CORONER’S CASE FILE – ROBERT L. BOWDEN – AN ANALYSIS

Robert L. Bowden is my great grandfather on my mother’s side.  I wrote about locating his death certificate (after having looked for over 10 years) on Saturday, June 14, 2014 in this post EVALUATING A RECORD – IN HONOR OF FATHER’S DAY (click on the link to read the post).

At the end of that post I wrote about what I would do next.  One of the things on my list was to find out if there was a Coroner’s Report for his death.  

The following items led me to conclude that there may have been an autopsy or investigation into his death:

• The death certificate was signed by the Coroner.
• His death was “sudden.”
• The burial date & date of death were 17 days apart.

I sent an email and received a reply back from the Allegheny County Coroner Case Files office that they did have a file and I could submit my request.  I downloaded the form and did just that.

Here is the request I submitted. I enclosed a check for $12, and kept a copy of the request and my check in my Evernote Notebook for the Bowden surname. 

The request was mailed on 16 Jun 2014 and I received his Coroner Case File on 28 Jun 2014.  That’s a great turnaround time!

Here is a copy of the six page report.  I have indicated the items on each page that I took notice of.  

Page 1 & 2    (Click on any image to enlarge it)
  

Page 3 & 4
  

Page 5 & 6
  

WHAT DID I LEARN FROM THIS REPORT?

• Further confirmation for the date of death of Robert L. Bowden.
• Page 1 estimates his age at about 48 yrs., page 3 estimates about 40 yrs. Based on various documents we have his age was about 43-45 yrs. in 1906.
• The time he was actually found on the floor of the hotel & the name of the hotel.
• Who found him on the floor of the hotel.
• Others who were present shortly after his death.
• The names of the officer and doctor who declared him dead.
• The name of a friend who had known him for 16 years.
• That his friend stated he had a wife and two daughters.  We know he and our great grandmother were divorced in 1899 and that they had two daughters.  Had he remarried since then?
• That his friend did not know the location of his wife & daughters or the cause of his death.
• His occupation as a Railroader which matches other records we have on him.
• That he wasn’t known by the clerk at the hotel.
• That the jury’s verdict agreed with the Coroner & the Doctor that this man died from heart disease.

WHAT QUESTIONS DO I STILL HAVE?

• Had Robert L. Bowden been sick prior to his death?
• Had he been to any doctors or hospitals?
• On page 4  (and I didn’t underline this) the clerk said that Mr. Bowden’s friend “took” him to his room about noon.  Does that mean the friend accompanied him?  Or was Mr. Bowden in such a condition to have to be “taken” to the room?
• Since there is no statement of an autopsy being performed on the body, how did they come to the conclusion that he died of heart disease?
• Did one of the witnesses, his friend perhaps, know of a history of heart disease?
• Could he have died of foul play?  Did he fall & hit his head? Was there some other method or cause of death? 
• Is this the way all Coroner’s Case Files looked back in 1906? 

This was the first time I have ever sent for a coroner’s report on any of my ancestors.  I find it interesting and informative.  However, I obviously still have questions.  Will I ever learn the answers to those questions?  I don’t know.

I do know that I have learned more about the circumstances of my great grandfather’s death and I’m extremely happy to have this information.  

I don’t consider this case closed just yet.  I will still be trying to answer some of the outstanding questions about his life.  

I’d love to hear if you have ever reviewed a Coroner’s Case for any of your ancestor’s?  And, if so, what year it was and how was the report presented?  Did it contain more information than this report?

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
SURPRISE - A BIRTH RECORD WHERE IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE
VITAL RECORDS - HOW TO REQUEST THEM & KEEP TRACK OF THOSE REQUESTS 

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl 

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

EVALUATING A RECORD FOUND – IN HONOR OF FATHER’S DAY

 

Today is a very happy day.  I have located (to the best of my belief as a genealogist) the death record for my Great Grandfather, Robert L. Bowden.  He may not have been a model father, but I still want to know about his life. 

I have been trying to locate this record for over 10 years.  My grandmother, Florence Bowden Milne was Robert L. Bowden’s daughter.  She was also a genealogist who left me a lot of records about her family.  One of those records was a date of death for her father, Robert, on 9 Oct 1906.  No place of death was given.

A LITTLE BACKGROUND ABOUT MY GREAT GRANDFATHER

Robert L. Bowden was born 8 Feb 1863 in White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier, West Virginia.  We do not know who his parents were……yet.

He married Florence Hunter on 10 Mar 1887 in Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio.  They had two daughters – Florence L. Bowden (my grandmother) and Edna “Denny” Mabel Bowden.  He and Florence divorced on 17 Jul 1899.

(Click on any image to enlarge it)

Marriage Record for Robert L. Bowden and Florence Hunter - 1887

First page of divorce record for Robert Bowden & Florence Hunter - 1899

The next record I have for Robert Bowden is a 1900 census that matches close enough for me to believe it is him.



I have never located a record beyond this 1900 census, that I believe to be my Robert L. Bowden.  

Since my grandmother, Florence Bowden, has seldom been wrong on her names & dates about family, I trusted that she would know at least the year of her father’s death.  

Today, I decided to try once more, searching for a death record for Robert L. Bowden.  I conducted search after search on the Family Search site. I varied the name, I used an asterisk after Bow* so I would get more hits.  I searched under Bou* Bor*, you name it, I searched.  Having found nothing on that site I decided, with little hope, to search Ancestry.  I have a tree on Ancestry and I’ve searched a LOT and looked for any hints for Robert L. Bowden.  Never to find anything substantial.  

We all know that new records are added all the time.  Today I searched on Ancestry for Robert L. Bowden with a death year of 1906, no location in my search.

Here is what I got!!!!

Pennsylvania Death Certificates on Ancestry.com

That first record looks promising to me.  To even find a Robert L. Bowden who died in 1906, let alone the exact month my grandmother had said, and only one day different than her record.  I clicked on it with great anticipation. 

• Would this be him?
• Would it list his parents’ names?
• Had I finally found his death record?

I clicked on the record and here is what came up.



What is correct on the index?

• His name
• His gender and race
• The month & year of his death

What is off a little bit?

• His age & year of birth (I have his year of birth as 1863-65) which would make him 41-43 years old.

Now let’s take a look at the actual death certificate.



Evaluating what you see on a record with what you know.

1.  His name is a match
2.  I notice he died at a hotel, the Victoria Hotel.  As a railroad employee I know the men traveled all the time.
3.  I see the same information listed on the index page.  He is a white, male.  He died on 8 Oct 1906.  My grandmother gave his date of death as 9 Oct 1906.
4.  He is listed as married.  The last record I have that I believe to be him is a 1900 census showing him married to a woman named Bertie.
5.  His occupation is R R Man.  That’s pretty big, as he is known to have worked for the railroad in every record I have for him.
6.  He died suddenly of heart disease.  This isn’t anything I had known before.  However, the record is signed by a Coroner on 23 Oct 1906.  He is listed as having been buried until 25 Oct 1906.  This tells me that there was probably an autopsy performed.

MY CONCLUSION

I believe I have found my great grandfather, Robert’s, death record.  I am going to try to find more evidence to substantiate this conclusion. 

As genealogists we have to gather our evidence and put things together.  What we know with what we don’t know.  What we have with what we don’t have.  

Every piece of the puzzle won’t always be a match.

WHAT I WILL DO NEXT

Since I suspect there was an autopsy, I will try to find that report.  I looked online and found a website for Allegheny County Coroner Case Files.  They allow you to send an email request and they will do a look up for free.  If they find a file, they let you know and you can then submit a request for the record.  I have already sent the email this afternoon and received an auto reply back stating they have my request.  

The death certificate lists his place of burial as Highwood Cemetery.  I have placed a memorial on FindAGrave - Robert L. Bowden Memorial for him.  

I will contact the cemetery, if they have an office that is still operating, and try to find out more information from their records.  Who ordered the burial?  Is there a headstone?

I still need to know who Robert Bowden’s parents were.  

This has been a wonderful day.  Finding a record after looking for 10 years is very rewarding.  Be able to answer those questions about our ancestors is why we do what we do.  I especially want those answers if it is a direct line, like this is. 

Keep looking.  NEVER GIVE UP!  Those walls will fall……one day.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
HOW I FOLLOW A TRAIL OF RECORDS & ANALYZE WHAT I FIND - Part 1  
HOW I FOLLOW A TRAIL OF RECORDS & ANALYZE WHAT I FIND - Part 2

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION