Gertrude Mary Barnum is listed as G. May Barnum, 4 years old in the 1880 Census for Elm Grove, Antelope County, Nebraska with her parents and brother Heber. She married a man named Smith first and on March 7, 1924 in Detroit, Michigan, Edward S. Etherington (Michigan Marriages). She was listed as Mary Barnum Smith, widow, on her marriage record. In 1930, they were enumerated in Clinton, Macomb County, Michigan. The marriage was the second for both.