January 16

Today I received an email inquiry about my distant relative and how she had died. She lived for a while in the same house as my distant relative and rumor had it, that my relative had committed suicide. She was 18 when she died and that was 1916. My father previously had told me that he thought she was ill and died during the Spanish Flu. However, my research showed that the flu didn’t start until 1918. This doesn’t mean she didn’t die from an illness such as the flu, but since my father wasn’t born until 1928, his knowledge was second hand or whatever the family wanted him to know.

Since I no longer live in the state as this distant relative, I suggested to this person, perhaps she look up my relative’s death certificate and see what was listed as the cause of death. Another option would be to check old newspapers during that time and see if there was an inquest into her death. This person stated she has tried Ancestry.com but it had proved to be too time consuming and complicated. Also, she stated that since this happened so long ago, they probably didn’t do inquest into deaths.

I reminded this person that even though Ancestry.com is a great site (I use it regularly), it doesn’t have all records yet. That sometimes one still has to visit a local court house or library to find the information one is seeking. Also, I assured her that death inquests were done and in fact I know of at least two cases older than this death where inquests were done. One was a suicide by my great-great grandfather and another was a possible murder of a wife of a distant relative.  One can find some news articles covering the inquest and the results of these inquests.

But since this person was just curious and not related to my distant relative, her curiosity seems to have ended. Unfortunately for me, my curiosity seems to have peaked.

Today I was able to input all the Minnesota Birth, Marriage, Divorce and Death information I had printed out several days ago. According to FTM Sync the following activity has occurred: People: 26 added and 15 changes, Sources: 3 added; Citations: 124 added and 1 change. Not too bad for one afternoon of work.

 January 16 – This Martin Luther King Jr Day, find out how your family may have been involved in civil rights movements. Start at the National Civil Rights Museum www.civilrightsmuseum.org.