I don't even really know how to start this. I finally got the marriage request back yesterday--after three months of waiting--and it was successful. I actually received John Ristow and Bessie Hibbs' certificate of marriage that occurred on April 22nd, 1920, just as I had deduced.
Check it out here.
The marriage certificate listed Bessie Hibbs' parents as Charles Hibbs and Jennie Smith. This whole time I was (LUCKILY) researching the right people and that I didn't get my Bessie Hibbs confused with any other during that time period.
So why aren't I more excited?
I think I was at first. I had another document that proved that Bessie wasn't a figment of my friggin' imagination. But this told me nothing about her death, which is my ultimate goal. It wasn't until today as I was researching more crap that I had a thought: maybe Bessie really did die in a car crash when my grandmother was only 10-years-old, but by then her and John were divorced and John had already remarried Beulah.
Another gigantic mystery arose though as I was looking up divorce and marriage info: John married Beulah sometime in 1927 ... in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. What the hell? Where did Pennsylvania come from? I found out that Beulah was born in Philly, but how in the world did John end up down there?
I think my new lead is to send a request to Trenton, NJ and ask for divorce papers for John and Bessie. That won't help me with her death certificate either, but I don't know. Maybe it'll spark something...
