Death Certificate of Sarah Hansel (?) Myers. |
This
week I have noticed that a lot of the Pennsylvania Death Certificates are now
listed. I don’t know when they were digitized but I am just noticing them now.
While the time frame is a bit of a hindrance (currently only 1906-1940
certificates are listed) there are still plenty of documents that I have been
finding. Everything from the tragic deaths of children to the inevitable
passing of aged ancestors, the causes run the gamut. These are a great source
of information not just about the departure of a relative but they can, most of
the time, also be a great way to confirm or correct other generations on your
tree… sometimes, like a document I sent to my wife, they can provide the names
of the parents which was previously unknown information.
As
for my tree, it has been a means of correction and confirmation. The death certificate
above lists both parents including the mother’s maiden name which is different
from that which I previously had listed on my family tree. And it is not a
simple adjustment in the spelling… Davenport is nowhere close to Hansel. This
doesn’t mean that I will be correcting it right away but it gives pause to
continuing work on that particular branch. Obviously, some more work and
verification needs to be done before I change or continue with the tree as is.
These
documents are also a means to confirm residence, family health problems (that
may have made it across the generations), longevity, and occupation. Sometimes
it is a matter of confirming many of those things at the same time. One such
document added to the long list of railroad workers in my family while another
verified the service of my great great grandfather in the Philadelphia Police
Department… I just didn’t realize that he spent 54 years on the force.
In
the end, while the primary purpose of these documents was to record the death
of the family member, there is more life in them than some people realize…
definitely more than what can be found in most census records. All of the
information is there and it could lead to some interesting discoveries and
answer questions or doubts that you may have had about your family. Just goes
to show that we need to read the documents rather than just attaching them to
an ancestor.
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