and it was the start of the depression. Gracie is listed as a laundress and widowed. She was paying $10 per month rent. Leota must have been living elsewhere in 1930 (see the attached photo of Leota – did she really have nine children?) The census enumerator did not make a mistake with the surname. The attached draft registration for Emory Herman McDannald bears his signature. See his gravestone photo. Note the spelling of his first name as both Emory and Emery.

Emery married Mary Ellen Sprague in 1902 in Kansas. She was 11 years older than him and had been married before. Her first husband, John Wesley Phillips, lived until 1951 and she apparently had five children by Phillips. Emery and Mary had two children (Leota and Little Afton who died at age 4). Mary died in 1911.

Emery married Gracie on November 22, 1913.

I suspect that Gracie probably believed Emery had died. It is troubling to know she was doing laundry for other people during the depression and our twelve-year-old mother was undoubtedly helping her.

The surname matter is further complicated. Emery’s father, James William McDannald, lived until 1927. “Black Jim”, as he was known, also used the name McDaniel and McDonald.

The fact that his grave states “McDannald” leads me to believe that was our family name since 1850 when Black Jim was born.