Albert Sidney Green:

Sidney disappeared from history. Family stories suggest that he simply left his second wife Ila, leaving his children behind and moved to California. I doubt he just ran off, rather he was run off. Both wives remarried after him suggesting divorces or abandonment for the second wife. County court records will need to be verified.

Sidney's first wife, Eviline Victoria Reid said his name was A. S. Green on the 1900 census with their children Ira & Bonnie. His second wife, Ila Ezell Floyd gave the name Sid Green for the 1910 census with a son James Jett. However she reported the name Albert Sidney Green when she applied for a delayed birth certificate for their son in 1944. When this son died in 1991 his father was listed as James Sidney Green on the death certificate. Apparently his name was indeed Albert Sidney rather than James Sidney, as he had a younger brother named James William. Hence when he moved to California he changed his name…indicating a need to be anonymous, leading me to believe he fled Texas. The legal documents state his name as James Sidney Green, thus I have chosen to use it as the main name for this memorial.

During WW II Georgia Green, his niece, received a telegram in Ralls, Texas notifying the family of his death in California. Sidney was not in the war. Three of her brothers were enlisted, serving in Europe at the time and it was shocking for her to receive a telegram addressed to her. Most telegrams at that time reported a war casualty. His mother was listed as Georgie Green on his Social Security application and probably work records listed her too. His niece was the only Georgie Green living at the time of his death. The informant for the death certificate was the "embalmer," rather than a next of kin.

Sidney was a water-well digger at the time his son, James Jett was born in Post, TX in 1916. He worked for the Irrigation District and died at the North End Dam in Calipatria, Imperial, California from an alcohol related illness. His usual residence was Westmorland, Imperial, California. His death certificate did not have a father or mother listed or next of kin or a date of birth. And there was a 5 day delay in his burial. Perhaps a telegram response was pending.

So far I cannot find a WW I registration nor does he appear in the Federal Census of 1920, 30, or 40 in Texas or California, suggesting he left Texas prior to the WW I draft in 1918 or as a result and laid low, dying in obscurity.

The Social Security application and issued number, California death certificate, and the cemetery's records are proofs that this is our Sidney Green's gravesite.

March 2013