Maiden Name is not on Death Certificate

How many times have you come across a death certificate that did not list the mother’s maiden name? Without the maiden name, it is difficult to find the parents of your female ancestor. Hopefully, you will find clues to help you by following the trek back to the parents of Laura Mitchell.

The parents of Aaron Mitchell, Sr. are listed in his death certificate. They are: Lonnie Mitchell and Laura. Aaron was born October 9, 1905 in Texas, and he died January 1, 1970 in Groesbeck, Limestone County, Texas. The informant, Minnie Mae Mitchell did not give the maiden name of Aaron’s mother.

1940 Census

It is a great practice to observe the dynamics of a family on each census starting with the most recent. You could begin by locating Aaron Mitchell on the 1940 Census. He would be about 35 year old. The 1940 Census shows Aaron and Minnie living in Brazos County, Texas with the following children:

• Aaron, 13
• Marcellus, 11
• Minnie, 9
• Evelyn, 7
• Margaret, 4
• Norma, 2

The informant on the death certificate could have been Aaron’s wife or daughter. They both were named Minnie. Marcellus and Aaron Jr. should appear on the 1930 Census.

1930 Census

In 1930, Aaron and Minnie were living in the same county with the following children:

Aaron, 3

Buddy, 1

According to this census, Aaron married at 21, and Minnie was 17. The 1920 Census should show an eleven year old Aaron at home with his parents.

Searching each census year going back every ten years was the best route because the 1930 US Census revealed that Lonnie Mitchell, the father of Aaron Mitchell was actually born in North Carolina. If you jumped right away to find Lonnie, you may have wasted time looking for him during the early years in Texas. Plus, using the census to go back in time helps you to get a feel for possible a marriage date for Aaron’s parents and birth dates of his siblings. Lonnie and Laura were listed with the following children:

• Odessa, 18
• Marcellus, 16
• Aaron, 14
• Mabel, 12
• Rhodie, 10
• Alberta, 8
• Annie, 7
• Curtis, 6
• Lonnie, 4
• Mary Lee, 3
• Ada, 2 months

Remember that the death certificate of Aaron Mitchell, Sr. did not list his mother’s maiden name? Well with the knowledge of ten other siblings, how likely do you think it would be for one of their death certificates to list Laura’s maiden name?

Death certificates

A quick way to find these deaths would be to search their parent’s names. A search using Lonnie Mitchell and Laura in Brazos County, Texas results in the death certificate of Marcellus Mitchell (1903-1969) which includes the maiden name for his mother, Laura: Hines.

Next, a search for parents, Lonnie and Laura Hines Mitchell among the Texas Deaths (1890-1976) results in more children’s death certificates:

• Curtis Mitchell (1913-1965)
• Mary Levels (1906-1957)
• Inell Mitchell (died at 12 years of age in 1932)
• Annie L. Vaughn (1911-1978)

Birth certificates

Brazos County birth certificates are also available between 1903 and 1935. You could have also confirmed Laura’s maiden name (Hines) using the birth certificate collection:

• Female Mitchell (19 November 1919)
• Alberta Mitchell (8 May 1910)
• Curtis Mitchell (9 October 1905)
• Marcellus Mitchell (20 November 1903)

If you compare the births of Aaron and Curtis, you can see that they were twins. Hopefully, you can see the importance of researching each census year and researching the children to learn more about the parents. Researching the deaths and births of the children of Laura led to the discovery of her maiden name. The marriage record of Lonnie and Laura also reveals Laura’s maiden name.

Read Full Story...

Analyzing information on a death certificate

You need to evaluate the details that you find on a death certificate because even original records can have incorrect information. Not all the information provided on a death certificate occurred at the time the record was generated making the possibility for errors even greater. So how do you go about analyzing the data? Some tips to do this are included below.

"A piece of information is primary when it is recorded by a knowledgeable eyewitness or participant in that event, or by an official whose duties require him or her to make an accurate record of the event when it occurs." See"Skillbuilding: Guidelines for Evaluating Genealogical Records."

Take a look at the death certificate for George Anderson Tucker. The following details would be primary information:

Place of death: Columbia, South Carolina

Name: George A. Tucker

Sex: Male

Color: Colored

Marital status: Married

Wife: Daisy Tucker

Occupation: Farmer

Informant: E. W. Vance

Burial: Union County, SC, 12/13/1932

Undertaker: Manigault Funeral Home

Date of Death: 12/11/32

Cause of death: Pulmonary Tuberculosis

In this case, the informant, E. W. Vance, is the son-in-law of George. The more closely related the informant is to the decedent, the more reliable the information, although, you should make an effort to find other resources to verify the information given. Unfortunately, like many death certificates, the name of the cemetery has not been provided. That can be a huge disappointment if the funeral home is no longer in business. When this happens, consult your family to ask about known burial sites in the area. Consult newspaper obituaries and take a trip to the church cemetery. In this case, the burials sites for George's wife and children were researched. Most were found to be buried in Maple Ridge Baptist Church Cemetery where the family attended church in Union County. Later, descendants who still attend the church confirmed that George was buried there also.

Often an historical record contains both primary and secondary information. Some of the information given by the informant would be classified as secondary because he was not present when events such as when George's birth took place. For example, the full name of George's father was not given, and the informant did not give the maiden name for his mother.

Secondary information is supplied by someone who was not at the event and may include errors caused by memory loss or influenced by other parties who may have a bias or be under emotional stress. See"Skillbuilding: Guidelines for Evaluating Genealogical Records."

You may have relied heavily on clues on a death certificate to determine the names of your ancestor's parent's and birthplace. Be careful accepting this information on a death certificate as factual without any other documentation. If the names or birthplaces given are incorrect, you may find yourself on a wild goose chase.

It was necessary to refer to other records to determine the full names of George's parents. Fortunately some of the children of George were alive to confirm these findings when the research was first being conducted. Records that can verify secondary information such as parent's names on a death certificate include:

• birth records
• marriage records
• death records
• military records
• probate/wills

Before you etch any details you discover on records in the annals of history, be sure to provide your analysis of the accuracy of the information and other forms of proof.

Read Full Story...

Finding Burials for Formerly Enslaved People

Fairview Cemetery, April 2014

It is very common these days for the descendants of ancestors who held enslaved people to have a desire to know what became of the emancipated people who were connected with their family. Descendants of people of color who were enslaved have great challenges as they seek to discover their history. Often, both groups are interested in locating the burial place of formerly enslaved people and their descendants, and this is a guide to resources that can reveal the final resting place.

1870 Census

First, begin by locating the emancipated person on the 1870 Census. Search the households nearby to determine if a person who could have been the former owner (or descendants of the owner) is living nearby. Henry Sims, his wife Scillar and their children appear on the 1870 Census in Fishdam, Union, South Carolina. It was common knowledge among the descendants of Martha (daughter of Henry and Scillar) that their former owner was James Anderson Tucker. Martha's mother was his cook.

Right next door to Henry on the 1870 Census is J. A. Tucker and his wife Anna. You will not always find the emancipated person using the same surname as the person who enslaved him, but sometimes you will. The reason that you want to locate the former owner and the formerly enslaved person on the 1870 Census is because this will help you locate possible burial sites used before and after emancipation. Burial sites for formerly enslaved people could be found on university campuses, pauper cemeteries, church cemeteries, city cemeteries, owner's land, land deeded to the newly freed people.

Death certificates

You may not be accustomed to thinking about looking for a death certificate for an emancipated person or their children, but many lived well past the time death certificates were first recorded. If you are fortunate, you will be able to locate a death certificate. Death certificates often mention the place of burial. You may not recognize the place mentioned. If this is the case, you will need to research historical cemeteries, local history, local maps, or deeds to discover more about the burial site and its location.

After researching all the death certificates in Greenwood County from 1915 to 1962, it was discovered that African Americans were buried but not documented in Tabernacle Cemetery. One of the death certificates were for Mack Goggins who was born about 1881. Mack's death certificate clearly states that he was buried in Tabernacle.

This discovery led to his father, Columbus Goggins, who was the oldest living member of St. Paul AME Church before his death. Columbus, his wife, and several children are buried in Tabernacle Cemetery. Columbus was born about 1845, and he has a marker at Tabernacle. It is fortunate there is a marker for Columbus because no death certificate has been located. This was the first clue this researcher had that led to several more burials of formerly enslaved people and their descendants.

If you discover the burial ground of formerly enslaved people, do not assume it has been fully documented. Search the cemetery, obituaries, and death certificates to learn more. Be sure to share what you learn with the local library.

Obituaries

African Americans should search the local newspaper for obituaries for emancipated ancestors. Many believe that they will not find an ancestor mentioned because of the challenges faced in the early and mid 1900's. This line of reasoning did not hold true for scores of obituaries found in the Index-Journal (Greenwood, South Carolina) from 1898 and beyond which helped to document hundreds of burials in Fairview Cemetery. Not many headstones remain in Fairview, so without the discovery of obituaries and death certificates many emancipated ancestors and their children would have been forever forgotten. See A Surprise Waiting Deep in Fairview. 

Read Full Story...

Dealing with Details: Oral History Will Link Us

Because I interviewed the grandson of Columbus McClure, I discovered the details about his tragic death.  I do have a few different versions of the story, but I had enough good clues to find the death certificate. I conducted this interview long before I actually got inspired to search for actual documentation. 


According to oral history, he was walking or driving across a railroad track which was very close to his home in Birmingham Alabama and was hit by a train.  It is not clear to me that he was walking.  He was a driver for a landscape company, so I am not sure why he would have been out walking down by the tracks.

I was able to confirm the fact that he was struck by the train from the death certificate. A few years ago, I  found the index at Ancestry.com. I had to contact the department of vital records to order a copy of the original. 


I was happy to discover further details:
Birth:   November 1881 in Alexander City
Father: Bill McClure
Mother:  Jane
Burial:  Woodlawn Cemetery

These details helped me to locate his grave and identify his siblings on census records.   

Read Full Story...

11. Finding your Ancestor on the 1930 US Census

     An earlier post stressed the importance of interviewing the oldest living family members and gathering records on hand.  That information should be extracted and recorded on a pedigree chart and a family group sheet or entered into a family history database.  This will help you quickly access birth, marriage, and death information that will help you determine if you ancestor may be found on the 1930 Census.

       If you do not know your ancestor's date of birth, you can still use death records to determine if he/she would be listed on the 1930 Census. Many online indexes and links to actual images of death certificates are being made available.  If you know the county and state where your ancestor died and an approximate date of death, you can use FamilySearch Wiki to determine where a death record can be accessed.  Be sure that you are familiar with the dates that the state began to record death records.  Many records are being made available at beta FamilySearch, where you can access historical documents free.

     The US Social Security Death Index is another resource which can be used to identify birth and death.  If you have no idea where your ancestor lived in 1930, try searching the place where the Social Security was issued.  This information is usually available on the index.

     Using the family group sheet, you will be able to identify whether your ancestor was a child or a parent in 1930.  If your ancestor would have been a child, for example, you would not look for him/her as a head of household on the census.  The family group sheet will identify each member of the family, and this will be useful if you have any difficulties locating your direct-line ancestor.  You can search for each individual in the family group who would have been living in the same household as your ancestor.

     The 1930 Census can be accessed online at Ancestry.com  or at Footnote.com.  These databases are available at various libraries and institutions or by subscription. You can also order census records on microfilm at a family history center.

     Some of the types of information that you may discover about your ancestor on this census would be (see sample below):

1.  own or rent home

2.  marital status

3.  age

4.  birth place

5.  parent's birth place

6.  occupation

After you have located your ancestor on the first census, remember to record your findings on the Census Checklist.  As you search the next census for your ancestor, you will be able to more easily determine the make-up of the family group in that year.

Read Full Story...

7. Vital Records to Document Your Ancestor

Once you have interviewed the oldest living relatives in your family to find out more about your ancestor and gathered the records you have on hand such as obituaries, you will need to identify which historical documents exist which were generated during your ancestor's lifetime.

Birth, marriage, and death records are the first resources to try to locate. It is important to know when these records began to be kept in the area where your ancestor was born, married, and died.

The death is usually the most recent event in the life of an ancestor.  Start researching the most recent events and step backwards in time.  Once you can identify an actual or approximate death date and where your ancestor might have died, refer to this vital records chart to be sure the event you are trying to document would have occurred during the same time records for the event was being keep:  Vital Records Chart at Family Tree Magazine.

My great grandfather (left), George Anderson Tucker, lived in Buffalo, Union, South Carolina.   According to oral history, his family lived there when he died.  I did have a death date (1932)  provided to me by his daughter, Catherine. I knew he was alive when my grandmother, Otis, eloped (1927).  Death  records began to be kept in South Carolina in 1915, so I knew there was a strong possibility that I should find one.   I searched to no avail for a death certificate in Union County.  I decided to check Richland County for the record since his daughter lived there and it was highly likely he would have gone to Columbia seeking medical treatment.

I was successful in locating the death certificate. George died in Columbia.  The address listed is the home of his daughter, my grandmother, Otis.  Her husband, Emory Wallace Vance,  was the informant.  The names of his parents and the funeral home is also given.  This is a good illustration of how much information a death certificate can provide if the informant knew enough about the individual. This death certificate is a treasure; it includes the names of five of my direct line ancestors.

Many death records are being made available online.  The FamilySearch beta program, Record Search, could have been used if I were searching for it today. Indexes or images of  South Carolina Death Records from 1915-1943 and 1944-1955 can be accessed free of charge.  Many other collections are available there as well.  Visit Record Search first for access to vital records.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Read Full Story...