Talk:Claude Degler

1940 Census Record

Claude Degler's draft card

Determining a person's status

Spent a few hours in early 2021 trying to determine if Claude was dead or alive. As he'd be over 100, it really looks unlikely.

A few hours of searching on ancestry.com and on the Internet in general didn't solve this question. The possibilities for Degler seem to be

• Degler died a long time ago
• He changed his name

Virgil Smith's Obituary, 1974, mentioning Mrs. Claude Degler

Alta Doris Smith Degler's Obituary, 1995

Divorce and "widowed"

I'm not an expert in genealogical research, but would his wife's death certificate say "widowed" if there was some possibility they had gotten divorced? Ben Ostrowsky (talk) 09:13, 11 February 2022 (PST)

It is not clear how long Alta Doris and Claude remained married, but SOMETIMES divorced people will say they're widowed - newspaper obits are not independently researched.LaurieMann (talk) 13:18, 21 September 2022 (PDT)

Possibly separated around 1950

The Indianapolis city directories for 1951 and 1956 list Doris Degler as the widow of Claude, although clearly that was not the literal truth. And in the 1950 census she was living with her parents, although married. Perhaps they never divorced per se, but at least in the 1950s she appears to have considered him gone. Bee Ostrowsky (talk) 12:25, 21 September 2022 (PDT)

Thanks for your note on the 1950 census! I found Alta Doris in the 1950 census but not Claude (at least, not the name Claude Degler). Maybe they had an on and off marriage.LaurieMann (talk) 13:18, 21 September 2022 (PDT)

NUMIDENT file

I think I may have found a record of his death. The birthdate matches exactly; the mother's name matches exactly; the father's name matches partially ("Howard L." is correct); the location in an impoverished neighborhood of Indianapolis is plausible. — Bee Ostrowsky (talk) 10:32, 4 April 2023 (PDT)

John Paul Christman is a known pseudonym! Well done!

So, was his father prone to name changing, too?

—Leah Zeldes Smith (talk) 12:35, 4 April 2023 (PDT)

No, his father seems to have gone by Howard L(ynville) Degler in all his own records, despite Claude's claim that his father was named Howard L. Christman. — Bee Ostrowsky (talk) 13:32, 4 April 2023 (PDT)

Wow. You've got it!-- mlo (talk) (talk) 17:21, 4 April 2023 (PDT)

Bea - GREAT FIND!! Please update his Fancyclopedia page with the info you found. I don't know if he ever changed his name, but I'm finding other records about John Christman - he had a SSI number under Christman with a birth date of May 19, 1924. The connecting name seems to be "Virgie Allen" as the mother.

Note: There is a John H. Christman from Indiana with similar dates, but he's a different person because his census records are different from Degler's