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Ruth Ella Sill written October 25, 2025
Ruth Ella Sill written October 25, 2025
BIRTH 6 MAY 1907 • Peoria, Peoria, Illinois, USA
DEATH 11 MAR 1978 • Springfield, Sangamon, Illinois, USA
Ruth Ella Sill was born in Peoria, Illinois, USA, on 6 May 1907. She was the daughter of James Edward Sill and Harriet E Newell. She married Peter Augustino Blum on 29 Jun 1927 and they raised a large family in Peoria. She passed away on 7 Apr 1930 at the age of 43.
Some genealogists have recorded Ruth’s maiden name as Marsh due to that surname appearing on her mother’s gravestone. This is not Ruth’s original maiden name but rather the surname her mother received from her second husband, Joseph James Marsh.
Hattie Marsh was known as Harriet Sill while she was married to and James Edward Sill. They share gravestone at Lutheran Cemetery in Peoria, Illinois, USA.
Ruth Sill can be found in the 1910 and 1920 Census living in Peoria, Illinois, with her father James Edward Sill and mother Harriet Sill. The Social Security Administration notes her father as Edward J Sill and her mother as Harriet Newell. We are confident that she was born with the last name of Sill.
Ruth’s mother Hattie passed away on 7 Apr 1930. Two days before that, on 5 Apr 1930, her father was recorded in the 1930 Census as “divorced” so we can be confident they separated sometime between 1920 and 1930.
James Edward Sill is recorded as “divorced” in the 1930 Census.
An unverified record on Find A Grave indicates that Hattie Sill married Joseph James Marsh sometime in 1924. If this is correct, Harriet re-married before Ruth married Peter Augustino Blum in 1927. It’s possible Ruth used the Marsh surname until she married Peter.
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