CANADA Canada - Thelma Montgomery MacMillan, 34, Cornwall, Ont, ~1933

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Jovin

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I'm at a friend's house and wanted to ask if anyone here can tell me where to start with this.

Her Mom went missing when she was 12 years old, and we realize that she would not be living now, but my friend has lived with this all these years not knowing whatever became of her Mom.

It was in Cornwall Ontario Canada in the year of 1933 (give or take a year) and her name was Thelma Mary Montgomery (maiden name) born in Bloomington Ill USA in 1899.

When she went missing the city police, Provincial police and the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) all were involved. Her married name was MacMillan and she was married in 1916 in Regina Saskatchewan CA to Hugh Angus MacMillan. My friend is now 87 years old, and since this has plagued her all of her life, I thought I would see if there's anything that you all could help us with.

We don't know what happened except she never made it home from work one night in September of that year. She walked back and forth to work, and just didn't make it home one nigh. They checked the canal, the river, and whatever, but nothing ever came of it. Their marriage was not an ideal one, and there was some physical abuse involved. If she left, she left five kids behind, and that's hard to accept. My friend says that he treated her very badly, and in a way, she wouldn't blame her if she had left willingly.

She had three brothers, Harvey, Robert, and Furman and she was the youngest of the four children. Anything you can suggest would be appreciated.
 
This was posted in the "missing but not forgotten" thread so I opened a thread for the case here in cold case section since the case is an old one.
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Originally Posted by Jovin:
"I'm at a friend's house and wanted to ask if anyone here can tell me where to start with this.

Her Mom went missing when she was 12 years old, and we realize that she would not be living now, but my friend has lived with this all these years not knowing whatever became of her Mom.

It was in Cornwall Ontario Canada in the year of 1933 (give or take a year) and her name was Thelma Mary Montgomery (maiden name) born in Bloomington Ill USA in 1899.

When she went missing the city police, Provincial police and the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) all were involved. Her married name was MacMillan and she was married in 1916 in Regina Saskatchewan CA to Hugh Angus MacMillan. My friend is now 87 years old, and since this has plagued her all of her life, I thought I would see if there's anything that you all could help us with.

We don't know what happened except she never made it home from work one night in September of that year. She walked back and forth to work, and just didn't make it home one nigh. They checked the canal, the river, and whatever, but nothing ever came of it. Their marriage was not an ideal one, and there was some physical abuse involved. If she left, she left five kids behind, and that's hard to accept. My friend says that he treated her very badly, and in a way, she wouldn't blame her if she had left willingly.

She had three brothers, Harvey, Robert, and Furman and she was the youngest of the four children. Anything you can suggest would be appreciated."
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Jovin (or anyone else who knows), I am curious if you made any progress on your friend's case? It must have been so difficult to live an entire lifetime not knowing what happened to your mother.
 
Couldn't find a thing in Google News Archives, probably because it is mostly (if not exclusively) American newspapers. I can't find a free Canadian news archive website.
 
I've spent the last day+ putting together a family tree for Thelma's family. I was hoping to find that she was staying with family in the US after her disappearance, but I haven't found her yet. Although, if she adopted her middle name Mary it would be virtually impossible to find her.

Interestingly, her father John Williams Montgomery was also abusive (his second marriage ended in divorce for extreme cruelty and non-support). He married 4 times in total. His father died in the civil war when he was an infant and he was raised by a step-father. It looks he may have had a rough time of things, as we know this kind of behaviour passes down to the children until someone stops it.

Missing from Cornwall
The Provincial Police have been notified of the disappearance from her home in Cornwall of Mrs. Thelma MacMillan, who has been absent since Sunday last. She is a Canadian, 33 years of age, weighs 135 pounds and stands five feet, seven inches. At the time she disappeared, she was wearing a short black coat and a green dress trimmed with cream. The missing woman was also wearing glasses.

(The Kingston Whig-Standard, Kingston, Ontario, 16 Sep 1933, Sat, Page 3) https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93703000/missing-thelma-macmillan-1933/

What I don't understand, likely because I'm a newbie here, is why I can't find a case file for her. Surely if she was never found there would be a case record found. And, if it was closed, there would be some record of it as well?

Genealogy profiles I worked on can be found here:
  1. Familysearch FamilySearch: Sign In
  2. Wikitree Thelma Mary (Montgomery) McMillan (1899-aft.1933) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree
  3. Ancestry https://www.ancestry.ca/family-tree/person/tree/170795578/person/222348332216/facts
Please edit the wikitree or familysearch profile if you feel inclined. The wikitree profile includes notes about what I did so that it doesn't need to be repeated (newspaper searches, etc)

Regardless, I still haven't found any new leads to her whereabouts, which is discouraging.

I'd love to find out how to request information from her original file. I couldn't locate anything on the Home
 

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