I think I finally have my head around the Levi/Louis Peichowsky story. Here is his grave in Mobile.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/115922841/louis-piechowskyHe may have arrived in the US as Levi but he is Louis from then on, He married Emma Fagan (also buried here) in 1863 in Mobile and they had one daughter, Annie, in Alabama in 1865 before heading to Brazil, where Lula Rosalie was born in 1869 and Louis was born in 1875. Then they returned to Alabama, where Louis Senior died in 1877. I was confused by the letter from the widow asking for a pension because it does not mention Emma by name. The 1880 Census lists Emma and her three children. Emma died in 1918 and the gravestone for Louis and Emma at Mobile was erected by their daughter Lula, who by then had married Christopher McLean in Mobile in 1899 and had two boys, Claude and Leo.
Annie married a man named Pendleton Gaines (Bud) Moore and is on the Census with him at least until 1920.
The youngest child, Louis, seems to have a much more interesting life, to put it politely. We know from the death record that he was called Louis Peichowski (Pillard). In fact, he seems to have used a few names. It is to be expected that his Polish surname might be confusing to clerks etc but this is more than just that. On 21 Oct 1899 when he married his first wife, Etta Lee Wentworth, he was Louis R Pomatowski. On 6 Apr 1911 when he married his second wife Mary Cynthia Cox he was Lawrence R Pillard. On 31 May 1918, when he was required to front the Chancery Court to answer a complaint from Mary C Pillard, he was described as "Lawrence R Pillard alias Louis R Poniatsowski". On his WWI draft card registration on 12 Sep 1918 he was Lawrence Ray Pillard. In a 1929 directory he was Louis R Pillard. And for his third marriage, in 1936, and in a 1939 directory, he was Lawrence Raymond Pillard.
So it makes sense that he is listed as Louis Piechowski (Pillard) on the cemetery entry, remembering that Pillard was his sister Rose's married name. What is a little surprising is that Mary Cox, his second wife whom he divorced, is listed as the wife and the bill is to be sent to her. Perhaps the other two wives had died.
Geoff
