Hello Everyone,

This is a footnote to Paul's comments on requirements for notifying the court
of a death.  Alot of us interested in family history tend to get fixated on
getting correct dates, and extremely bothered when there are discrepancies.  At
this point in my research, I do not count myself among them, especially if we
are talking about a discrepancy of four days or such.   But I do like to have
a ballpark.

However, I have a 4g grandfather, James Williams, who died 1840s in Cole (now
Moniteau Co. Mo).   In his probate packet that was thankfully filmed by the
LDS, there is the Dr's account of the money due him from the estate.  It has
charges for visits and medicines several days running, then ends.  The medicines
I've been advised are those that would be given for pneumonia or similar
disease.  Since the visits are everyday, then abruptly end, we estimate that he
died very shortly thereafter, within one or two days.

So if you are lucky enough to find probate information with all sorts of bits
of papers backing up the credits and debits, look for a Dr's bill to pin down
a death date.

As a footnote, this particular ancestor is a lesson for another research
strategy.    When James Williams died, what is now Moniteau Co., was then Cole Co.
Missouri.  He had ten children, and probably three of them were underage.  It
appears that quickly there was agreement among the others to "sell" their
rights to their father's land to one of the brother's via quit claim deed.  He
paid them each $50 for their renunciation of any claims (yeah Paul, I know I am
being imprecise here).   I have copies of all of the deeds and dower releases,
which were executed over a series of years, the majority reading "of Cole
County".

However, while the initial appointment of administrators and appraisers
appear in the Cole Co. court book, the deeds were filed and entered in the deed
book en masse in Moniteau several years later after the youngest child had come
of age.  That is also where the entire probate package is filed, including the
statement of heirs, inventory, sale, etc., all of which read "Cole County".
None of these documents are found in Cole Co. probate files, just notations on
the inventory (taken lickity split), the sale (done lickity split) in Cole
Co. court minutes.   FYI, if I remember correctly, Paul feels that the lawyers
here did not behave correctly, particularly in holding all the deeds back.
FYI, I never would probably have found this James Williams, without a Civil War
pension record of my 3g aunt who just happened to be born there and outlived
her husband long enough to file for a widow's pension, because it isn't in his
file.  Her father, my 3g gand father Thomas L. Williams was born in Cocke Co,
TN.  After his father died he bounced to Moniteau for a few years, then Texas
for a few years (including 1850 where I never thought to look for him till I
looked at birth places of his neighbors' children in his next stop), then
Arkansas and finally SW Mo.

Also, the recording of places can be a problem.  I have a friend with a 3g
uncle who died in a TB Sanitorium in Colorado, but whose residence was Greene
Co. Mo.  A genealogy she received corretly put the place of death in the county
and state of Colorado, but there was no family history to go with it, and thus
she spent time searching the Colorado county records.   A second and more
serious example comes from the exclusive use of Quaker MM records (such as in
Hinshaw's Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy), to conclude that any
births, deaths or marriages record in a particular monthly meeting, actually occured
in that immediate location.   The Cane Creek MM in NC is my favorite example
at this URL, but there could also be similar situations in VA  (Bedford Co.
comes to mind):

http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/QUAKER-ROOTS/2004-01/1074998963

Best Regards,
Janet Hunter


To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html