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eLearning Series: Geneology
My Family Tree is Important to Me
( 50 articles in this series )
What
You Can Learn from
Death Records Research
Why
should you research death records? Death
records are an important source of information for any serious
genealogy student. Commonly death records can be found in the
county courthouse, or in newspaper archives of obituaries.
They will include information on the deceased such as parents,
siblings, children, spouse, when and where married, where the
deceased was born, the occupation of the deceased, possible
military service, and cause of death.
Why
is this information helpful? Finding out where a person
was born, for instance, can help distinguish between two people
who may have the same name. Take one family for example, in
Missouri, the Stricklands. When modern day members of the family
tried to research its origins they found that the first Strickland
in Missouri came from West Virginia. When he died his parents
names were listed, as well as his place of birth, in Virginia.
Researchers were then able to check death records of the parents
in Virginia and discover where the parents were married, in
the state of Maryland. Searching marriage records in Maryland
they found the couple, and their parents’ names. Going from
there the web evolved. Siblings were discovered. Grandparents
were discovered, and on and on. The Strickland family member
who went to Missouri, it was discovered, was one of three brothers.
At the beginning of the Civil War one brother joined the Union
Army, one joined the Confederate Army, and one brother went
west to Missouri to escape the war. This allowed tracking of
the military records of both of the other brothers, and led
to discovery of their death records, with names of their children
as survivors, going on to show two entirely different branches
of this family and how they spread. Also by going back to the
marriage records and death records of the parents, it led to
the grandparents who emigrated from England. This of course
allows genealogical researchers to go to records in England
and go back even further.
Many
times researchers are trying to paint a portrait of the
life of an ancestor and death records can help tremendously
in this endeavor. Death records will tell the occupation of
an ancestor, and that will help to determine if an ancestor
was poor or rich, middle class or well to do. It gives a good
idea as to what his life was like. Since death records show
where an ancestor was born, it helps to draw a picture of the
journeys made in the life of the ancestor being researched.
Also by listing the children it helps to show the geometric
growth of a family.
Military
service is shown on death records and a practical
benefit of that for many people is qualification to join one
of several organizations dedicated to certain conflicts. Sons
of Union Veterans and Daughters of Confederate Veterans for
instance are there for descendants of people who fought on
either side during the Civil War. The most famous of these
groups are probably the DAR and SAR, or Daughters of the American
Revolution and Sons of the American Revolution. In order to
join one of these organizations a person must be able to document
descent from a veteran of the War of Independence. If a person
can go back that far in their documentation, there is another
organization, Colonial Dames or Daughters of the American Colonists,
for those who can document pre Revolutionary War ancestry.
Death records play an important part in this research.
When
looking for death records there are two primary methods. The county court houses in most counties keep detailed records
of births, marriages and deaths. These can be very reliable
with the only exception being some of the counties where court
houses were burned during the Civil War, or suffered from fire
at another time. The other method is the record of obituaries
for the newspaper serving a particular area. Newspapers come
and go, some going out of business and others starting up.
However, newspapers do have a good track record of acquiring
the records of predecessors when they can, and they usually
keep these records on microfilm. Most genealogists will find
these records very helpful. # # # # #
SolveYourProblem.com
: 2006
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