Was She Named Mary, or Lillie, or Lula, or Louise....?

My great great grandmother, Mary Louise Cross Larkins, is pictured above. She is seated to the left of the young woman marked "Gr. Irene," who was my great grandmother. According to the database Michigan Marriages, available at Family Search Labs, Lula M. Cross married Thomas F. Larkins, on January 7, 1889, in Kalamazoo, Michigan.













When I did a search at Family Search Labs, for individuals whose father was named Thomas Larkins and whose mother's maiden name was Cross, I got these results. (Click for a larger view.)










When Irene's older brother Edwin Charles Larkins was born in 1889, his mother's name was listed as Lillie Cross. In 1915, my Great Grandmother Irene listed her mother's name as Mary L. Cross when she got married to Emmett W. LaTourette. When my Great Grandmother Irene got married to John Bour in 1919, she stated that her mother's name was Mary Louise Cross. When Grandma Irene married William Howard Graham in 1922, she said that her mother's name was Louise Cross. In the 1900 U.S. Census for Erie County, Great Great Grandmother Mary Louise Cross Larkins' first name was listed as Lulu. When I interviewed a distant cousin, Inez Wilson, long ago, she referred to Mary Louise Cross Larkins as Lou. So many names for one person!

Whenever my mom spoke of her Larkins and Cross family ties, she always called Gram Irene's mother Mary Louise, so that is what I consider her name to be. Mary Louise Cross Larkins, who went by so many different first names, died on July 20, 1912, at the age of forty one. From reading some old newspaper clippings, it appears that Great Great Grandma Mary Louise Cross Larkins had a deep rooted Catholic faith, and adored her children and extended family. She was buried at St. Joseph Cemetery in Sandusky, Ohio, next to her beloved husband Thomas F. Larkins.