This week the manuscript has expanded to 45 pages. There are currently 21,917 words and 142 footnotes. I am not sure I have ever written anything this long before. I am not counting the 89 page book that I wrote in 1998, although I probably should. The 1998 book was my first genealogy history book. Titled The Descendants of Jacob Troxell, 1797-1885, the book was a very basic genealogical report of Jacob’s descendants. I catalogued known descendants through the seventh generation with 857 individuals! Perhaps I should rephrase my initial statement. I have written a longer document. However, it was written early in my career as a genealogist, and although I used a modified register system, my sourcing was very limited. I used about thirteen different sources in my bibliography, and did not footnote or reference each fact. I have certainly learned a lot in the last 14 years. One thing I did know back then was how important it is to share your work. I donated two copies of my book to libraries in Indiana. You can even find my book listed on World Cat.
My biggest discovery this week is that I tracked down where great Uncle George died. Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis is one of the largest cemeteries in the country. This year marks their 150th anniversary. They have a part time genealogist/historian on staff to handle requests. For a reasonably modest fee, one can order burial records for individuals buried at the cemetery. They also have a great online burial locator. Over the years, I have used it quite a lot. But until this year, I had never ordered an actual burial record. For those of you who followed along with the saga of William B. Schwartz, I decided that I needed to give this service a try. I knew William and his wife Mary Victoria were buried there so I started with them. The cemetery sent me a copy of William’s burial certificate which included his death location and cause of death. (He died from the rupture of an aortic aneurism). They don’t have this information for all their burials, only those prior to 1917. I ordered William’s death certificate from the state of Indiana at the same time. The burial certificate is more legible than the death certificate. I would not have been able to decipher much from the death certificate so I am glad I ordered both. After ordering William’s burial certificate, I decided to give Uncle George’s a try. I was crossing my fingers that Uncle George’s burial certificate would give the location of his death. The gamble paid off. He died in Oak Park, Illinois. I even found him on the Illinois State Archives Death Index (once I knew where to look). I am not exactly sure what he was doing in Oak Park, but I suspect he was probably visiting relatives when he died.
This week, I continued to add burial notes and footnotes to the manuscript. Hopefully, I will be done soon! I attempted to write a brief biography of one of the male descendants from the fifth generation who never married. His obituary is one that arrived in the mail this week. I found his high school yearbook, gleaned some great information and a photograph as well.
Central High School (Fort Wayne), Class of 1929
© Deborah Sweeney, 2014.
Post originally found: https://genealogylady.net/2014/06/06/the-book-progress-report-june-6-2014/
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