Please do not post obituaries to my memorials if they contain names of family who are still living. If you aren't sure or can't be bothered to check, then don't post it.

I recently took management of a number of area memorials, many with ties into my family tree, created by a member who had to retire, I wish them all the best. The time and effort they contributed to Findagrave has been enormous, we have all benefited and really appreciate what they've done. While most of these memorials are up to date, many were added years ago before PA Death Certificates, with birth and death locations and those elusive maiden names, were available, so I am working at adding links and information to that segment of this newly acquired group. I have barely begun this process and already found several memorials to add, just by searching out links. And surprise, surprise, sometimes you find a distant family connection among strangers. Don't just add a name and dates, I keep saying it, it pays to dig!

You know you are addicted to genealogy when you start working out trees of total strangers....and this is what I do when I have spare time...take a few minutes to link family members and add bits of info to the memorials I manage. I think it is nice to know even a little bit more about someone beyond a name and a couple of dates. It is really surprising, how many times I have been in the process of doing this and discovered someone in those memorials is also in my family tree somewhere....it pays to dig!

I also add memorials from records, such as death certificates, even if they don't turn out to be the person for whom I was searching...I always hope, especially in those cases of incorrectly spelled or indexed records that were very difficult to find, the minute it takes me to add a memorial just might save someone in the future a lot of the head scratching I've just done.

I often add cause of death into a bio for several reasons, sometimes a person was a recognizable piece of history, as with those killed in action in a war or dying in the Spanish flu epidemic, sometimes a cause of death indicates social conditions during their life we don't think about, as with deaths from typhoid, deaths from being struck by carriages or trains and deaths where clothes caught an open flame of the stove or fireplace found in every home of the period, and sometimes deaths were indicative of the lack or extent of medical knowledge of the time as with those who died "from change of life (menopause)" or those who died from post operative shock the medical community had not yet learned how to treat, and sometimes the death, as with suicides or murders, resonates with a family rumor about someone's passing. I am always happy to replace the cause of death in a bio with any more interesting information you may have about that person's life.

Two minor points of interest regarding PA Death Certificates...first point:
for many, many years there was a penciled number jotted in the upper right corner, beneath the blue stamped serial number of the death certificate. This penciled number indicates the number of deaths that year in that district (sorry, I have not yet found how to determine the boundaries of each district, but it appears many hospitals were their own district). So for deaths at the beginning of a year, that number is low, near the end of the year, it is high. You will also see, in the case of families who died together in a house fire, or car accident, these penciled numbers will be sequential. While you do not need this penciled number, only the stamped serial number, when searching for a death certificate, I do try to include it as a small note of interest, so if you see #12345/32, it means this person was the 32nd death that year, in that district. This number is a little more interesting in epidemic years and with hospital deaths as it often astounds me at the number who have died in a particular hospital by that time in the year, and I often find myself calculating the average number of deaths per day in that hospital. The second point of interest regarding the death certificates is the back of them....which you see by clicking the arrow on the right to go to the next image. While 99.5% of certificates are blank on the back, occasionally there will be additional information recorded there, so, it only takes one click, don't forget to check that back!

Please do not post obituaries to my memorials if they contain names of family who are still living. If you aren't sure or can't be bothered to check, then don't post it.

I recently took management of a number of area memorials, many with ties into my family tree, created by a member who had to retire, I wish them all the best. The time and effort they contributed to Findagrave has been enormous, we have all benefited and really appreciate what they've done. While most of these memorials are up to date, many were added years ago before PA Death Certificates, with birth and death locations and those elusive maiden names, were available, so I am working at adding links and information to that segment of this newly acquired group. I have barely begun this process and already found several memorials to add, just by searching out links. And surprise, surprise, sometimes you find a distant family connection among strangers. Don't just add a name and dates, I keep saying it, it pays to dig!

You know you are addicted to genealogy when you start working out trees of total strangers....and this is what I do when I have spare time...take a few minutes to link family members and add bits of info to the memorials I manage. I think it is nice to know even a little bit more about someone beyond a name and a couple of dates. It is really surprising, how many times I have been in the process of doing this and discovered someone in those memorials is also in my family tree somewhere....it pays to dig!

I also add memorials from records, such as death certificates, even if they don't turn out to be the person for whom I was searching...I always hope, especially in those cases of incorrectly spelled or indexed records that were very difficult to find, the minute it takes me to add a memorial just might save someone in the future a lot of the head scratching I've just done.

I often add cause of death into a bio for several reasons, sometimes a person was a recognizable piece of history, as with those killed in action in a war or dying in the Spanish flu epidemic, sometimes a cause of death indicates social conditions during their life we don't think about, as with deaths from typhoid, deaths from being struck by carriages or trains and deaths where clothes caught an open flame of the stove or fireplace found in every home of the period, and sometimes deaths were indicative of the lack or extent of medical knowledge of the time as with those who died "from change of life (menopause)" or those who died from post operative shock the medical community had not yet learned how to treat, and sometimes the death, as with suicides or murders, resonates with a family rumor about someone's passing. I am always happy to replace the cause of death in a bio with any more interesting information you may have about that person's life.

Two minor points of interest regarding PA Death Certificates...first point:
for many, many years there was a penciled number jotted in the upper right corner, beneath the blue stamped serial number of the death certificate. This penciled number indicates the number of deaths that year in that district (sorry, I have not yet found how to determine the boundaries of each district, but it appears many hospitals were their own district). So for deaths at the beginning of a year, that number is low, near the end of the year, it is high. You will also see, in the case of families who died together in a house fire, or car accident, these penciled numbers will be sequential. While you do not need this penciled number, only the stamped serial number, when searching for a death certificate, I do try to include it as a small note of interest, so if you see #12345/32, it means this person was the 32nd death that year, in that district. This number is a little more interesting in epidemic years and with hospital deaths as it often astounds me at the number who have died in a particular hospital by that time in the year, and I often find myself calculating the average number of deaths per day in that hospital. The second point of interest regarding the death certificates is the back of them....which you see by clicking the arrow on the right to go to the next image. While 99.5% of certificates are blank on the back, occasionally there will be additional information recorded there, so, it only takes one click, don't forget to check that back!