so all we have is this yeah believe it or not this is my birth certificate aha New Jersey Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics wow so it says here that you were born November 10th 1942 I know and that amazes me make you 71 yeah something like that 7071 but here's the confusion I I always thought I was older and let me tell you I'll tell you a little story no it would make you 70 70 oh my god of course cuz I was born I'm sorry yeah well math has never been one of our great sub okay so Lavina Shaw was your mother and Paul Applegate which we knew yeah is the mother married to the father Yes okay and the address is 522 Market Street Trenton New Jersey yeah okay so birthplace hers was New Jersey and his was New Jersey so both of them were both both born in New Jersey Paul Applegate we don't know where he came from your grand I mean his parents well his his mother is the one that raised me I thought it was her mother it was his mother my mother's mother oh no no no it was his mother and then when my grandmother got to the point where she got a little uh scile and older uh that's when I finally went up to live with my dad and uh I think I was 14 you know him and I never really talked about too much you know and now what about Lavine she died young yeah that and when did you find that out cuz that I don't remember ever hearing yeah my grandmother at very nonchalantly at the at The Breakfast Table said oh by the way your mother died so you and so she would have been like what how old do you think cuz you would have been how old when she passed away I'm going to assume I was like seven8 years old so she had to be like 28 29 years old maybe I'm not sure I mean what this is some of the stuff I'm so interested in finding out happened to her why you know my grandmother told me a story that uh I don't know why you would ever tell a child something like this but she told me that uh she was found outside a bar dead beaten to death and uh yeah I don't want I want to think my mother was you know died like that well let's hope that that's not true [Music] yeah yeah that's heavy oh Dad this is crazy this is going to be crazy I know it is huh after all these years finally get the chance to find out who I am who we are now that I know that my grandmother's name was Lina Shaw and that my grandparents lived in New Jersey I am headed to Trenton New Jersey [Music] I am hoping to find why my grandparents Paul and Lavina made the decision to have my father live with his grandmother or did they make that decision was it a state decision why couldn't they take care of him these are questions that I think my dad is fuzzy on and I really want to know so now I'm meeting with genealogist Joseph Shumway at the Office of Vital Statistics I'm hoping he can advise me on researching Lavina and her family to get us started Joseph asked the state Reg TR to search for my grandparents marriage certificate so while we wait Joseph wants to see what kind of Clues my dad's birth certificate holds here we have my father's name Robert William Applegate born to Paul Applegate and Lavina Shaw and it does say the parents are married and she was was 21 at the time which I guess back then wasn't that young to be no it was not no it was it was typical age exactly right and the mar should give us very helpful information clues about Lavina before she married and her parents too and all of that hi hi we found something for you great and we're in luck we found your grandparents oh marri certific Christina Applegate is in Trenton New Jersey researching The Mysterious past of her grandmother lava Shaw she just found her grandparents marriage certificate which Christina hopes contains some clues about her lineage all right the full name was Paul scholar Applegate and Lavina victorine Shaw what an awesome yeah isn't that an interesting victorine I love it and Scholar or schaer and the other thing that it does give us here which is very important is her birth date yeah that's right October 9th 1921 she was 19 mhm and they married Trenton New Jersey in June of 41 okay my grandmother's parents name is ID is that what it says ID Shaw Shaw and Lavina Weaver right interesting those are names I've never heard before I love getting these little details like my great-grandfather's Name ID Shaw and that my grandmother Lavina Shaw was named after her mother Lavina Weaver these Clues are incredible but they leave me with bigger questions like when and how did my grandparents become estranged the Residence at least of my grandfather I guess was two I can't read what that says yeah 271 Front Street Trent New Jersey and she was 522 Market Street um so they weren't living together when they got married but you that you wouldn't back then right right but it is interesting that she is living at 522 Market Street which is the same address where she was living when your dad was born so that is a bit of a so maybe she was living on her our own because I don't think they were after my father was born and I don't think livan and Paul were together so M that's where I would have to find like a divorce certificate kind of thing to find out where we go from there right what we can do is divide and conquer where I can search to see if there was a divorce record and so I will work on that to see if we can find information about Lavina after the marriage what you can do is with the new clues that we have here it would be helpful to find out more information about Lavina before she married because if we learn more about a person's earlier life we can gather clues that maybe help us understand their choices better and I would suggest making the next stop the Trenton Public Library which is a great resource for local Trenton history so thank you so much so the marriage certificate was a great wealth of information just to know my grandmother's parents' names but it doesn't explain the question which is what happened to Lavina where did she disappear to why was she not in my father's life