Friday, April 24, 2009

The Death of Joseph A. Joslin :: 1919

Joseph's certificate of death was obtained from the Health Department in Plymouth, Marshall County, Indiana back in May 2001. Even then, they would not make a copy of the actual entry. I requested a "genealogy copy" so, thankfully, on the back of the death certificate she typed the "additional information" that wasn't included on the face of the certificate.



Information from the front of the certificate:
Joseph A. Joslin died June 21, 1919 at Plymouth, Indiana. He was 86 years old at the time of his death. Cause of death was Chronic Colonietis and Senility. It was signed by L. D. Eley, M.D. He was buried June 23, 1919 in the Bremen Cemetery by J. L. Bunnell, Undertaker. The record was filed on June 23, 1919. Certificate No. 1662 recorded in Book CH-30 Page 113.
Additional information typed on the back by the Clerk
Date of Birth - Sept. 11, no year given in Ohio
Retired farmer
No father listed
Mother - Abigail Goodrich
==+====+==

So, here we have it, finally! Something that definitely connects him directly with his parents, though only his mother's name is given. At least it is something!

Joseph's obituary, published on June 26, 1919 in The Weekly Republican, Plymouth, Indiana does not give the names of his parents but does say that he was born in Delaware County, Ohio:
Joseph J. Joslin, aged 86 years, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. J.W. Burger, 220 N. Walnut street, this city, at 4:20 Saturday morning after a week's illness. Mr. Joslin was born in Delaware county, Ohio but for several years has lived on a farm near Lapaz. He is survived by four children, Mrs. J.W. Burger of Plymouth; Mrs. Seymour Kanaar, of Lowell, Ind.; Mrs. Silas Wener of Bremen, and Delbert Joslin who lives on the old homestead near Lapaz. The funeral was held in Lapaz Monday afternoon, at 1:30, and burial was in the Bremen cemetery.
His obituary was also published in the Plymouth Weekly Democrat on June 26, 1919:
James [sic] J. Joslyn died Saturday morning at 4:20 o'clock at the home of J. W. Burger, corner of Walnut and Washington streets, aged over eighty years. He came here from Lapaz and was making his home with the family and was the father of Mrs. Burger. He had been sick for more than a week. The funeral was held at Lapaz Monday at 1:30 p.m. and the body was taken to Bremen for burial.
It's odd that in most other records I've found for Joseph his middle initial is shown as "A" and not "J" as in the two obituaries.

3 comments:

Jennifer said...

I had this problem once with pre-printed forms from the Catholic church where my great-great-grandparents married in southwest Louisiana. Quite a few years ago, a Catholic priest (Father Hebert) went around to several dioceses and even some Episcopalian and Methodist churches in southwest Louisiana to transcribe their sacramental records. He published these transcriptions in several volumes, and the entry in his books for my great-great-grandparents' marriage record listed my great-great-grandfather's parents' names. Although his volumes are wonderful and I feel they are very accurate, they are still derivative sources and not the original. So I ordered the marriage record from the church about a year ago. They did not ocpy the original entry in the marriage book and send it to me. Instead, they extracted the information from their marriage book onto their preprinted form, which did not have a place to list the parents' names of the bride and groom. So, in this case, I actually think the derivative source of Father Hebert is a better one than the one I got from the church, which, technically, was also a derivative, since it was extracted. I think that particular church/diocese has some strange rule that only priests can view the originals. Kinda strange if you ask me, especially for records over 50-100 years old. I think they would have probably listed the parents' names on the back if I had asked them to, but I didn't even realize that's how things worked at the time I ordered the record. Lesson learned!

my Heritage Happens said...

Would be interesting to find out which initial is the correct one. Of course the obits aren't your best source. More interesting, would be to learn his middle name! Enjoyed, thanks!

Becky Wiseman said...

Jennifer - It is definitely frustrating at times what government (and other) entities will or will not do when requesting documents. In your case, you are lucky to have the published book with the transcriptions. I wonder if you ordered another copy of the record and requested a "genealogy copy" if they would include the names of the parents.

Cheryl - I'm pretty sure that his middle initial is "A" since the two obituaries are the only place I've seen it as "J". In all of the other records I have his middle name is not given, it's always just "A" so yeah, it would be interesting to find out what it is...