Try and avoid reading clues into a document that are not supported by the actual item. A recent posting on Rootdig mentioned how an address on a post card doesn't mean the address was actually correct. A witness on a document doesn't have to be related to the person signing the document. Just because a person dies in a certain location doesn't mean they lived there very long.
Think about what you have assumed from a document.
Are all of those assumptions valid?
That's right. And the registration place of a death is not necessarily the place of death (or birth or marriage)
ReplyDeleteJust because they died in a certain location doesn't mean they lived there at all. My dad's cousin lived in Minnesota but died while on vacation in Arizona. Another Minnesota relative died in Florida. If someone lived in a state that's cold in winter they might die in a warmer state where the snowbirds go for the winter. There isn't a hospital in every city or town and people die in a hospital (or sanitorium in the days of TB) in another city, county, state or even county all the time.
ReplyDeleteCurrent day places of death may be incorrect as is my mother's. She is listed as having died in Cleveland County, OK. but died in Plymouth, Mass., where she lived all her life. I handled her SS account in OK while she was in a nursing home in Plymouth so she when she died she is listed as last address Cleveland County, Ok.
ReplyDeleteI see the opposite for many family records. I have the location of death, but that is not the place where the person lived at the time of death. My grandparents lived in Lexington, OK (also Cleveland County) but my grandpa died at a nursing home in Norman, OK; and later my grandma died in hospice care at my mom's house in OKC. My son has always lived in Norman, OK, but he was born in an OKC hospital so Oklahoma City is his place of birth. Most of his cousins live in smaller metro-area towns but were also born in OKC hospitals. Place of birth/death and home at time of birth/death should be two separate entries.
DeleteI see the opposite for many family records. I have the location of death, but that is not the place where the person lived at the time of death. My grandparents lived in Lexington, OK (also Cleveland County) but my grandpa died at a nursing home in Norman, OK; and later my grandma died in hospice care at my mom's house in OKC. My son has always lived in Norman, OK, but he was born in an OKC hospital so Oklahoma City is his place of birth. Most of his cousins live in smaller metro-area towns but were also born in OKC hospitals. Place of birth/death and home at time of birth/death should be two separate entries.
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