One of the “joys” of historical research is
deciphering old documents. Forget issues like Latin or ancient languages, just
the vagaries of time on writing materials, coupled with a hit and miss approach
by scanners, can create unwanted puzzles.
To illustrate, below is a document where the puzzle
has been solved, but it still illustrates the problem when, for example, you
don’t have newspaper confirmation of events.
This register of deaths from Washington State is
from 1905. Homing in on one entry, can you make out whose name
this is?
To put you out of your misery, this is Barbour,
Nelson H. Yes, it is THAT Nelson Barbour, dying away from home on August 30,
1905.
The date can be worked out from other more legible
dates on the page.
Travelling along the line we find more information.
So what do you make of this?
Deciphering the columns, Nelson was 81 when he died.
He was M – i.e. male
He was widowed
Where did the death happen? Do – i.e. ditto from the
name Tacoma hgher up the page.
And Nelson died from?
By a comparison with other entries on the page,
Nelson died from “exhaustion.” The word
is more clearly seen for other deceased persons on the page. It seems to be a
fairly common event for the time and area. Its vagueness is similar to descriptions
often given of people dying from “heart failure.” (CTR is an example of this).
It is a sort of catch-all; everyone dies from heart failure, but the real question
is, what caused it? What caused Nelson to die from “exhaustion?”
The continuing line goes onto the next page, asking where
from, names of parents, etc. but this is all blank for Nelson. The information
was not available or at least was not recorded, although they obviously knew
where he was from because his body was sent nearly three thousand miles back
home to be buried alongside his late wife, Emeline.
Headstone in Throopville Rural Cemetery, Auburn, New
York.
For some reason the Proclaimers book says he died in 1906, but the date as above was 1905.
2 comments:
Very interesting clarifications of the challenges of historical research. Thank you Jerome!
Nelson Barbour: The Millennium's Forgotten Prophet, [2009] Chapter One, endnote 3:
"Though the death notice in an Auburn, New York, newspaper says he died September 1, 1905, in Tacoma, Washington, the official record gives the date August 30, 1905. He died aged 81 years, 9 days. - Died, Auburn, New York, Bulletin, September 6, 1905, page 8. Register of Deaths,: City of Tacoma, 1905."
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