Trapp-Doolin Family Connections

In the early 1900's the Trapp family had a very close relationship with the Doolin family. Long story short, my great-grandfather James Duncan Trapp and his brother Tank married a set of sisters, Bertha and Mary Doolin, who were next door neighbors to the Trapp family.

My great-grandfather James Duncan Trapp was first married to Ella Tatum in 1916, but they were divorced by 1923, when she remarried. They only had one child, my grandfather James D. Trapp.

By 1930 James Duncan Trapp was remarried to a Mary Isabella Trapp, and they had two children already ages 5 and 2 (I've been told that, in her later years, his wife was called "Mean Mary" by her step-grandchildren). Interestingly, James Duncan and Mary had already known each other for many years, because the 1920 census shows James Duncan and his young wife Ella living next door to the Doolin family. James Duncan was 26 and Mary was 17 at the time.

1920 US Census showing James and Ella Trapp living next
door to Mary Doolin, James' future 2nd wife.

This bit of trivia is intriguing, but what further caught my attention was the discovery that James Duncan had a brother named Eugene Tankesly ("Tank") who married Mary's sister Bertha.

The website "Find-a-Grave" features the obituary for Bertha Trapp (nee Doolin), wife of Tank Trapp, and includes this detail:

Survivors include two daughters, Mrs. Carl (Louise) McMillan of Cooper and Mrs. Ray (Iva Lee) Kennemer of Paris; one brother, E. H. Doolin of Paris; one sister, Mrs. Jim Trapp of Leonard; nine grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren. 

Furthermore, in the same 1920 census as before Ms. Bertha Doolin is a 25 year old widow with three small children, and she lives next door to Eugene (Tank) Trapp, who is 27.

Eugene (Tank) Trapp is 27 living next door to the widow Bertha Doolin

Finally, if we reach way back to the 1910 census we can see that 16 year old Bertha Doolin and her 6 year old sister Mary I Doolin live next door to one Dewitt Trapp, who at the time is living with his aunt and uncle Robert and Virdie Cain. Cain is the maiden name of James Duncan and Tank's grandmother Augusta Clarissa Cain.

Sisters Bertha and Mary Doolin lived next door to a Trapp and the Cain family.

So, lots of connections between the Trapp and Doolin families of Cooper, TX. My great-grandfather James Duncan Trapp and his brother Tank married a set of Doolin sisters. The addition of a Cain family as next door neighbors makes the story even better, but will require more digging to flesh out.