Thursday, October 27, 2016

About those death date sources.....

I mentioned sources for death records in my post yesterday. As good as most of the sources are, they are not fallible!

I am still mystified by the conflicting sources involving the death of Rufus Jennison Sr., one of my collateral ancestors. His obituary from 6 August 1864 in the Indianapolis Sentinel gave his death as the 5th of August of that year at age 89.

The Crown Hill Cemetery Day Book and the family monument recorded his death as 6 August 1862!

Rufus was born in 1777, so the age in the obit was off by two years. If the cemetery records were correct, he died at age 85.

Either way, something is off! Did he die in 1862 or 1864? Did his death take place on August 5th or 6th?

Death certificates were not kept in Indiana at the time, so other sources are relatively scarce.

To demonstrate other errors that might occur in death sources, I will rely on family resources over the next few posts.

No comments:

Post a Comment