Monthly Archives: November 2015

Can’t Read that 20th Century Cause of Death?

If you’ve seen those codes or numbers by the cause of death on a 20th century death certificate and wondered what they mean, this page has links to the “International Classification of Diseases.”

This can be helpful when the cause of death is difficult to read. This 1924 death certificate from Missouri classified the death as “118a.”

The contemporary guide indicated it was a hernia. This death was easy to read, but some aren’t.

 

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Right Name–Wrong Time

A reader reminded me that people can appear in “records” or “indexes” at the “wrong” time for a variety of reasons. Newspapers may have columns of “back in the day” items that refer to things that happened fifty or one hundred years ago–meaning your ancestor who died in 1880 may appear in a newspaper from the 1930s.

Ancestry.com‘s probate database typically only indexes the name of the deceased person–however, there are instances where the name of the executor, administrator, or guardian has been indexed instead.

FamilySearch Update: Wisconsin & Ohio Arrivals

The following databases are showing as updated on FamilySearch  since our last update:

Wisconsin, Crew Lists of Ship Arrivals, 1925-1956

Wisconsin, Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at Manitowoc, 1925-1956

Wisconsin, Milwaukee Passenger and Crew Lists, 1922-1963

Ohio, Passenger and Crew Lists arriving at Ashtabula and Conneaut, 1952-1974

Searching Ancestry.com’s Probate Materials

Ancestry.com‘s United States probate collection is incomplete–they don’t have every probate record for states in their collection, they don’t have every thing online that FamilySearch has microfilmed, and their indexes are not complete. But it is a start for those who have a membership. This page has links to the state specific collections of probate materials at Ancestry.com I find it easier to use than navigating their catalog.