This is my third year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.
Sometimes information in records just do not agree. One of the items might be correct and the other pieces of information wrong. Or all of it is wrong and research is still needed to find the right answer. It might even be possible to not discover the right answer.
My example is my 2x-great-grandfather, Jeremiah Sullivan. Not a lot is known about him. He came with his family to the United States sometime in the early 1860s but no ship list has been found yet. It is believed they were from County Cork. One of their children was baptized in the Eyeries Parish in 1860. Their next child was born 11 Aug 1869 in Houghton County, Michigan.
So, I have no idea when he married Mary Sheehan. I have no idea of their arrival date. And I am not exactly sure of his death date. There are no records for death available for Todd County at FamilySearch.
Jeremiah (or sometimes known as Jerry) was in an accident in Todd County, Minnesota. According to news articles, he was killed by a train on the tracks near his home. The 14 December 1888 newspaper Brainerd Dispatch stated he “was killed by the cars on Thursday last.”[1] The fourteenth was a Friday and if they meant the last Thursday, did they mean the thirteenth or the sixth?[2]
The other paper that reported the news was the Motley Register on 8 December 1888. Their report stated he “had started home Thursday afternoon under the influence of liquor.”[3] December 8 fell on Saturday, so Thursday would have been on the sixth.
The two newspapers agree with the date of December 6. His tombstone, however, shows the inscription of 8 November 1888 as his death date. He is buried in Motley Public Cemetery.[4] It is not known when the stone was erected. Was it placed close to his death, or years later?
 |
| The death date is probably off by a month |
All three sources are derivatives. The newspaper reports were covering a current event, close to the time of the event. The tombstone error could occur at multiple places: the information given to the engraver could be wrong. The tragic way that Jerry died could have caused the wrong date to be given. The engraver could have simply made a mistake. Or the tombstone could have been created many years later and the family had forgotten the exact death date.
Because of the newspaper reports, I have recorded the death date as 8 December 1888, but noted the conflict of the tombstone.
Mistakes were made about the death date, but the biggest
mistake was Jerry going near the train tracks when intoxicated.
[1] "A Good Temperance Lecture,” Brainerd (Minnesota)
Dispatch, 14 Dec 1888, p. 1, col. 4.
[2] I used TimeandDate.com
to determine which day of the week the dates in 1888 fell on.
[3] "Killed By the Cars," Motley (Minnesota)
Register, 8 Dec 1888, p. 5, col. 3.
[4] Find
A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com), memorial#
74707993, Motley Public Cemetery, Jerry Sullivan. Birth 1811 and death Nov 6,
1888.
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