St. Mary's is a Catholic Church and is the Cathedral for the Lafayette-Kokomo diocese
(and my home parish as a child). They have a cemetery south of Lafayette on either Old
Romney Road or Wabash Avenue (I'm not sure what the road name is at that particular
point, but I could take you right to it if I still lived there). I do not have my
information with me, because I'm on vacation, but I know you can call the cemetery and
ask about burials. You could also call the St. Mary's office.
Battle Ground is in Tippecanoe County, north of Lafayette. As an aside, it is the location
of the Battle of Tippecanoe (thus the name).
Murdock is a fairly noted name in the history of Lafayette, so I think you could find
something. I think three Murdocks are listed in a late 19th century book of notable people
from Tippecanoe County. There is a Murdock Park just off of 18th Street, and a retirement
home in the same area named for Murdocks.
You can search Indiana marriages, 1845-1850 on
ancestry.com or I can check it when I get
back to a high speed connection, if you would like.
---
Randy Ritchie
Shawnee, KS
Researching the Brand, Edwards, Gray, Ray, Ritchie, Royer and Troncoso families
See our family genealogy at:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ritchiegenealogy/
--------- Original Message ---------
DATE: Sat, 27 Dec 2003 05:58:46
From: Margaret Harrison <margharrison(a)yahoo.com>
To: INTIPPEC-L(a)rootsweb.com
Cc:
Jacqi,
Unfortunately, this kind of confusion occurs frequently. Were the Stevens church-goers?
Is St Mary's a Catholic church? The LDS Family History center just might ahve
microfilmed old church records.
Jacqi Stevens <jacqi(a)prodigy.net> wrote:
Wondering if anyone can help me get some info I need.
I sent to the Tippecanoe County heath dept for a "local record of death"
(what I thought would be a death cert). The cert was supposed to be for
William H. STEVENS, b 1858 in Lafayette, d June 7, 1939 in Lafayette, and
buried at St. Mary's Cemetery. The cemetery confirmed the date via their
records. A couple kind souls on this list helped me access the obit info,
showing that he actually died at the county "home" or infirmary on that
date.
So, with all this info, I sent for a copy of the death cert, for the main
reason that I need to confirm his mother's maiden name, which I thought was
a standard part of all death certs in the USA throughout the 1900s.
Surprise...
My first notice from the Tippecanoe Co Health department was that there was
no record of a Wm Stevens dying on that date in that county. They kindly
sent me a photocopy of all similar surnames dying within a range of days
around that date. I found one for a John STEVENS (which is actually the name
of William's father and brother, so may have been a record-keeping error?)
of the same age, at the county home, dying on that date, and sent for THAT
certificate. Thought I could check that "to do" off my genealogy list when I
received the cert, but evidently it was not to be so.
I am surprised to see that what is called a "local record of death" does not
include the usual items I've come to expect from death certs of the 1900s.
It had his name; cause, place and date of death; age, sex, race, marital
status, funeral home (M.A. West, Battle Ground, IN--is that in the same
county??), but nothing on name of parents, which was my main reason for
trying to get a copy of his death cert.
Is this usual for death certs for this time period (1939)? Or did I get the
wrong type of document? If I send to the state vital records dept, will I
get a different document with the info I need? Or do they just repeat the
info from the local document?
I am trying to confirm whether Wm H. STEVENS was the son of Catherine KELLY,
who d in 1858, the year Wm was supposedly born. His father, John STEVENS,
subsequently married Eliza MURDOCK, and I have a copy of a marriage document
showing the m date in December, 1860. However, the first half-sibling from
this second marriage supposedly was born earlier in 1860--I know this
happens all the time now, but thought back then, things were different???
(Excuse my naivete!) Or were the dates wrong? To complicate matters, I've
seen other documents reporting William's dob as 1860, which would definitely
place his mother as Eliza and not Catherine (but the poor woman--two births
in one year??!). Catherine's documentation for date of death is scanty at
the county level, but the Greenbush cemetery lists her burial in 1858, as
does our family Bible...so whose kid is William anyhow??? That's my main
question.
If anyone knows of a better way for me to access this info on death cert,
pls let me know. Or, if it is just not to be had, could some kind soul let
me know, so I don't go on beating my head on this brick wall, and call it
quits on this search??
Thx so much...
Jacqi
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