In my last post, I shared that I am a featured contributor for a new platform, FamilyScrybe™, where I currently have 3 blog posts up. One of the posts describes my genealogy origin story about how conversations with my grandmothers were part of the spark to my interest in researching the family.
In the many years that have passed since those conversations occurred back in the mid-1990s, I am still documenting information my grandmother’s shared with me. For example, my grandmother Alice said this to me about my grandfather Herman’s brothers:
“John and James Robinson died when Herman was really young, they were about 17 or 18.“
So, up until this weekend, I only had approximate death years in my database. Well, Ancestry released a new database this weekend that prompted me to take a closer look; the New York, New York, Index to Death Certificates, 1862-1948. Within a few minutes of searching, I located the exact death dates of both John and James and also learned that they are buried in St. Michael Cemetery in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York. In both cases, their parents’ names are included in the index so I was able to verify it was indeed them.
James Robinson died February 7, 1930, at the age of 17; John Louis Robinson died March 23, 1931, at the age of 20. My grandfather was 4 and 5 years old respectively. With this additional information I created Find-A-Grave entries for them; I now need to follow-up and order the actual death certificates so we can hopefully get more information on the cause of death.
Moral of the story – when speaking with your family members – keep those notes so that you can come back to them. I am glad I have!
One of the 5 golden rules of genealogy: The relative you most need to talk with is the one whose funeral you are currently attending. Moral: Don’t wait to talk to them – do it today!