Outside The Box

Gaps in available records, regardless of the cause, poses a problem for any researcher. Fire, weather, negligence, no requirements. Any of these situations can cause us to pound our foreheads on our monitors. Sometimes we need to think outside the box to get an answer. We may not always be able to come up with the exact documentation, but sometimes we can come close.

In Indiana, death records were not required until 1882. When looking for something prior to that, we must be a bit more creative. Two of the sources I am working in are the county pauper's records and court records involving the letters of administration.

The pauper's records, here anyway, include doctor's bills, dental care (as crude as it was back then), and the best items for us, burial expenses and payment for coffins. They may not give the date the work was done, but gives the date the expenses was paid. Letters of administration are issued when someone passes away intestate (without a will). Someone must oversee the debts and assets of the estate. By noting the date this paperwork is issued, at least we know that the subject was deceased prior to this time. Coroner's reports fall in line with these types of sources as well. Neither is quite as informative as a death certificate from a genealogical standpoint, but sometimes it is the best we can get.

Excerpted from the Pauper's Records of Delaware County, Indiana, as quoted in Delaware County, Indiana 1827-1850 The Frontier Period By Althea Stoekel and Ross Johnson:

Pauper's Files
Funeral expenses for Alfred Moore (5 yards of muslin at $.25 per yard, 1 pair
     of socks at $.25, 1 white crevat at $.25, 1 shirt at $.50)      1837
Coffin for Mrs. Shackelford        1838          $5.00
Coffin for Mrs Shackelford daughter  1838   $3.00
Coffin for Joshua Everhart          1844          $5.50
Coffin for Stephen Everhart        1844          $1.50
Clothes and attendence for Everhart 1844   $1.00
Coffin for Mrs. Cowgill                1844           $5.00
Funeral expenses for Daniel Payne (9 yards of Cambrick for shrouding at
     $.37 per yard, 3 yards of bleached shirting at $.185, 1 yard of Jackinett
     $.75, 3 large spools of Boss thread at $.185, 1 pair of stockings at
     $.75, 1 dozen  coffin screws $.125) 1846
Coffin for Samuel Howell            1846          $8.00
Coffin and box for Sullivan          1849          $7.00
Funeral expenses for John Parker (11 yards bleached muslin of winding
     sheet at $1.37, 1 bed cord at $.25) 1850
Coffin for Solomon Simmons     1851           $2.50
Burying clothes for A. Becker     1851           $3.315
Burying clothes for A. Becker child   1851     $1.685