The 1956 newspaper reference indicated that the Cecil Neill family of Topeka, Kansas, visited his mother in West Point, Illinois. The only problem was that it was not Cecil Neill. It was Herschel. Cecil Neill never left Hancock County, Illinois, and did not have children named Carol and Charles.
Come to think of it, Herschel’s son was actually named Robert Charles and this is the only reference I can remember seeing where he was not called Robert or Rob.
It is easy to see how names can be confused. The writer of the West Point gossip was from West Point and would have been familiar with all of Fannie Neill’s children and could have easily have gotten them mixed up. Charles was also the first name of Fannie Neill’s last husband. form
And for any bit of gossip published in a newspaper after the invention of the telephone, there’s always the chance that communicating via that medium introduced errors as well.
Especially since it was humans who were doing the talking and the writing.
No responses yet