Friday, August 07, 2009

Friday Findings: BARBER, COLE and WILLIS Death Certficates

I forgot to mention in last week's Friday Findings that I had found two of my ancestor's death certificates on the Seeking Michigan website: James W. BARBER and Elizabeth A. "Betsey" COLE were my paternal 3rd-great-grandparents. I had difficulty finding their records on the site because their names had been misspelled. This week, I found their son's death certificate; Orlando BARBER was my 2nd-great-grandfather and he died of smallpox in 1910, which I find rather unusual. Of course, smallpox was still enough of a threat in 1967 when I was born that sometime when I was an infant or toddler, I received an inoculation--my generation being one of the last in America to receive it. I also found Elizabeth's mother's death certificate, again having difficulty because of the misindexing of Lavina (WILLIS) COLE to "Lovina CALE."

I also came across a scanned image of the will of my 5th-great-grandfather, Albert William WYCKOFF, on the NEHGS website. In it he mentions his wife Elizabeth (MAINARD), his children, including "Polly CRUTHERS", and some grandchildren with a different surname, suggesting he had a daughter I don't know about who predeceased him. This will is evidence that my Mary "Polly" WYCKOFF CROTHERS CHAPPEL is indeed the daughter of Albert and Elizabeth. All I had previously was an old family history book on the Wyckoff family, which unfortunately was written by Gustav Anjou.

My September 2009 issue of Internet Genealogy arrived today.

I didn't do much research this week. Some family situations coupled with preparing for my presentation next week at the Tri-City Genealogical Society in Richland, Washington, the upcoming Washington State Genealogical Society's 2009 State Conference in Spokane, and working on my Online City, County, and Rural Directories website all kept me busy doing other kinds of genealogical work.

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