October | 2020 | Posting Family Roots

October is Family History Month. Did you know that October is also Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness month? This is an especially poignant time for me as I recall my several miscarriages- i.e. pregnancies ending before 20 weeks of gestation. We only know the gender of one of those babies- a girl with multiple genetic anomalies. My sons know about these losses. My stories will probably fade with time and could be totally forgotten within a generation or two. In this post, I explore ways to remember those babies who died before, during or within a year or two of birth.

Clipart source: https://www.clipartmax.com/download/m2H7d3b1Z5m2b1Z5_ribbon-fabric-knotty-dotty-pregnancy-and-infant-loss-ribbon/

Before the days of effective birth control methods, women often bore children about every two or three years. Babies breastfed for about a year which provided some contraceptive protection. Some groups prohibited (or at least, discouraged) sexual intercourse while a mother was breastfeeding. Many children died before the age of 5.

Look at the birth dates of known children in your own family tree. If there is more than a 2- or 3- year gap, suspect pregnancy and/or infant loss. A young child (less than 5 years old) recorded on one census but not on the next may have died in the interim. Consider events such as war when men might be away from home for years at a time. If the husband returned home briefly during war time, a pregnancy may have occurred.

Records documenting losses due to miscarriages, stillbirths and premature births are not easily found. In 1900 and 1910, census takers recorded the number of children born to a married woman and the number still living. In my case, the record would show 2 children born and 2 living with no mention of the number of pregnancies. One example from my family tree – Mattie Williams Johnson reported as mother of 7 and 5 living in 1900[1]; mother of 9 and six living in 1910[2]. Assertion – two children died between her marriage year of 1882 and 1900, one more died between 1900 and 1910. How can I find these children?

Obituaries of women sometimes state “She was preceded in death by an infant son [or daughter]”. Mattie died in 1936. Her obituary says that she is survived by four sons and one daughter.[3] This roughly corresponds to the six living children reported on 1910 census. A daughter, Laura Alice Johnson Alewine, died in 1925 at the age of 35.[4] So, I am no closer to identifying the 3 children who apparently died young.

Earlier and later census records did not record childbirth information. Look through local newspapers and browse beyond obituaries and death notices. Following a sentence about Sunday school attendance in the Point Enterprise section, The Mexia (Texas) Weekly Herald for 24 October 1930 reported—“The infant son of Mr. and Mrs. George Johnson was buried at this place Sunday morning with Rev J.E. Gore officiating.” [5] Later, I found the death certificate for this boy, Edward Johnson, who was stillborn. [6] Edward was Mattie’s grandson, son of George A. Johnson and Bertha Freeman.

Search online cemetery records for persons with birth and death dates close together. Some gravestones mark the date of death and ‘infant’ or ‘son/ daughter of _______.’ Older gravestones often list the person’s age, such as ‘age 2 months 3 days.’ I found one of Mattie’s children, Everett, born 1903, who died when he was 5 years old. Everett’s gravestone has this information – s/o [son of ] Mattie and G.W. Johnson.[7] Although not an infant when he died, he is one of Mattie’s three dead children.

What about Mattie’s two other children? Online trees show dates but no other information and no sources for the information provided. My preliminary, and certainly not comprehensive, searches reveal nothing further.

Where else to look for information about infant deaths? Family Bible entries may contain the only record of a child’s birth and early death. A distant cousin graciously shared digital copies of pages from an 1876 Bible.[8] One page has this entry: “John Uzemer Ellerbee died December 7, 1871, aged 3 years, 3 months, 8 days”. John’s parents were James John Ellerbee and Elizabeth Hayes.

Print sources are not always available online. Other places to check:

Local genealogical and historical societies:
- Books of cemetery listings and obituaries published by the local society. For example, The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society publishes several books of cemetery inscriptions. Example – Dutchess County NY Cemetery Inscriptions of Towns of East Fishkill, Fishkill & Wappinger (Kinship Books, KS-273 ISBN:1560123060).
- Vertical files kept by these societies. Send a donation if you ask their staff to search for you.
Local libraries and County Clerk Offices. Staff may or may not be able to search for you, especially if you don’t know a specific name or date. Enlist the help of a relative or someone from a local genealogical or lineage society, if needed.
Walk local cemeteries. Carefully record what you find, even unreadable gravestones. A small stone next to adults could mark the grave of a child.

To review, discovering those children who died young is a challenge. Use a multitude of online and print resources. Search widely and deep. Document sources for yourself and others. Even ‘unsourced’ online trees give clues. Remember to tell the stories of all the babies, not just those who lived beyond infancy and early childhood!

REFLECTION

I am sad as I recall my own miscarriages. As a registered nurse, I worked with new mothers and both well and sick babies. Every loss is painful. Family stories are not complete until we tell the stories of the children who never lived to have children of their own. In this post, I primarily reported about children who died in the 20^th century. However, I believe that you can use my suggestions to search for those who died in earlier times.

What I learned: Use print resources more!

What helped: Information already in my paper and digital files.

What didn’t help: Continuing frustration with unsourced information in online trees. Even a note “I got this from XYZ online tree; not confirmed” would be nice!

To-Do: Add unsourced information about Mattie’s 2 other children to BSO list. Keep my eyes open for any clues.

© Susan Posten Ellerbee and Posting Family Roots blog, 2020

SOURCES CITED

[1] 1900 U.S. Census, Limestone county, Texas, population schedule, Armour, enumeration district (ED) 63, p. 9B, dwelling 167, family 168, George Johnson; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 8 August 2020); citing National Archives & Records Administration, Washington, D.C. microfilm publication T623_1655.

[2] 1910 U.S. Census, Limestone county, Texas, population schedule, , enumeration district (ED) 32, p. 15B, dwelling 213, family 219, George W. Johnson; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : viewed 8 August 2020); citing National Archives & Records Administration, Washington, D.C. microfilm publication, T624_1573.

[3] “Mrs. Johnson, 75, dies on Monday,” obituary, Mexia (Mexia, Texas) Weekly Herald, 30 October 1936; digital images, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : viewed & printed 25 July 2020); citing The Mexia Weekly Herald newspaper.

[4] Find A Grave, database and images (http://www.findagrave.com : viewed & printed 20 October 2020), memorial page for Laura Alice Johnson Alewine, Find A Grave Memorial # 34526511, citing New Hope Cemetery (Limestone, Texas), memorial created by Geno-seeker, photograph by PFDM.

[5] “Pt. Enterprise: The infant son . . . . “, Mexia (Mexia, Texas) Weekly Herald, 24 October 1930; digital images, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : viewed & printed 25 July 2020); citing The Mexia Weekly Herald newspaper.

[6] “Texas, Death Certificates, 1903-1982,” digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed & downloaded 21 October 2020), entry for Edward Johnson; citng Texas Department of Health Services, Austin, Texas.

[7] Interment.net, database (http://www.interment.net : accessed & viewed 19 January 2012), Horn Hill Cemetery, Limestone County, Texas, listing for Everett R. Johnson, b. 6 Oct 1903, d. 23 Aug 1909, citing Horn Hill Cemetery (Groesbeck, Limestone Co, Texas), compiled by Bruce Jordan, 1 November 2004.

[8] Family data, Demarious Albina Ellerbee Family Bible, Holy Bible, (New York: American Bible Society, 1876); original owned in October 2016 by Darby Blanton, [address for private use].

My mother’s family is from New York. Her family tree reaches back to the late 1700s and early 1800s. New York City and its boroughs have records from the 1800s. I have copies of my grandmother’s birth certificate (born 1892) and several death certificates from the 1880s. Usually, a request takes 6-8 weeks to be filled. Similar document requests from New York State took months BCV (Before Corona Virus) due to a much larger volume and a limited number of staff to fill those requests. With the pandemic, these requests take even longer. In this post, I relate events leading to the receipt of one death certificate.

Last week, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a copy of the death certificate for Margaret Ann Tucker [1], wife of my 3 times great-grandfather, Jeremiah Tucker. I sent the request over a year ago. In 2020, the number of deaths in New York due to Corona Virus spiralled. The need for those certificates far outweigh genealogy requests. I just had to be patient! I hoped to find the names of her parents on that certificate and was not disappointed.

A note about my personal ethics. I purchased this certificate directly from New York State. The certificates are not available online. Therefore, I will not post a scanned copy to my blog or any of my online trees. I placed the original in the appropriate notebook in an archival quality plastic sleeve. I scanned it to my personal computer. The State of New York Health Department and/or State Archives derive income from these requests. Therefore, I feel ethically bound to not post a digital copy of the certificate. However, I will share some of the information with you.

In one of my first blog posts, dated 24 April 2017 (Genealogy Do-Over, month 2, Blog #1, https://postingfamilyroots.blog/2017/04/), I reported what I knew about Margaret. To summarize:

According to oral family history, her maiden name was Margaret/ Maggie Irwin.[2]
Census records for 1870[3] , 1875[4], 1880 [5] and 1900[6] show Jeremiah and wife, Margaret.
Per the 1900 census, Jeremiah and Margaret had been married for 33 years – estimated marriage year about 1867.
1870 census includes a child, Lavina, age 8, born about 1862.
1875 state census includes a child, Lavina, age 13 and 64-year-old Ellen Ervin.
1880 census includes daughter, Lanna, age 18.
- ASSERTION: Margaret, identified as Jeremiah’s wife, was his 2^nd wife. She is not mother of Lavina/ Lanna. The identity of Lavina’s mother remains a mystery.
Death record for George Tucker (age 3 in 1880) lists his mother’s name as Margaret Collins.[7]
To-do item (from 24 April 2017 blog post): “Confirm death date & location for Margaret Tucker. Obtain death certificate.”

Later, I discovered that Jeremiah Tucker married Allie Traver Briggs in 1905.[8] This information narrowed Margaret’s death date to between 1900 and 1905. A cousin sent a death notice, dated September 1904, from a local newspaper for Mrs. Jerry Tucker. [9] Then, I accessed the New York State Death Index, online, for a certificate number.[10] Finally, I could order Margaret’s death certificate from the State of New York!

Item on To-Do list from April 2017 is now complete! Margaret’s death date and location are confirmed and her death certificate obtained. Information on her death certificate includes:

Age: 69 years, 6 months, 6 days for a calculated birth date of 28 February 1835. Place of Birth: New York. Per the 1875 state census, she was born in Greene county.
Died 2 September 1904 at Greenville, Greene county, New York.
Names of her parents: Wm [William] Irving, born New York and Lana Hilliker, born New York.

One mystery solved! Margaret’s maiden name was Irving. Lana could be another name for Ellen, the 64-year-old woman living with Jeremiah and Margaret in 1875. I am not ready to share tentative results from my preliminary, quick searches for William and Lana.

REFLECTION

This post is shorter than most that I have written. I realize that I don’t need to report everything about a topic in a single post. My posts often report unfinished work. My cousin, June, who lives in Greene county, New York, also works on this family line. She has access to local resources and often shares items with me. I sent her a copy of Margaret’s death certificate.

What helped: My cousin, June, who found the newspaper death notice for Margaret. Previous review of records and notes in my files. Research log. Added info to research log started in 2017. Notes on research log and RootsMagic.

What didn’t help: Not entering DC information to RootsMagic before doing anything else.

What I learned: Patience pays off!

TO-DO: Find Margaret’s parents in census and other records. Continue search for Lavina/ Lanna.

SOURCES:

[1] New York, State Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificate and Record of Death 38927 (5 September 1904), Margaret Ann Tucker; State of New York, Department of Health, Vital Records Section, Albany, New York; photocopy received 3 October 2020.

[2] Viola Blanche Maurer Tucker, “Maurer-Tucker Family History,” [Page]; MS, 1800s to 1980s, Huntington, Suffolk County, New York; privately held by great-niece, Susan Mercedes Posten Ellerbee, [address for private use], Yukon, Oklahoma, 2017. Carbon copy of original handwritten document created ca. 1975-1980 given to Ms. Ellerbee by her mother.

~~[3]~~ 1870 U.S. Federal Census, Albany county, New York, population schedule, Westerlo, p. 10 (ink pen), dwelling 77, family 79, Margaret Tucker age 36; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : downloaded & printed 30 December 2014); citing National Archives & Records Administration, Washington, D.C. Microfilm publication M593.

[4] Jeremiah B. Tucker, 1875 New York State Census, Albany county, New York, population schedule, Westerlo, pg. 24, lines 29-36, dwelling 231, family 249; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 8 December 2017); citing New York State Archives, Albany, Albany county, New York.

[5] 1880 U.S. Census, Greene county, New York, pop. sch., Greenville, enumeration district (ED) 81, p. 2B (ink pen), dwelling #1, family #1, Jeremiah Tucker; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed, downloaded and printed 8 November 2017); citing National Archives & Records Administration, Washington, D.C. microfilm publication T9, roll 836.

[6] 1900 U.S. Census, Greene county, New York, pop. sch., Greenville, enumeration district (ED) 78, p. 8A (ink pen), dwelling 189 , family 196, Jeremiah Tucker; digital images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed, downloaded, printed 8 November 2017); citing National Archives & Records Administration, Washington, D.C., microfilm publication T623_1039.

[7] Greenville Rural Cemetery (Greenville, Greene, New York); to June Gambacorta, photocopy of office record obtained by June Gambacorta, [address for private use], New York; No date, Cemetery information card received via email from June Gambacorta, 18 May 2016.

[8] “New York State, Marriage Index, 1881-1967,” database with images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed & printed 23 April 2018), entry for Tucker, Jeremiah, Greenville NY; citing New York State Marriage Index, New York State Department of Health, Albany, NY.

[9] “The funeral of Mrs. Jerry Tucker. . . .”, The Greenville Local, Greenville, Greene county, New York, 22 September 1904, page unknown, column 2. “funeral on Wednesday of last week”, date 14 September 1904; digital copy sent to Susan Posten Ellerbee by June Gambacorta, [address for private use], New York.

[10] New York Department of Health, “New York, Death Index, 1880-1956,” digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed & printed 20 June 2018), entry for Margaret A. Tucker, pg. 851; citing New York Department of Health, Albany, New York.