Sunday, January 6, 2013

I got mail!

I haven't posted for almost 2 weeks as I've been doing some genealogy research for my nephew Nick. I've been tracing his father's side of the family and having lots of fun doing it.  At one point, I hit a sticking spot, so I went off on a tangent back to my mom's side of the family.  Since I was already working in Illinois on Nick's Keller line, I decided to do a little poking around on my Wilkinson line.  I've been having problems finding when & where Phineas R. Wilkinson passed away.

I came across a database that had military issued headstone receipts. Listed was my Phineas showing that a headstone had been issued and that the cemetery was Village Cemetery Ottawa, La Salle, Illinois. Find A Grave did not list this cemetery. I then came across a listing of early deaths in Ottawa and his death was registered as #34 (wasn't I lucky, they had just started registering deaths) I also found that the La Salle Genealogical Guild had information on him.  I emailed them requesting a cemetery look up. Thinking since I can't find Village cemetery, they might be able to tell me where his really at.  The next morning I had an email back with 2 attachments. One with the correct cemetery and a copy of the Illinois Civil War Muster Detail on him.

So, besides receiving email that contained his date of death and final resting place, I also received in the US mail copies of the following
1) Ottawa Ave Cemetery listing with transcribed notes, (headstone almost unreadable)
2) Physicians Certificate of Death, basically a death certificate, 
3) photocopies of his name in the Register of Deaths which consists of 4 pages page 1 & 2 are the top pages of the book showing the headings, pages 3 & 4 are lines 33-39 with Phineas listed on line 34
4) Funeral Record which shows payment of $36.00 for services and metal coffin.  Looks like he died alone though, as there is no family listed in the funeral record.

So, I went from no information to almost too much to process in less than 3 days. 
Phineas R Wilkinson, b. 1823 Waterford, Lowden Co. VA  
                                 m. Mary Slaughter Mar 20, 1845
                                 d. Jan 28 1878 of dropsy and chronic diarrhea contracted in the army condition lasting                                              
                                     16 years (the reason he was discharged from the army)

I noticed as I was thumbing through all this new documentation for Phineas that I'm still not sure if he is buried in the Ottawa Ave Cemetery. The image to the right is from whoever issues military stones. It lists it as Village Cemetery.  The transcripts list the cemetery as Ottawa Avenue Cemetery and the Physician's certificate of death lists the cemetery as the Protestant cemetery.  

No comments:

Post a Comment