His Age was 41-7-5

If you’ve been to old graveyards or looked at many death certificates you are accustomed to seeing ages listed this way.  It’s actually very helpful if the specific date of death is also recorded, as you then have the birth date as well.

I recently found this Windham NY gravestone listing:

             Sylvanus G. Miller, d March 13, 1860 aged 41y7m5d

Using the calculator, we can  assess that he was born Aug 8, 1818. 

So, yes, he should be included in his family’s 1820 census.   

Very helpful at times.

There are numerous online tools which will do that calculation for you such as the Tombstone Birthdate Calculator on Rootsweb. It looks like this:

 

Great Catskill Village Cemetery Resource

The genealogy community in Catskill, NY has done a terrific job of documenting gravestones in the Village Cemetery.  By listing them based on location, family groups can be found and understood – often providing a hard-to-find maiden name, a daughter’s married name (even if the husband is not buried there) and confirmation of children lost at a young age.

Here is an example (without the dates):

Julia Bennett, widow of Hiram Bogardus

Hiram Bogardus

Sarah R. Clark, w/o Howard Wilcox

Egbert Jedson, s/o Howard and Sarah Wilcox

Abraham, s/o Egbert and Elsie Bogardus

Julia Clark Linthicum

Martha Ann, widow of Z.M. Clark, and d/o the late Egbert and Elsie Bogardus <my favorite with so much info>

Eliza C. Bogardus
Emeline Bogardus

Elsie Comfort, w/o Egbert Bogardus

Egbert Bogardus

There are several generations listed here plus maiden and married names that were not previously known. It was immensely helpful in piecing together this family group.

What happened to Albert Loomis ?

Albert H Loomis, born in 1851 in Columbia County, NY married Mary W Clark of Delhi, NY in 1873.  By 1877, when her father died, they were living in New York City.  They were together without any children in the 1880 census at 196 Waverly Place. I did not find them in the 1900 census.  I knew from family tales that she was Molly Griswold by the time she died in 1939 and was told that she’d “had twins who died in the flu epidemic”. Actually, Albert had been a surprise to me as I initially assumed her only marriage was to Charles Griswold.

I searched but did not find any birth or death records for twins. Eventually, at the Municipal Archives in Manhattan, I did find records for the death of two young sons: George Clark Loomis born 1874 and Albert Jr born 1876. Within a span of 9 days (Dec 25, 1877 to Jan 3, 1878) they had both succumbed to diphtheria. Not exactly twins, but close in age and devastated by another type of epidemic. They were both buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Brooklyn.

When I could not find Albert and Molly together in 1900 and, since I knew she had remarried, I thought perhaps he too had died – and was likely buried with the children in Brooklyn.  But, he was not buried there. Why didn't I find them in the 1900 census?  I never looked for him without her.... but, I guess I should have.