Pages 5013
Whole Number 182
Earl Harold Sparks of Lancaster, Pennsylvania (P.O. Box 4001, Zip 17604-4001) seeks information regarding his father, John Franklin Sparks, who was born in or ca. 1896. Earl reports that he knows nothing about his father other than what appears on his own certificate of birth. John Franklin Sparks deserted Earl's mother when Earl was a very small child.
The above photograph is the only one that Earl Sparks has of his father. It was taken in 1928, probably in late August or early September, and is part of a group picture taken at a Braun/Brown family reunion. It is from this group picture that Earl has had this enlargement of his parents reproduced. Earl's mother, Esther (Brown) Sparks, who had been born in Spring City, Pennsylvania, on December 2, 1906, was pregnant with Earl at the time this picture was taken. Earl Sparks was born November 8, 1928, in Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio. His mother died on December 15, 1997. Earl's birth certificate gives his parents' address in 1928 as 1221 Superior Street, Toledo, Ohio; it gives John Franklin Sparks's age as 35 and Esther's as 21. No other children were born to this union.
Queenstown in Queen Annes County, Maryland, is given in Earl's birth certificate as the place of birth of John Franklin Sparks. A search of the 1900 census for this county, however, has not revealed a boy named John Franklin Sparks, who would then have been about four years old. His occupation in 1928 was "Mechinist." Can anyone help Earl H. Sparks in his search for information about his father?