Yes! I Finally Have a Name!

After two tries and a wait of nearly six months (instead of the usual four), my great-grandfather Fredrick K. Gerner's Pennsylvania death certificate arrived.  What a Christmas gift!  It's been a long wait.  After the requisite four-month wait the first request was returned with death certificates for people who were not Fred because the index number was not decipherable.  I sent a second request and included the line from the index with Fred's name and several possible interpretations of the numbers.  I also suggested that if they had a paper copy of the index they might be able to read it better than the online index.

Whenever I send a request that requires a self-addressed envelope, I enclose a colored one because I can easily tell when a family history document has arrived in the mail.  I've been watching for a colored envelope since early early November, four months after sending my request.  I explained to my husband about waiting a second time for the death certificate.  Since early November he's been telling me they'd probably never send it.  You can only imagine my excitement -- and his surprise -- when there was a robin's egg blue envelope in our mail the day before Christmas!

The certificate gave me a different birth year; Fred's cause of death; and, most wonderful, Fred's father's name; but unfortunately not his mother's name.  The informant was "Mrs. Fred K. Gerner."  Sadly anyone could have claimed to be Mrs. Fred K. Gerner.  I would have been happier if she had written her name as Mrs. Elvira Gerner but I'm sure a new widow doesn't think to use her first name when she's used her husband's name for more than 50 years. 

I suspected Fred's father's name based on other research but now that I see it on a document, I will begin an in depth search.  I'll put the information from this record together with other documents to compare, then continue research.

What a nice Christmas gift.  What a nice start to my new year!
.