Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Success is Sweet!

I visited Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management (NSARM) after work today. I am so lucky to have access to this wonderful resource for my genealogy research.

Well, I found an obit that I had unsuccessfully searched for previously! John Thomas Sherman, son of George William and Lucy Ann (Rafuse) Sherman, died in 1936 after falling off a round-roof barn that he was shingling. I had recorded his death date as July 22, 1936 but no source, so I have no idea where I got that date. Naturally, I didn't find his obit when I looked through newspapers around that date.

On my last trip to the Old Kings Courthouse Museum, I found a reference to two newspaper obits for John. But, the newspaper dates were August 13 and August 20, 1936. At first, I didn't find the obit in the August 13 issue, so I went on to August 20 and there it was! It gave his death date as August 11, 1936. No wonder I couldn't find it before. I went back to the August 13 issue thinking that it might have a "news report" of the accident. However, what I found was another obit and it was very different from the one that I had already found. What I find absolutely amazing about John is that he was born in 1867 and he has living children in 2010. Can you believe that?

I also found a short obit for my grandmother, Ada May Smith (whose picture you see to the left), who died the same day as her uncle John. How sad for Mary, Ada's mother and my great-grandmother, to have lost her brother and her daughter on the same day.

I am anxious to get back to the Kings County Archives to look for other obits in their extensive collection.

And, I spent a little over an hour working on the GANS Vital Stats from Newspapers project...it was a successful evening.

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