The Ever Elusive Bennett Karoly

Bennett Karoly, Born in 1897, is my Grandfather whom I have never met. He died in 1951, four years before I was born. He left home at an early age and did not talk much about his family. A very private person. His own wife, Bertha, was not too sure about his past because he did not talk much about it.

Our dilemma is this: We can't trace our family tree beyond him. We've been trying over the years but so far no luck. My oldest son, Joshua, works at Ancestry.com and has brought the full power of his employers databases to no avail. The earliest records we can find are his World War I draft registration and another document that may be him but were not sure.

When Bennett married my grandmother he listed his place of birth as New York, NY and his father as Charles Karoly (born in Hungary) and his mother Hermine Haupman (born in Austria). On his WWI draft registration he listed his place of birth as Budapest Hungary and his mothers name as, Mary. Same birth date so we are certain he's the same Bennett Karoly. We think he lied about his mother and place of birth to avoid the draft. A couple of days before he registered for the draft we find another Bennett Karoly who claims to be thirty-four and he's caught on the border with Mexico which makes for some interesting reading. He stated he was born in Austria and came to America as a small child. We think he's the same Bennett Karoly and lying about his age trying to avoid being drafted.

We've been searching the census records and the earliest we can find him is in the 1920 census in San Francisco, CA. We're trying to find him in the 1900 and 1910 census records also but so far we are at a dead end. We found a Hermina Karoly married to a Gabriel Karoly in the 1930 census but have not been able to find a Hermine Karoly yet. The Gabriel and Hermina Karoly's are old enough to be his mother and father but who knows.

DNA samples: It would be cool to take DNA samples of every Karoly in the USA and see if we are related because there are not really that many.