Obituary Types, Lloyd Clell Jameson, And Getting It Right!

Today is a three part blog. Trust me, it all connects together.

I'll start today with obituaries. I've been collecting obituaries of family members for a long time now. I have a collection of over a thousand different obituaries from all different lines of my family and my wife's family. Today's computer age makes them much more available, but I've always just asked family members if they wanted them, and if I could have them if they did not. I don't think I have ever been told no to my request. Most people cut them out of the newspaper and then don't know what to do with them. You usually find them sitting in a drawers with a bunch of old pictures or in the back of old bibles.

Let me tell you, they are one of the best genealogy references that you can come across. The only better references are the census's and birth, marriage, and death certificates. Obituaries are almost always wrote by the spouses or children (sometimes both together) and are first-hand knowledge given of the person that passed. I don't know the history of obituaries, a quick wikipedia search most likely would answer that. I know the oldest obituaries I have in my collect range from about the 1870's to the 1880's. Most obituaries are a true biography of a person that has passed.

I tend to put obituaries into three categories.

Category 1- the oldest (1870's- to about the 1930's). This category, most obituaries are almost always very similar. The article gives a brief description of the early live of the person; then gives the time they joined the church and what god meant to them; then gives a few word about their marriage and their children. The obituary almost always ends with a long pray and then how sad the family are and how bad the individual will be missed.

Category 2- the newest (1970's- to today). This category, is what we see in our daily newspapers. These obituaries can be wrote very differently. They also do have two very common trends. For the most part, you find out birth and death date; a few important facts, such as occupation and where they lived. The obituary almost always ends with a long list of family member that survive the deceased. One trend of this category is that the list of family member tends to be longer then the information of the deceased. Another, is that it is all about the person who is writing them, rather then who is being written about. Even worst then second trend, is that large amount of incorrect information sometimes are recorded in the obituary itself.

I have two instances to share. One, my wife's uncle, Kermit. He died a few weeks ago. I spend the last few years working on my wife's family history. I would say I am very versed in their stories. The obituary had at least 5 errors I counted within it. Two mistakes were, that two of his sisters had their married last names reversed. I even pointed them out to my father-in-law, who 100% agreed with me. The second comes from my fathers aunt, who died this past summer. Her daughter, my fathers cousin wrote the obituary. The whole obituary was about how devastated the daughter was with the loss of her mother. I understand that, but the obituary didn't even mention that my great-aunt had a son also who cared for his mother equally. He was somehow excluded for the obituary due to the grief of the author, his sister.

Category 3- my favorite (1930's- to 1960's). These obituaries are a true work of art to genealogy. They are usually very long and are a true biography of the persons life. They share the decease interest and what the person did in their life. They list the parents, siblings and families, children and grandchildren, and people that were major parts of their lives. They lists infants that lost there lives in infancy. Many of these children would be lost to history if not for these obituary's.

                                                                                                                                                 

Lloyd Clell Jameson and his wife, Bertha Pauline (Hofstetter) Jameson; dated 1951

Moving on to part two of the blog. A great example of a category 3 obituary is that of Lloyd Clell Jameson's obituary. The obituary was wrote by his daughter and wife together.

Do we need much more to know what type of a guy Clell was?



His genealogy stats are are followed:

Lloyd Clell Jameson- son of Carl Woodward Jameson and Jennie Leuretta (Walker) Jameson; born May 16, 1893 Jackson Township, Wood County, Ohio; married Bertha Pauline Hofstetter July 9, 1913 in Monroe, Monroe County, Michigan; he died November 3, 1954 in Rock Island, Rock Island County, Illinois; buried November 6, 1954 at Rock Island Memorial Park Cemetery, Rock Island , Rock Island County, Illinois. Bertha Pauline Hofstetter daughter of John Hofstetter and Catherine Riker was born August 15, 1891 in Willshire Township, Van Wert County, Ohio; she died May 6, 1978 in Rock Island, Rock Island County, Illinois; buried May 10, 1978 at Rock Island Memorial Park Cemetery, Rock Island, Rock Island County, Illinois

Children:
Rosemary Virginia Jameson- born May 11, 1915

                                                                                                                                                      


For the last part (part three) of this blog, let me lash out at people out there a little bit. If you search most Jameson genealogy sites on this family, you won't find a Lloyd Clell Jameson listed. You'll find his wife, Bertha a daughter, Rosemary, and you'll find 'Lloyd Cecil Jameson' listed in his place. Let me be the first to tell all of you, Mr. Jameson here, went by his middle name in life. His name was Clell, not Cecil! If you wish, I can prove it beyond simple family knowledge. I have his mother's bible front pages. They are all about her children and grandchildren. They say that Clell is her oldest son. Also take a look at is tombstone in Rock Island, Illinois. It says Lloyd Clell Jameson across the top of it!

I think I can point my finger on where this Cecil mistake comes from. They oldest example of this mistake comes from a great website that is no longer is online. The Descendants of Capt. Robert Sears by David Wright was a massive genealogy of the Sears and all the descendants. The site went down about five years ago.  I think a number of bad genealogist that just copied information and call it research, posted the mistake on a few of the major sites like rootsweb and familysearch. From there, the mistake just spread like a virus. 

Come on people, no one likes to be called by the wrong name. Lets do some justice for this fine man. Lets get it correct from now on out!