As genealogists, we love primary records. They are the bread and butter of our lives. The bedrock of our existence. But sometimes they just outright lie.
A death certificate contains both primary and secondary data points. The doctor entered the date of death as well as the cause. He was there, he should know. Primary data. On the other hand the Informant is presumed to have given information he or she believed was accurate. But she might not have known. Secondary data.
It’s that blasted Informant who’s the culprit in this example. Now I’m not saying that the Informant did it on purpose although later in another post we’ll see an example in which the Informant did do it on purpose in order to perpetuate a family fiction about legitimacy. Mostly, the Informant answered the questions as best they could because they believed it to be true. In this case the Informant did the very best she could. And all-in-all, she did a superior job even though she wasn’t accurate.
Let’s look at this death certificate for an individual who died in Allegany County, Maryland written in September of 1932.
The Informant is “Mrs. Margaret Peddicord” who lived in Cumberland, a town about 6 miles east of Eckhart. She’s the daughter of Christiana and Frank and married Frank Leslie Peddicord. She’s also the sister of my grandpop John Lee Kelly.
So, we can assume that a daughter would have good knowledge of the facts of her parents lives, wouldn’t we? Lacking other documentation we would reasonably extract the following as secondary proof of these data points:
The deceased’s middle name was Noonan
The deceased’s husband’s surname was Kelley
They lived in Eckhart.
However, if you sought out corroborating information to verify those data points you’d run into some conflicting information that would then need to be resolved. Let’s take them one by one and examine each more fully. Maybe we’ll uncover something.
The middle name of the deceased was Noonan.
Who was this Noonan whose name Christiana carried? Middle names can be significant especially if it is a surname. It might be the maiden name of the mother or other ancestor, usually recent. So who was Christiana named for and how does this person fit into the picture?
First step: Is this really a given name with which I’m not familiar ?
Christiana’s ancestry was German but a quick check reveals that Noonan is not a given name nor is it a nickname or term of endearment.
Second step: Check the tree to see if there’s someone with the surname of Noonan.
Nothing much found. Only couple named Noonan and that’s far out on the tree and not connected to this line in any way whatsoever by time or place.
Third Step: Check the 1870 Census to see if there was some individual close to the family who might have been the namesake.
All of the Noonan people who lived in Allegany County, MD, in 1870 lived in Cumberland. None lived in Eckhart. This would be a longshot. As you can see in the screenshot above, which is a connection, it’s not because they are neighbors. Indicative of the rest of the list for Allegany County, every Noonan lived in Cumberland. So if there is a connection, it’s not because they were neighbors. Not family, not neighbors. And, I could find no association with any Noonan by the family. There’s the FAN Club, covered.
Forth Step: Take a shower.
The thing for me about taking a shower is that it somehow frees me to think more expansively and brainstorm a bit. That’s when it happened. Say the name out loud. Christiana Noo-nan. Now faster. Noo-an. Just leave out the middle “n.” Now take a look at this section of the tree with Christiana Eckhart Kelly on it and follow her line back.
There was a special kind of beauty in knowing this. She was named for her grandmother and there was a big clue to her ancestry hidden in that death certificate. This naming was not in any other document I have found.
The only folks in Eckhart with a name that sounded anything like Newins were the Noonan family. They were recorded living in Eckhart in the 1930 census just before Christiana died. Mrs. Peddicord might have picked up that spelling because it was the one she was aware of.
The haunting thing for me is that I remember grandma Kelly talking about “Noonans”, or was that “Newins”? That Noonan family in Eckhart who were Irish had nothing to do with us. It was Newins all along!
Take away:
- Look at all records carefully. Give them the once-over and then examine each section and each entry separately. Use a magnifying glass if you have a paper document and the zoom feature if it’s a digital document.
- Question everything. Take every data point – every name, date, place, every answer – and ask yourself what it tells you.
- If it helps, make a separate list of all entries on the form. Doing this will slow you down. Afterward, you can look at the list without being distracted by the handwriting or random placement on the form, that all-over-the-place array of information that can be confusing.
- Make another list of entries to investigate further. This might lead to solving a mystery.
Next time: What about Kelley or Kelly?
The Rooted Tree 