WHAT ARE ICD CODES ON DEATH CERTIFICATES? Can they be helpful to you?

 

What if you finally located a death certificate online, or received one that you’d ordered, only to find out the cause of death has been redacted (obscured)?

While it isn’t “necessary” that we know the cause of death for all of our ancestors, it’s certainly a piece of the person’s life that we’d like to have.

Here’s one that I located online for the 2^nd husband of my maternal Great Grandaunt, Edna Mabel Bowden.  The man’s name is Elmer Wilbur Cunningham.

You can click on the image to enlarge it

As you can see, the image is very clear, it’s typed and it contains a lot of information.  HOWEVER, there are two areas that have been obscured/redacted.  An area in 3b that pertains to, perhaps, war service.  And the entire area which would state the Cause of Death. 

A couple of other things jumped out at me.  There was an autopsy performed and the onset of whatever killed this man had only just happened.  The date of death and the onset of the cause of death are the same.  He was only 54 yrs. old so this leads me to believe his death was sudden, which usually precipitates an autopsy.

IS THERE ANY WAY FOR ME TO ASCERTAIN WHAT CAUSED HIS DEATH?

YES, there is.  It’s called an ICD code which stands for International Classification of Diseases.  Note - these codes do not appear on all death certificates.

Here are a couple of links I found that explain what code 94a stands for:

·       Exploring ICD codes on death certificates

·       International List of Causes of Death, Revision 5 (1938)

According to the lists I located, code 94a is defined as Diseases of the Coronary Arteries. 

Generally we think of coronary artery disease as something that goes on for some time.  Why would it have been a sudden death, as I believe it to be?

Well, there could be a secondary cause of death listed, such as stroke, which would, of course have been sudden.  I can’t see behind the redacted area, therefore I cannot determine if there is a secondary cause listed.

Will I find out more about this death?  Probably not.  This man was married to my grandaunt for only 3 years and they had no children together.  I go down rabbit holes, like everyone else, but this is not one I will chase.

Did you know about ICD codes before reading this? 

If not, will you be looking for them now?

If you have used these codes to find information, I’d love to hear about it.

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl
Copyright ©  2010-2022   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

ROOTSTECH/FHL FINDS ~ The death certificate for James F. Forsyth (1864-1951)

 

Now...where is that film?

It wouldn’t be a trip to the FHL if I wasn’t looking for records from my birth state, Michigan.  So many ancestors were born, married & died there.  It seems I never run out of records to look for.  As we know, not all are available online.

As always, I prepared ahead for my trip.  Finding which microfilms I needed to look at.  I had located the index for James’ death online.  However, you never get all the details in an index.  And, you run the risk of a mis transcription. 

Here is the index record.

Michigan, Death Certificates, 1921-1952

Name: James Ferris Forsyth
Event Type: Death
Event Date: 01 Feb 1951
Event Place: Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States
Gender: Male
Age: 86
Marital Status: Widowed
Birth Date: 01 Mar 1864
Birthplace: Michigan
Birth Year (Estimated): 1865
Father's Name: John Forsyth
Mother's Name: Catherine Ferris
GS Film number: 001973236
Digital Folder Number:005363696
Image Number: 01330

You can see the film number listed with other details, like the digital folder number and image number. #1,973,244 (Michigan, death certificates, 1912-1952).  Easily located and placed onto the microfilm reader.  The additional details of the digital folder number and image number help us find records on a microfilm. 

These records were arranged by date, so all I had to do was scroll through the film and find the year or years I was looking for.

I soon located February 1951 and found the certificate for James Ferris Forsyth who died on 1 Feb 1951 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan.  James is the husband of my maternal great grandaunt, Louise Gillespie.  They were married for about 63 years. 

NOTE:  In writing this post I realize that I don’t have their exact marriage date, nor have I looked for any newspaper articles that would have announced their 50^th or 60^th anniversary.  Writing blog posts invariably leads me to look for more information on my ancestors. I will have a look for these items later.

Here is James’ death certificate.  You can enlarge it or zoom in to see details more clearly.

I now have further details, which confirm that I have the correct certificate (occupation, marital status, names of parents).  I can now record these details in my Legacy program and site this certificate as my source.

Another successful day at the Family History Library.  Yes, I found other records that day, but I’ll save those for another post.

If you are related to or connected to anyone in this blog post, please get in touch.  Let’s exchange information.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

FRIDAY FINDS ~ Newspaper article for death/possible suicide of Ralph Gillespie Forsyth ~ 1952 (this was James & Louise’s son)

FOLLOW UP ~ Why did Ralph Forsyth jump from a 9th story hotel window to his death?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2022   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

 

FRIDAY FINDS ~ Michigan Death Certificates from 1946 - HART, LINDSAY & GROUT

Every 75 years the State of Michigan releases death certificates to public domain. There is a website dedicated to presenting these certificates, it’s called Michiganology.  Many of you may remember the former site we used, it was called Seeking Michigan.

I use my Legacy database to determine which of my ancestors died in a particular year in a certain place.  The list this year was a short one with only five people on it.  One of those 5 was my great grandmother, Mae Thorp Gould.  I had ordered her death certificate years ago.

The others on the list were:

John Murray HART, my half 1^st cousin 3 times removed

Roy Jerome HART, my half 2^nd cousin twice removed

Robert “Bobby” LINDSAY, Jr., my 2^nd cousin once removed

Nellie E. Tibbits GROUT, my 1^st cousin 3 times removed

I was able to go to the Michiganology website and conduct the searches to find all 4 of the death certificates. In one case I had to get creative with my search, but eventually located the correct certificate.

Why is it important to locate the actual vital records for our ancestors?

·       To obtain unknown information

·       To verify information we may already have

·       Because it helps us complete the picture of that persons life

·       Because as genealogists we cannot have enough evidence to prove the “facts” we have listed for our ancestors

Here are the four death certificates I downloaded and saved.

They have been added to my Legacy database and each one was sourced and information gleaned from them.

Click on any image to enlarge it

You can see that these certificates contain a wealth of information.  Do they add to already known facts or events? Does it give me new information to verify? Let the fun begin.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2022   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks–Week #5–Susannah Barrowcliff–My 3rd great grandmother–1792-1868–England

I recently wrote a post about Susannah’s husband, Thomas Gillespie.  You can read the post here.

In that post I documented his marriage to Susannah and their children together.  I also mentioned that I did not have a death record for Susannah.

Shortly after I published that post and made that statement, I ordered the death record for Susannah.  I received the record this week.

I located the death record on Family Search under the England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007.
  
This is the index record I located

Name     Susan Gillispie
Event Type     Death
Registration Quarter     Jan-Feb-Mar
Registration Year     1876
Registration District     Bridgwater
County     Somerset
Event Place     Bridgwater, Somerset, England
Age (available after 1866)     84
Birth Year (Estimated)     1792
Volume     5C
Page     324
Line Number     308

Why did I conclude that this might be “my” Susan Gillespie?

• Because in 1871 she was living with her daughter, Mary Ann Addicott & family in Bridgwater. 
• The age for the person in this record would be close to what I have based on the 1841, 1851 and 1871 census records for Susannah.
• I cannot locate her in the 1881 census records for England.
• It’s the record that matches closest to the information I have.

Sometimes when we order records we cannot be sure they will be the correct record.  However, in this case, I thought it was worth the $11.84.  So, I sent for the record.

The record was ordered from General Register Office.  You can order online and the process is very easy.  I’ve ordered from them before and the response time is usually less than a month.

Of course, like all of you, I checked my mailbox every day, after about the two week mark, hoping to see that envelope.
 
I was well rewarded when it came.  The information on this record gives evidence that this is the correct record for my Susannah.

Here is her death certificate.


As I have noted in red, there are many indications that this is the correct Susan Gillespie.

English records aren’t as complete as Scottish or U.S. records.  I know the cause of her death now.  But, I still do not know who her parents were.  I would very much like to find out so that I can take this family back one more generation, at least.
 
I’ll keep looking.  In the meantime, if you have any connection to this family, please contact me.  I’d love to exchange information.

To see my other 52 Ancestors posts please click on the tab at the top of the page or 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

FRIDAY FINDS ~ Newspaper article for the death/possible suicide of Ralph Gillespie Forsyth – 1952

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2017   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

DOLERI OR DOTEN? WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT THAT WE VIEW ACTUAL RECORDS AND NOT JUST TRANSCRIPTS

This subject has always been near and dear to my heart as a genealogist.  It is important/imperative that we view the actual record for our ancestor and NOT just a transcription or index.

Early in my research, I sent for and received death records for my 3rd great grandparents, Henry Hart and Olive G. Hart.  I did not know what Olive’s maiden name was and had hopes that a death record could provide that for me.  In addition, I had no idea who her parents were.
 
I received both their death certificates in April 2005.  I was still pretty much of a rookie genealogist back then.  I was excited to have the certificates.
 
The certificates were both typed and on “official” certificates from the County of Macomb in Michigan.
 
There they were – the names of Olive’s parents – Isaac DOLERI and Sally DOLERI (no maiden name for her).  Now I had names to search for in hopes of learning more about Olive.

Here is that certificate.



I began my search for the DOLERI family.  I searched and searched and searched.  I located not one single reference to a family with the surname DOLERI.  Not on any website I went to, from Ancestry to Family Search to NEHGS, FindAGrave and RootsWeb.  I set this search aside and went on to other family members.

However, I never forgot about it and have from 2009 forward recorded my efforts to find more information.  I made inquiries to people who had trees on Ancestry and to a researcher at the New England Historical Genealogical Society (I never heard back from NEHGS).  However, I did get responses from some of the Ancestry tree members.
 
The responses I was getting were leading me to believe that there was a transcription error on the death certificate in regards to Olive’s parents surname.  I now believed that her maiden name was probably DOTEN.

I contacted the County Clerk for the County of Macomb and asked if they would just send me a copy of the actual record, at my expense of course.  They declined.  I did make a note to order the microfilm containing the Michigan death records, however, I never ordered it.

In 2011 (now 7 years after receiving Olive’s death certificate), I located death records for two of her children.  These records gave Olive’s maiden name as DATEN.  Fast forward to 2015 and I located another child’s death certificate and this one gives Olive’s maiden name as DOTEN.

Without going into too much more detail I will tell you that I located many records related to the DOTEN family in Vermont, where Olive was stated to have been born.  I was also given the middle names of all the children by a cousin, Judy, who contacted me.  She said that Olive & Henry’s first born son, Isaac’s middle name was DOTEN.  Which does make sense as far as naming patterns.
 
TODAY I was doing yet another quick search to see if I could locate the actual death record for Olive.  Maybe I would find it online. I never give up.  Don’t you know, there it was.  The actual ledger containing her death information.
   

And what do I see…..her parent’s names listed as Isaac and Sally DOTEN!

Here is the record.

 
Here is the actual entry.


If you zoom into the parent’s name in the third column from the right, you will see the last name is written DOTEN.  There is an obvious cross of the “T” on both instances.  I do understand how things are misread by transcribers and indexers.  It happens.

I have a lot more research to do on Olive.  I have not yet located her in any Vermont records for her birth, nor any probate records for Isaac Doten, that might mention her.

So, keep looking for those records.  Don’t ever give up!

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2017   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

FRIDAY FINDS–Death certificates for my husband’s grandparents

Henry & Freada Fink in the early 1950's

I have been going through my own “Do Over” and trying to make sure I have as many vital records as possible for each person in my tree.  No easy task to be sure.  But, slow and steady is the key and a little work each day will get the job done.

I was working on my husband’s side of the family and noticed that I didn’t have death certificates for his grandparents.  They both died right here in San Diego, where I live.  Several cousins also live here in the area.  Maybe one of them have the death certificates?

NOTE:  Sometimes it is the family closest to us for whom we don’t have complete records.  Like my siblings marriage records (still need to obtain those), these death records for Ron’s grandparents etc.  How about our own birth certificate or school records?  Have you recorded and scanned those?

I did contact the cousin who has provided me with all of the records I have for Ron’s family and she directed me to her daughter.  I made the request yesterday and this morning there they were, in my email.



Genie happy dance for sure.  Now I have a cause of death, more evidence of parent’s names etc.




Now instead of a blank space under “death cause” on my family view in Legacy, I have this:



Another find today was a probate record for Ron’s great grandfather.  More on that in another post.

Suffice to say, it’s been a great morning here in the genealogy cave.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

SURNAME SATURDAY – Fink

MICHIGAN DEATH RECORDS ONLINE - Where can you find them?

Happy hunting,

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

MICHIGAN DEATH CERTIFICATE IMAGES RELEASED–1921 - 1939

There is hardly anything more exciting to a genealogist than a long awaited release of records.  Especially when those records are IMAGES.

Today, the heretofore only indexed Michigan Death Certificates, 1921-1939, have been released to us on michiganology.org

I heard this news early this morning and by now, I’m sure most of you have heard it also. 

WHAT DID I DO BEFORE GOING ONLINE TO LOOK FOR RECORDS?

I went into my Legacy database and ran a report that would give me the names of everyone in my database that died after 1920 and before 1940. 
 

A list of 274 individuals was created.  Because I didn’t designate a place of death the list included those without a place of death and those with a place of death.  I found that when I designated “place of death” Michigan I got very few results.

I began going thru my list.  The people who died in another state could easily be ignored and I could concentrate on those whose place of death was either Michigan or those with no place of death.  Since I’m familiar with my family names it was easy to pick out those I needed to check.

Here is page one from my list of 274 names.

I can see that Adams & Ainsworth died in the correct time period and that they are buried in Michigan.  I can also see that Henrietta Barnes died during the 1921-1939 time period.  I know I can rule out the Allen & Armstrong names because they aren’t associated with my Michigan ancestors.



Using this list, I began to enter the criteria into the seekingmichigan.org site for death records. 
I can tell you that it was a very successful day and I have located and saved 21 death certificates to my computer.

Rather than enter and source each one into my database as I found them, I decided to crop and adjust them and save them to my computer.  I made a list of the RIN number and the person’s name.  This will now allow me to go back and take the time I need to take to properly document each death certificate.
 
There are still more names to check from my list.  But, I will take these 21 certificates and complete my entry and sourcing before going on to find more.

I have to admit it was kind of difficult to stop myself today.  Having access to records I have previously had to pay as much as $22-36 for is indeed a treat.
 
Please share with me how many death certificates you were able to find.  Did you find any surprises?  Tear down any brick walls?  I don’t think I have yet, but there is more on this list to explore.
 
OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
OTHER MICHIGAN DEATH RECORDS ONLINE - Where can you find them?
REVIEWING A RANDOM PERSON IN MY DATABASE - How much can I learn in an hour?

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

AMANUENSIS MONDAY–Death Certificate of Joseph Jackson Hunter–Age 25

What does Amanuensis mean anyway?

To put it simply, it means a “person employed to write what another dictates or copy what has been written by another.”
 
Today I will transcribe a death certificate.
It is a death certificate for Joseph Jackson HUNTER, first cousin twice removed. Son of Raphael HUNTER & Lucy SILER.

You know those wonderful Photo Duplication Requests that many of us have been using?  Yes, the ones that have been discontinued.
I had a couple of last minute requests I turned in before the December 5th deadline and have received one of them back.  I felt that same excitement when the email came. Oh boy, another record!


I ordered this certificate because I was curious why Joseph Hunter had died at the age of only 25 yrs.  I had located his death record index on the family search site.  From there I had created a memorial on findagrave.com memorial #92249329.  I requested a photo of the headstone and the request was kindly fulfilled.

Here is his death certificate:

 
Let’s take a good look at this certificate top to bottom.  Will it confirm information I already know?  Give me new information? Let’s find out.

Place of death:  St. Clair County, East St. Louis, Illinois
Registration No. 856, Primary Dist. No. 3647, number stamped in the top middle of certificate appears to be 31905.
This is a Coroner’s Certificate of Death
Died at St. Mary’s Hospital
Length of residence where death occurred: 1 mos. 0 ds
1a. Place of residence: State-Illinois, County-St. Clair, Township-Sugarloaf, City or Village-Dupo
2.  Full Name: Joseph Jackson Hunter
3.  Sex – Male
4.  Color or Race – White
5.  Single, married, widowed or divorced – divorced
5a.  If married, widowed or divorced husband of – Louise Hunter
6.  Date of birth – March 2, 1913
7.  Age – 25 years, 5 months, 0 days
8.  Trade, profession etc – Electrician Helper
9.  Industry or business – Montsanto Chem. Co.
10. Date deceased last worked at this occupation – July 38 [should that be 18?]
11. Total time (years) spent in this occupation – 5
12.  Birthplace – East St. Louis, Ill.
13. Name of father – Raphael Hunter
14. Birthplace of father – Kentucky
15. Maiden name of mother – Lucy Siler
16. Birthplace of mother – Tennessee
17. Informant – Mrs. R. Hunter, P.O. Address – Dupo, Illinois
18. Place of burial – Cemetery – St. Paul; location – Columbia, Illinois; Monore County, Illinois
19. Date – Aug. 4, 1938
20. Undertaker – Albert L. Dashner, Dashner Funeral Home, Dupo, Ill.
21. Date of death – Aug. 2, 1938
22. Inquest & autopsy held and deceased came to his death on the date stated above…….death was from compression fracture to 5th cervical vertebrae.
Date of Onset or occurrence:  July 3, 1938
Manner of injury was: Dived in Mississippi river at E. Corondlete
Accidental, suicidal or homicidal – Accidental
Was injury related to occupation – No
23. Injury rec’d in E. Corondlete township
Specify whether injury occurred in industry, in home or    in public place:  Mississippi River
24. Signed: Leo L. Madden, MD Coroner
Address 403A Collinsville Ave.  E. St. Louis, Ill.
Date Aug 3, 1938  Telephone – E2213
25. Filed Aug 4 1938 (stamped) R. C. Fannier registrar
P.O. Address  E. St. Louis, Ill

When I went over this certificate the first couple of times, I had missed some things.  Transcribing the record brought those to my attention.

MY NEXT STEPS:

• See if there is a newspaper article about this incident.  If he dove into the Mississippi River and was injured that would certainly be news worthy.
• Find the divorce record for he and his wife Louise.
• Since there was a Coroner’s inquest, I may be able to order that record.
• Enter this as a source in Legacy and link it to all appropriate data & events.  And, enter the image of the certificate in the photo gallery (plus sign next to his death info).

So, now I know why Joseph Jackson Hunter died at the age of 25 years.  And don’t I know so much more about him?

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
MICHIGAN DEATH RECORDS ONLINE - Where can you find them?
CORONER'S CASE FILE - Robert L. Bowden - An analysis

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

FOLLOW UP TO PHOTO DUPLICATION REQUESTS FROM FAMILY SEARCH

Hi everyone.  On 7/13/14 I wrote about submitting photo duplication requests to familysearch.org.  You can read that post here PHOTO DUPLICATION REQUESTS ON FAMILY SEARCH PLUS A LITTLE BIT ABOUT LEGACY & EVERNOTE

On July 12th, I submitted five requests to Family Search for death certificates.  All five deaths occurred in the state of Michigan.

GILLESPIE, Mary Eva - 1949 - Eloise, Wayne, Michigan
GILLESPIE, Susan - 1933 - Detroit, Michigan
PICKARD, Ellen  - 1927 - Detroit, Michigan
THORNTON, Mary - 1929 - Muskegon, Michigan
THORPE, Catherine  - 1941 - Detroit, Michigan
 
Based on the timeline given on the familysearch website, I didn’t expect to receive these records, if I did receive them at all, until 4-6 weeks after my request was submitted.
 
SURPRISE!
 
On July 16, just four (4) days after my requests, I received four of the death certificates. Oh my gosh!  Was I every surprised to get that email.  Of course I was away from home and saw the email on my phone.  I didn’t get home for several hours, but couldn’t wait to download and view those certificates.
 
The only certificate I didn’t receive was the 1927 death of Ellen Pickard.  As of this date, I have still not received that one.  I sure hope I do because she is my grand aunt and my grandmother talked about her all the time.
 
But, the four others have been enough to keep me quite busy and have led to the discovery of a set of 4th great grandparents and other data.  
 
And to answer the question about whether I would receive the two certificates for the deaths that occurred after 1938.  The answer is YES.
 
Here are the certificates I received.
 
(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)





Unfortunately, I have only had the time to actually “work” on the certificate for my 2nd Great Grandmother, Susan Gillespie.  It’s just been one of those busy weeks.  I’m sure you can all relate.  

However, that one certificate has led me to the following information, some of it I already had, some of it was new.

• Her name
• Her date of birth
• Her husband’s name
• Her place of birth (I believe it should say Tiverton, England and not Twerton)
• Her father’s name
• Her mother’s maiden name (NEW INFORMATION)
• Her cause of death (NEW INFORMATION)
• Her place of death (NEW INFORMATION)
• The informant on her death certificate (NEW INFORMATION)
• Her place of burial
• The funeral home that handled the arrangements for the family (NEW INFORMATION)
• Her residence at the time of her death (NEW INFORMATION)
• How long she had been in the U.S. (NEW INFORMATION)
• Her length of residence in Detroit, Michigan (NEW INFORMATION)

I’d say that is quite a list, wouldn’t you?  Including 8 pieces of NEW INFORMATION.
I definitely did my genealogy happy dance
Thanks to finding that maiden name for Susan Gillespie’s mother, Elizabeth Gaden, I have used the website FindMyPast to locate more information about the Gaden/Gaydon/Gayden family from Devonshire, England.  

NOTE:  On my very first genealogy trip back in 2007, I went to Detroit, Michigan.  My birthplace and the birthplace for many of my family members.  On that trip I was able to go to several cemeteries in Detroit and photograph headstones.  It was an absolutely wonderful trip.  One of the headstones I photographed was for Elizabeth Gaden who’s married name was Burgess.  I have wanted to learn more about her ever since that time.

Here I am in 2007 at the headstone for my 3rd great grandmother Elizabeth Gaden Burgess

Here is the back of her headstone naming her husband, her date of death and her age

  

I can’t wait to explore the other three certificates I received and see what they will reveal.

TIP:  Even though I have looked over the information on this certificate and gleaned every possible piece of data that I could.  I will still go back another time or two as I am citing this source and making those entries in Legacy.  We often miss things when we first see a document and another look or three or four, never hurts.

This has been a very good experience and I am counting the days until I can submit 5 more requests to Family Search.  Until then, I have plenty to do.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE PHOTO DUPLICATION SERVICE WAS DISCONTINUED BY FAMILY SEARCH - EFFECTIVE DECEMBER 5, 2014.  YOU CAN READ ABOUT IT IN THIS POST 

 http://www.michiganfamilytrails.com/2014/11/photo-duplication-service-to-be.html

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

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