MARY KIRCHER RODDY
  • Home
  • Coaching and Research
  • Lectures
    • Upcoming and Past Presentations
  • Searching For Stories blog
  • Publications
  • Contact
  • Resources
  • Privacy Policy

Searching for Stories

411 for a Cemetery

5/30/2017

1 Comment

 
Picture
So you’ve found your relative on FindaGrave.  And there’s even a picture of the grave marker.  Score!  But could there be another relative buried nearby with no marker, or with an illegible stone?  As far as I’ve been able to tell, many FindAGrave memorials are created because someone walked through the cemetery and wrote down the graves that they could see.  Nothing to see - no memorial.  So of course, you’ll want to contact the cemetery sexton or other official to see if the cemetery has records on who else might be buried in the plot or elsewhere in the cemetery, perhaps in an unmarked or illegible grave.

I have not had great success in googling the cemetery to get contact details for the sexton.  Yes, I can perhaps get a satellite image of the cemetery, and probably a link back to FindAGrave, but no contact information. 

And then I got an idea.  Who would have reliable contact information for a cemetery official?  Why, the local funeral home, of course!  If the cemetery is still taking new burials, the local funeral home is certain to know how to get in contact with someone in charge of the graveyard.  Just do a Google search for funeral homes in your town of interest, and give ‘em a call.  They’ll point you to the cemetery director and you’ll be on your way to getting your questions answered about just who might be buried there.
1 Comment

Just Because They’re Buried There Doesn’t Mean They Died There

5/2/2017

4 Comments

 
Picture
It’s far too tempting to see a cemetery marker for an ancestor and assume she died in that place.  And then spend hours trying to find the death record there.   But it’s important to consider that she might have died hundreds or thousands of miles away.  Even a long-time genealogist can forget this when she really really really wants to find that death record. (Now who could I be talking about....Mary??!!!)

I recently researched the Smith family of Vernon, Shiawassee, Michigan.  Smith is rarely a fun name to research and this one was no exception.  I found a death record on Seeking Michigan for Robert Smith, age 66 who died in Vernon and was buried at Greenwood Cemetery.[1]  FindAGrave shows a memorial for him.[2]  Though no spouse is linked to him, the photo of the memorial for Elizabeth Smith who died 13 June 1907 at age 71 is clearly another side of the same grave marker.[3]

And that’s where the cautionary tale starts.  I spent ages looking for Elizabeth’s death certificate in Shiawasse and later all of Michigan on the SeekingMichigan website. I searched for everyone named Elizabeth who died in June 1907.  I searched for every person who died on 13 June 1907.  I searched for all the Smiths in Shiawassee.  I could not rustle up a death certificate for her.  But she’s buried right there!  Next to her husband!!  Where, oh where, is her darn death certificate?!!!

I finally had to put Elizabeth on the back burner.  Searching on Ancestry and FamilySearch I found a San Francisco area funeral home record for Robert Smith, Jr., Elizabeth and Robert’s son, which included a newspaper clipping of his death notice.[4]  Lucky for me, Robert Jr.’s sisters and daughters married people with far more imaginative surnames, including Dorward and Coppelberger. Names a genealogist can truly love.... Newspaper searches soon turned up a Flint, Michigan article indicating Elizabeth died in Los Angeles.[5] 

And then I dove down another rat hole looking for Elizabeth’s death certificate in Los Angeles.  Another cautionary tale - don’t believe everything you read in a newspaper.  Eventually I searched the California Death Index on FamilySearch to discover that Elizabeth died not in Los Angeles but in Alameda County.[6]  I guess to the reporter in Flint in 1910, one city in California is as good as the next!
​
So remember, just because someone is buried somewhere, it doesn’t mean they died anywhere near there.  Be willing to search far and wide for a death certificate.


Thank you to my friend, Karrie, who lets me research her ancestors like they're my own...

[1] Michigan Certificate and Record of Death for Robert Smith, Sr.  County of Shiawassee, Certificate No. 238.  Date of Death 29 Aug 1897

[2] Find A Grave Memorial# 39077645 for Robert Smith in Greenwood Cemetery, Vernon, Shiawassee, Michigan (https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=smith&GSfn=robert&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=24&GScnty=1304&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=39077645&df=all& : accessed 25 April 2017)

[3] Find A Grave Memorial# 39074584 for Elizabeth Smith in Greenwood Cemetery, Vernon, Shiawassee, Michigan (https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Smith&GSiman=1&GSsr=41&GScid=638&GRid=39074584& : accessed 25 April 2017)

[4] "California, San Francisco Area Funeral Home Records, 1835-1979," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JNVX-C8M : 28 November 2014), Robert Smith, 15 Nov 1916; citing funeral home J.S. Godeau, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, record book Vol. 20, p. 1-404, 1916-1917, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco History and Archive Center.

[5] “Death of Mother,” The Flint Daily Journal, 18 June 1907, page 8, col 3 (GenealogyBank.com :  accessed 25 April 2017)

[6] "California Death Index, 1905-1939," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKSM-DGFS : 5 June 2015), Elizabet Smith, 13 Jun 1907; citing 13872, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento.
4 Comments

    Author

    Mary Kircher Roddy is a genealogist, writer and lecturer, always looking for the story.  Her blog is a combination of the stories she has found and the tools she used to find them.

    Read more of Mary's writings at "Adventures of A Broad Abroad" and at Letters from Limerick

    Archives

    April 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All
    Achard
    Ahern
    Aldrich
    Amador County Genealogy
    Ancestry.com
    Archives
    Blair County
    Bradley Family
    Brannack
    Brannock
    Brown
    Brown Family
    California Genealogy
    Cemetery
    Census
    Citations
    City Directories
    Clark County
    Death Records
    DNA Strategies
    Education
    Enslaved People Research
    FamilySearch
    Family Stories
    Fields Family
    Freuhauf
    Genealogy Conferences
    Genealogy Education
    German Research
    Germany
    Graham Family
    Grandparents
    Hardy
    Hartmann
    Indexes
    Ireland
    Kircher
    Letters
    Lunenburg
    Map
    Mapping Tools
    Midwest Resources
    Midwives
    Military
    Newspaper
    Newspapers
    New York
    Ohio
    Pennsylvania
    ProGen
    Railroad
    Records
    Research Techniques
    San Francisco
    Sonoma County Genealogy
    Spreadsheets
    Springer
    Tiburon
    Timelines
    Virginia
    Virginia Genealogy
    Vital Records
    War
    Webster
    World War II Research
    Writing

     Subscribe in a reader

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Coaching and Research
  • Lectures
    • Upcoming and Past Presentations
  • Searching For Stories blog
  • Publications
  • Contact
  • Resources
  • Privacy Policy