A death certificate finally arrives!

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.