Is Harry Meinzen Really Elizabeth Meinzen?

Last week I wrote about Elizabeth Meinzen, daughter of Henry Carl and Ella (Dray) Meinzen and granddaughter of my great-grandfather, Henry C. and Elizabeth (Armitage) Meinzen.  As I was adding and clarifying citations in RootsMagic I remembered that I had discovered a newspaper article several years ago announcing the death of a 17-month-old infant named Harry Meinzen, published in The Steubenville Herald-Star on Monday, April 10, 1899. 

"The funeral of 17 months old Harry
Meinzen took place from his parents
home on North Seventh street at 2:30
o'clock, Sunday afternoon.  Rev. Long
conducted the service."

I've puzzled over Harry in the past and wondered if he is a real child or a newspaperman's mistake.  Both Harry and Elizabeth have the same last name; both died in April, 1899, and both were 17 months old (and therefore born about November, 1897).  Was it possible they were twins?  The newspaper article doesn't name Harry's parents, only that they lived on North Seventh Street.

I wondered if perhaps Henry and Elizabeth (Armitage) Meinzen had had another baby in 1897.  Elizabeth would have been 45 at the time and had just had a baby in September, 1896.  I decided it was not likely that she'd conceived so soon after that birth.  (In fact, she did have another baby but not until May, 1898.)

My next step was to determine who lived where in Steubenville in 1899.  The Steubenville Official City Directory, 1899-1900, published by The Burch Directory Co., Akron, Ohio, 1899, tells me that Henry and Ella lived at 727 North Seventh.  It does not list Henry and Elizabeth (Armitage) Meinzen (who were living in Cross Creek Township/New Alexandria).  I concluded that Harry's parents must be Henry and Ella.

Were Harry and Elizabeth twins?  Were there two babies, both born and died around the same time?  Elizabeth's parents, Henry and Ella, are named in her birth record (but not required on her death record).  It wasn't until I found Elizabeth's birth and death records a few days ago in Jefferson County, Ohio, birth and death registers, that I remembered Harry.  I returned to those ledgers and performed a page-by-page search through the years from birth through several years after his/her/their deaths searching for little Harry.  I did not find any record of Harry Meinzen. 

Edited to add:  I also searched Steubenville's Union Cemetery's interment records in search of Harry but did not find him.

After these searches I've concluded that the writer of this newspaper article made a mistake.  I don't know how "Elizabeth" became "Harry" but I believe that's what happened.

If Harry/Elizabeth were more closely related than first cousin once-removed I would probably do more research, but having birth and death records for Elizabeth and no records at all for Harry, I believe that Harry Meinzen is really Elizabeth Meinzen.

Notes and Comments

• The original death record for Elizabeth states that she was 17 months old.  She was born on October 22, 1897, and died on April 6, 1899.  She was 1 year, 5 months, and 15 days old, or exactly 17 months, 15 days.  When Ohio began state records of deaths in 1906, the certificates recorded age in years, months, and days (if the informant had that information). 
• Newspapers can be a blessing for family historians, until they create confusion.  I think of them as leads toward further information and generally question their accuracy until I can find other sources to confirm anything published in a newspaper.
• This article about Harry was found in the Monday, April 10, 1899 issue of The Steubenville Herald-Star on page 9, column 2.  I viewed it at the Ohio State Archives Library at Ohio History Center (formerly The Ohio Historical Society), on microfilm roll #12948.  Issues of The Steubenville Herald-Star are not yet available as digital images (except for several years at Ancestry.com).  Steubenville is an important city to me but not to many other family historians.  I'm looking forward to the day when I can see digital images of their newspapers from home.  

Are there other steps you would take to solve this research problem?  Would you be satisfied with as much research as I've done?

-–Nancy.

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