Ruby's mother, Ethel DeEtta Welty Hamm, died when Ruby was about five years old. From that time on she was raised by her father with help from her paternal grandmother, Mary Jane Eckard Hamm, and paternal aunt, (Mrs. Charles) Leta Violet Hamm Hayes and (later on), by her father and stepmother M. Grace Crist Hamm,

1. 1930 United States Federal Census
Name: Ruby Hamm
Home in 1930: Peoria, Peoria, Illinois
Age: 14
Estimated birth year: abt 1916
Birthplace: Nebraska
Relation to Head of House: Roomer
Race: White
Age at first marriage*: "19"
Note: although this line on the 1930 Census is blank, another source cites that the answer was "19"; see #2, below)
Parents' birthplace:
Note: although this line on the 1930 Census is blank, another source cites that the answers were--
"Mother - Nebraska" and
"Father - Illinois"
Household Members:
Name Age
Mary E Ticknor 84
Sewis Deyo 75
Mary Hamm 68 *
Ruby Hamm 14

[Author's note: *This has to have been "Mary Jane Eckard Hamm"; her identity is deduced from the location, and name, of the person at the time. "Mary Jane Eckard Hamm" was Ruby's paternal grandmother. Further, M. Grace Crist Hamm never lived to be 68.]

2. Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800-1941
Name: Ruby L Hamm
Spouse Name: Virgil R Reed
Marriage Date: 27 Oct 1934
Marriage County: Tippecanoe
Birth Date: 13 Jun 1915
Age: 19
Tippecanoe County, Indiana
Index to Marriage Record Jan. 1, 1921 to Dec. 31,
W. P. A. Original Record Located: County Clerk's Office
Book: M-48
OS Page: 64

3. Children:
DeEtta Louise - 1936
Joyce - 1937
Larry Duane
Rita Jean Reed
Lyle - 1948
James - 1958*
Source # 1 (on children): daughter DeEtta; via email
Source # 2 (on children): sister Leta; via email*

Ruby and Virgil were the matriarch and patriarch, respectively, of what Ruby's youngest sister Iladora often referred to as "the Indiana contingient" of Guy Arthur Hamm's offspring. Until Ruby and Virgil's eldest daughter, Dee and Dee's husband, Jim, retired to Florida ALL of them (or nearly all of them) lived in the Huntington/Fort Wayne area of Indiana.

Ruby and Virgil effectively had "two (possibly "three") families". They had three children rather close together (DeEtta, Joyce and Larry)... almost decade went by before they had Rita Jean and Lyle Frederick... and then another gap of a decade until they had "Jimmy" (James Allen). Leta corrected DeEtta's estimate of "Jimmy's" age to 1958... the same as Leta's younger son, Daniel. In a very real sense "Jimmy" was "an only child" since by the time he was 8 he was the only one still living at home. One of their sons still lives in their house in Huntington, IN.

Other Family--
Stepmother: M. Grace Crist Hamm
Younger brother: Lawrence R. "Larry" Ham
Note: He had his surname legally changed; dropping the second 'm'. (In our genealogy there are some ancestors who do not have the second 'm' on their surname.)

Younger half-sister: Mary Leona Hamm Griffieth
Younger half-brother: Carroll Arthur Hamm
Younger half-sister:
Eleanor Rose Hamm Gordon

Younger half-sister:
Leta Elvira Hamm

Younger half-brother: Ray William Hamm
Younger half-sister: Iladora May Hamm Holt-Taylor