James (Jimmy) Plummer - A Street Car Driver in Cincinnati

Jimmy Plummer was my dad's oldest brother.  Jimmy died in 1940,  14 years before I was born. When I first started my research all I had was a name and I knew he died young.  He was James G. Plummer and he was born on October 3, 1907, in Cleves, Ohio. Soon I found a tombstone, in the same cemetery as my grandparents.  I seems a young man that lived to be 32 years old should have left more behind.  I found him in a couple of census records with his parents, in Indiana.  In 1930, I found him living as a boarder, along with his cousin. In Cincinnati, Ohio.

I started searching Ohio, there I came across a death certificate.   Wow, lots of information here.  He was married to Nellie Hein Plummer.  He was a street car operator in Cincinnati.  I now had the cause of his death.

All of the things i knew were just details, written on a piece of paper, I still knew very little about the man.

I FOUND A FIRST COUSIN! ONCE REMOVED ON ANCESTRY.COM!!!

My dad had three older half sisters.  I had their names and had found a little information on them.  Someone else on Ancestry.com was also searching for them.  We connected and started messaging each other.  Since then we have talked on the phone a few times.

She knew my Uncle! He came to her house when she was a girl.  She called him Jimmy.  She talked about him with feelings of nostalgia.  He had been a fun memory her entire life.  She remembers him as being "one of the handsomest men she ever met".   Those memories may have been clouded with sugar, because when he came to visit he always brought candy.  She and her brother really looked forward to his visits.  They didn't get much candy, so he was a very welcome visitor.

So now Jimmy is no longer a piece of paper or a tombstone, he is a fun uncle that just wasn't able to stay around long enough for most of my generation to get to know.  He died on October 3, 1940.

Had I not been researching on Ancestry.com I might never have found my new cousin.  I hope to spend more time listening to her stories.  She has much more information about people I never met.

Since getting this information, I have talked to some of my first cousins.  One of my cousins told me his father worked for the street car system in Cincinnati as an electrician and his grandfather worked for them too.   Surprisingly, there was more of a connection then I had known.  Recently, another cousins told me she believes she may have a picture of Jimmy.  I can't wait to see it!