Mrs. Nimrod Thacker Part IV *** Genealogy By the Numbers - Death Records

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post on my Desktop Genealogist Unplugged Blog entitled, “Death Certificates – Sources of Primary & Secondary Information.” I’d refer you to it, but that sounds a little too much like homework. Instead, I’ll summarize what I’m sure you’ll agree was undoubtedly a brilliant post. (Okay, you can’t kill a girl for fantasizing.)

The gist of the post was that while a Death Certificate is a primary source of information for some of the details found on a typical death record, it is only a secondary source for other items. It is a secondary source when (and how often do I get chance to quote myself?) “the information given was many months, years or decades after the event. So a death certificate is a secondary source for the following:

1. Date of Birth
2. Age
3. Place of Birth
4. Father's name
5. Father's place of birth
6. Mother's name
7. Mother's place of birth

Secondary information is only as reliable as the person giving the information.

Let me repeat that last sentence. Secondary information is only as reliable as the person giving the information. This means it is important to look at who the informant is on a death certificate, because we are taking their word that the above seven pieces of information are accurate - more about that in a moment.

Prior to December 20, 1908 death records in Ohio were kept at the local level. The information was recorded in ledger like books which were located at the county probate office. Rarely did they include the name of the individual’s father or mother.

Since Frances died March 27, 1901 her death was recorded in one of these ledgers.

Frances Death Record Page 1
Frances Death Record Page 2 (See X)

In summary, this is what the ledger entry tells us: Francis J. Thacker, a white widow, died of consumption on March 27, 1901 at the age of 79 years, 2 months and 12 days. She was born in Virginia and died in Hawks, Ohio, where she was a resident. Her occupation was listed as housekeeper. The death was reported by C. Hartley. The age listed would indicate a birthday of January 15, 1822.

On December 20, 1908 a law went into effect that required both births and deaths to be recorded at the state level. This was the birth of the present day death certificate.

The lovely folks at FamilySearch.org have put the images of Ohio Death Certificates dated December 20, 1908 through 1953 online. Not only have they made the images available for viewing but they have also created a searchable database that speeds the process up considerably and also allows for some creative searching. (FamilySearch - and their legion of volunteer indexers - take a well deserved bow.)

Thanks to their efforts, I was able to locate the death records for six of the twelve known children of Nimrod and Frances. Those six are Nicholas, David, Sarah Jane, Catherine, Hiram and Louisa. Algerine, Mary Frances, Ambrose and Hannah Nancy are all known to have died prior to 1900. There is nothing known of the deaths of the remaining two children, Martha and my own ggg grandmother Clarinda.

Below I’ve created a jpeg file of a spreadsheet which I’ve found to be handy way of comparing information on the death certificates.

State of Birth

Let’s ease on into the subject by first taking a look at where the informants thought that the mother of the deceased was born. Three said that the information was not known (or unknown) to them. The three that gave this information were Bertha McKenzie, the daughter of Hiram, Frank Thacker, the son of Nicholas, and Mrs. Elmer (Nina) Weese, daughter of Catherine. Charles Garrett, the son of Louisa, gave the birthplace of Frances as Ohio (which coincides with the information found in Louisa’s obituary.)

Hannah Thacker, Sara Jane’s daughter, said that Frances was born in “Old Virginia.” Why did she stipulate Old Virginia as opposed to Virginia? Hannah’s answer may have led to the speculation that Frances was born in the portion of Virginia that would later become West Virginia. This along with the responses the census taker listed for both Nicholas and David in the 1910 is probably the reason some researchers list West Virginia for Frances’s place of birth.

The one lone informant who listed Virginia as the place of birth was also the only informant who was a son to Frances, the rest of the informants being grandchildren. Hiram was the informant in the death of his brother David in 1924. Do we credit a child’s knowledge of their parent over a grandchild’s? Not necessarily, but the fact that Hiram’s information coincides with 4 of the 5 censuses where Frances was included and an additional 23 censuses when her children answered “Virginia,” to the question of where she was born, does give some credence to Hiram’s answers.

That becomes even more important when we look at the issue of name.

First Name

Below is the death certificate of Nicholas Thacker in which his son Frank acted as informant. He lists the mother of Nicholas as Mary Grover. Notice he does not mention or allude to in anyway that her name was Frances.


Last Name

Notice also, that not only is he the only individual to list her name as Mary, but also the only one to give the last name of Grover.

Hiram lists his mother’s name as Francis Thacker when he is the informant for the death record of his brother, David. Charles Garrett, the grandson of Frances, also lists his mother Louisa’s mother as Francis Thacker.

The questions is, of course, did Hiram and Charles mean that Frances’s maiden name is Thacker or are they admitting that they did not know the maiden name of Frances and so used her married name?

There is one last death certificate that we should take a look at, before we leave the subject, and that is the Death Certificate of Frank Thacker, the son of Nicholas. The informant was Frank’s son, Lloyd Thacker. Look closely at the name Lloyd gives as the mother of Frank – Mary Groves.

In 1871, Nicholas Thacker married Mary Murray. He and Mary had four children – Frank, Ambrose, George and Herman. It is unclear whether Mary died or if they divorced but in 1883 Nicholas married a second time to Mary Freeman. Is it possible that Mary Groves or Grover has more to do with Nicholas’s first wife and not his mother?

In part five, we will take a look at an application for administrative appointment, a marriage record and a pension file, to see what information they have to offer.


References:

1. “Death Certificates – Sources of Primary & Secondary Information,” Terry Snyder Weblog: Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, 31 Oct 2007. http://desktopgenealogistunplugged.blogspot.com/2008/03/death-certificates-sources-of-primary.html.w: 2010.

2. Sperry, Ken. Genealogical Research in Ohio, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2003.

3. Vinton County, Ohio, Death Record Register, Probate Court, Vinton County Probate Office, Francis J. Thacker, accessed and photographed by Teresa Snyder, 21 May 2008.

4. Certificate of Death: Sarah Jane Thacker, Filed 26 June 1917. State of Ohio, Dept of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Reg. Dist. 5778, File no. 43333, digital images from FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org: 23 Jan 2008.)

5. Certificate of Death: David Thacker, Filed 4 June 1924. State of Ohio, Dept of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Reg. Dist. 1311, File no. 37162, digital images from FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org: 23 Jan 2008.)

6. Certificate of Death: Hiram N. Thacker, Filed 12 Oct 1939, State of Ohio, Dept of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Reg. Dist. 392, File no. 59506, digital images from FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org: 19 July 2008.)

7. Certificate of Death: Nicholas Thacker, Filed 6 Jan 1941, State of Ohio, Dept of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Reg. Dist. 1311, File no. 7236, digital images from FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org: 23 Jan 2008.)

8. Certificate of Death: Catherine Thacker, Filed 28 Nov 1945, State of Ohio, Dept of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Reg. Dist. 392, File no. 65706, digital images from FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org: 24 Jan 2008.)

9. Certificate of Death: Louisa Ellen Garrett, Filed 11 Feb 1948, State of Ohio, Dept of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Reg. Dist. 1160, File no. 12473, digital images from FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org: 23 Jan 2008.)

10. Certificate of Death: Franklin Thacker, Filed 8 Jan 1949, State of Ohio, Dept of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Reg. Dist. 1311, File no. 80400, digital images from FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org: 23 Jan 2008.)