Growing Your Family Tree, One Leaf at a Time
I have finally gotten my Facebook page up and running. To keep myself working on something different every day I have started a series of posts on 100 Days of Genealogy. Each day I will post a different genealogy task, and what I found in doing that task. I hope some of my readers will respond to some of these posts as well.
Check it out at https://www.facebook.com/novygenealogy/ and join in the conversations!
Have you ever tried to read the cause of death on a death certificate and found it completely incomprehensible due to the poor handwriting of the person who completed the form? I have! Luckily for us all, there is another way to figure out what it says.
In the 1800’s, the importance of creating a uniform system of classifying diseases was recognized, so, in 1893, the International Statistical Institute adopted the first International classification of diseases. It was based on the French Bertillon Classification of Causes of Death, developed by Jacques Bertillon. In 1898 the American Public Health Association recommended that the United States use that system and that it be revised every decade. In the following years Bertillon’s classification became known as the International List of Causes of Death and ultimately as the ICD.
The ICD contains a description of all known diseases and injuries. Each disease given a code number and is listed with its diagnostic characteristics. These codes are listed on death certificates after 1898. I have found them on many death certificates, but not all of them!
Look at the death certificate below, I have put a red box around the ICD code, 46a. The next step is to look up the code and find out what it means. The website, http://www.wolfbane.com/icd/index.html, has an index to each version of the ICD since 1898. The version you look at is based on the date of your document. Since Mary Myers died in 1932, I would use Revision 4 from 1929.
Code 46 reads “Cancer of the digestive organs and peritoneum”. In Mary’s case senility was listed as a contributing factor, as she was 89 years old at the time.
In 1972, my great-grandfather, Charles Myers died of heart failure. It is easy to read on the death certificate, but I looked up the code 412.3 to see if it gave any additional information.
412.3 reads “Chronic ischaemic heart disease with or without cardiovascular disease without mention of hypertension.
I wasn’t familiar with the term ischaemic, so I look it up and found that “Ischaemic heart disease is a disease characterized by reduced blood supply to the heart.” (https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/ischaemic_heart_disease.htm)
If you are interested in learning more about the cause of death of your family members, this is a great resource!
The genealogy library in the Montgomery Museum has a variety of resources available to help researchers. One of these is the Family History files. Some of the files have been created using research donated by researchers, while others may contain information collected during research by museum volunteers and staff. These files are organized by surname. A finding aid has been created that contains a list of all surnames listed within each file.
The materials contained in those files vary. Items that may be found in the files include pedigree charts, family group sheets, family histories, newspaper articles, recollections of family members, photographs and more.
Some of the Family History files contain extensive information, while others may be only a small amount of information. Just a few of the families listed in our Family Files include Akers, Black, Charlton, Craig, Cupp, Elkins, Epperly, Hornbarger, McCoy, Pepper, Poff, Rutrough and Shufflebarger.
Did you know that over the years Montgomery County, Virginia has been home to over 25 different newspapers?
The Montgomery Museum has issues from six of these newspapers: The Montgomery News Messenger (Also known as the Montgomery Messenger and the News Messenger), Blacksburg News, Blacksburg Messenger, Blacksburg Sentinel, Blacksburg Sun and the Radford News Journal. Some are single issues, while others are complete months or years of a publication.
Browsing through the July 1969 issues of the News Messenger was fascinating. Here are just a few interesting tidbits:
The newspapers also have columns written for local communities giving information about people living in those areas. These columns may mention who is in the hospital, who has visitors, who is traveling, as well as many other details of their lives. The July 1969 newspaper issues feature columns from at least 25 different areas including Christiansburg, Newport, Alleghany-Otey, Mt. Tabor, Luster’s Gate, Long-Shop McCoy, Riner, Merrimac, Ellett, Ironto, Centerville, Lafayette, Vicker, Price’s Fork and more.
Virginia Tech also houses many historic Montgomery County newspapers. Others are found at the Library of Virginia, the Virginia Historical Society and the College of William and Mary. You can find a listing of Montgomery County newspapers from those locations at http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/VNP/results.asp?rl=Montgomery&rt=County.
Some of the newspapers at the Montgomery Museum are housed in the museum library, others are housed offsite or in closed storage. If you would like to use the newspapers at the museum, you should call ahead and make an appointment to ensure that the issues you are interested in are available for your use.
Occasionally I run across a reference to an occupation that I am not familiar with. The obituary of George W. Lovern in the Montgomery News (Montgomery County, Virginia) in 1928 lists George’s occupation as wreck car master. After checking out several sites on historic occupations and railroad occupations, I had no luck finding out more about this occupation. However, I finally found the answer from Kenneth Miller of the Norfolk and Western Historical Society. He explained the term as follows:
The term “wreck car master” is fairly old, more recently it is called “wreck master.” This referred to the man who was in charge of the wreck crane and was responsible for leading the clean-up of a train wreck. The term “wreck car” is, I believe, singularly Norfolk and Western, as I’ve never heard it used on other roads. The wreck master knew how to lift things, move damaged equipment safely and in the most expedient manner, as getting the railroad back in service quickly was vitally important. It was quite a position of respect of the man’s knowledge. On the Norfolk and Western in West Virginia, I think the main places they kept wreck cars were Williamson and Bluefield.
If you are interested in trains and train occupations, here are some links you might be interested in:
Union Pacific page for Past and Present Railroad Job Descriptions – https://www.up.com/aboutup/history/past-present_jobs/index.htm,
A glossary of railroad lingo at http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/glossry1.Html
Norfolk and Western Historical Society – http://www.nwhs.org/index.php
Just a quick reminder – I will have a booth at the Pulaski County Flea Market on June 2-3, 2018. I will be doing a drawing for 4 hours of free genealogy research on both Friday and Saturday at 5:00 p.m. You do not have to be present to win, but you do have to come fill out an entry form!
Come see me in booth 419 and enter to win free genealogy research. Let’s talk about your family history!
The Pulaski Flea Market will be June 2-3 from 7:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. each day at the New River Valley Fairgrounds in Dublin.
Next week, I am trying something new that I am very excited about. I will have a booth at the Pulaski County Flea Market on June 2-3, 2018. I will have samples of my work and a genealogy display for visitors to explore. The most exciting part is that I will be doing a drawing for 4 hours of free genealogy research on both Friday and Saturday at 5:00 p.m. You do not have to be present to win, but you do have to come fill out an entry form!
Come see me in booth 419 and enter to win free genealogy research. Let’s talk about your family history!
The Pulaski Flea Market will be June 2-3 from 7:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. each day at the New River Valley Fairgrounds in Dublin.