February 24, 2015

1909 MN Death Certificates Lists Children Born & Alive


This is the first time I have seen this information captured on a death certificate … and it’s for their father!   

Rufus Metcalf Watson was born in New York in 1835 where he lived with his wife and children until some time following her death in 1882.  In the 1900 census he showed up in North Dakota and then died in Chippewa County Minnesota in 1909.

I examined his death certificate looking for some record of how long had been in Minnesota, but instead found a notation that he married at age 32 and that of his 6 children, 2 were living. 

In this case I already knew about his children – but such information could be very revealing!

February 5, 2015

Henry Jenkins, son of Jonathan or not?


I had a good deal of information about lawyer Jonathan Jenkins of Rensselaerville NY.  He was the son of Samuel Jenkins and Mercy Squire and the sister of Sarah who married Thomas Watson of my RI line.  In 1809 Jonathan married “Betsey” Mulford and I knew they had son Charles in 1810 and daughter (Julia) Harriet in 1816.  I thought that was it. Then I came across a listing of beneficiaries from the 1842 will of Eli Hutchinson of Catskill. Named were Charles, Henry and Harriet Jenkins, children of Jonathan. Really? I had not heard of Henry.

It is difficult to identify children who were born in those decades before the census named everyone in the household. I went back to check Jonathan’s records in 1810, 1820, 1830 – there was more than one assumed son. I did not find Henry living in Rensselaerville in 1850 … but thought perhaps I had found him, with wife Jane and daughter Mary in Albany.

I searched around for more information on Henry and thought he seemed to be the one referenced as living in Albany and Hudson, NY, at times a banker, legislator and later referred to as a lawyer (somewhat of the “family business” for Jenkins). I stumbled upon death notices published both in Arizona and in New York (both Albany and Hudson) for a Henry who died suddenly in Tucson in Nov 1868 – saying he was from NY, had arrived in 1859 and “left family in Albany”. Was that him?