Whenever I think of ancestors/relatives and accidents, I think of Laura. She died from a fall off her porch. Below are her death certificate and extracted information and her obituary and a transcription.
Laura Bell is my great-grandmother Lydia Bell's sister. This is our connection, a purely maternal line: me -> Audrey (Meinzen) Doyle -> Emma (Bickerstaff) Meinzen ->
Mary (Thompson) Bickerstaff -> Lydia (Bell) Thompson.
Place of Death: Steubenville, Jefferson County, Ohio
Address: 803 Prospect
PERSONAL AND STATISTICAL PARTICULARS
Sex, color, etc: Female, white, married, wife of Theodore Moses
Birth date: June 20, 1862
Age: 79 years 27 days
Occupation: Housewife
Birthplace: Salt Run, Ohio
Father: Jacob Bell, born Ohio
Mother: Lydia Fithen, born Ohio
Informant and Address: Theodore Moses, 803 Prospect Steubenville O
Burial Information: Murphy Funeral Home, Mingo Jct., Ohio
Filed: July 25, 1941
MEDICAL CERTIFICATE OF DEATH
Date of Death: July 17, 1941
Doctor's Statement: He attended deceased from July 14 to July 17, 1941, and last saw her alive on July 16, 1941.
Principle Cause of Death:
Cerebral Hemorrhage on July 13, 1941, from a fall off of porch
Death Caused by accident:
Date of injury July 13, 1941.
Where did injury occur? 803 Prospect, Steubenville, O
Specify [where injury occurred] fall off porch at home
Manner of injury Struck side of head & shoulder
Nature of injury fall from porch
Doctor: S. F. Paul, M.D., Steubenville, Ohio July 21, 1941
The obituary below was published in The Steubenville Herald-Star on Thursday, July 17, 1941, on page 14, column 4.
Injuries Fatal to Mrs. Laura Moses
---------------
Mrs. Laura Moses, 79, died at
her home 803 Prospect avenue at
8:10 a.m. today of injuries re-
ceived in a fall from the porch
at the home on Sunday.
She is survived by her husband
Theodore Moses and a sister Mrs.
Binnie [sic] Roe.
The body is at the Murphy
Funeral home in Mingo Junction
and will be taken to the residence
Friday noon. Funeral services will
be held Sunday 2 p.m. at the
home. Interment will be in the
New Alexander cemetery.
Comments and Observations
- Laura's sister is name "Mrs. Binnie Roe" in the obituary. I have no doubt this obituary is naming her oldest sister, Lavinia, also known as Vinnie and Viney. Lavinia married (Wesley) Scott Roe and did not die until 1943.
- The cemetery in the obituary is recorded as New Alexander Cemetery. The nearby town was actually New Alexandria. I'm surprised a local newspaper would make such a mistake.
- The cause of Laura's death reminds me how easy it is for a person to misstep and lose his or her balance. I find older people, including me, are more susceptible to losing their balance and that, in general, the consequences for them are more dire than for younger people. A few years ago my foot slipped out from under me at the top of our steps. I flew down the steps, my bottom bouncing on each one of them. (I can laugh now.) At the bottom, I was stunned into stillness for a moment or two. When I collected my wits, I realized that I had absolutely no damage to any body part. What a blessing!
- I wonder about Laura's fall. How high was her porch? How did her fall happen--down the steps, over the side? The lot where her home once stood looks like a wooded field on Google maps so I can't learn anything about her porch. I doubt I'll ever learn more.
- It's amazing the changes to research opportunities over time. FamilySearch was fairly new when I began research and offered primarily census records. At the Archives Library it was thrilling to look at an index for Ohio Death Certificates, find a name, look at the film, and learn so much information and, then, be able to find a film with a local newspaper with the same death date and find an obituary, too. I always felt like I'd hit the jackpot after those research trips. Of course, it's wonderful to have 24-hour access to records at FamilySearch, Ancestry, and the other resources currently available online.
-–Nancy.
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I have numerous obituaries with big mistakes (names in particular)...including from some very large newspapers. But luckily, we usually can puzzle out what was meant. And I agree, often the obits raise more questions than they answer. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI often wonder if obituaries were handwritten (during a time of distress) and handed to the typesetter who had to decipher the handwriting. My great-grandfather's surname was misspelled in his obituary and, like you, Marian, I have plenty of other obituaries with errors. This one wasn't a problem because I had already found correct information.
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