You never know what you’re going to find or where you’ll find it until you look!  I had an email from Doris in New York last week in response to my blog (I love to receive feedback so let me know what you think).  Last week I mentioned that I had a great deal of difficulty locating my great grandfather’s death certificate in 1910.  Had I started with a map, I probably would have realized earlier that the town where he lived was at the intersection of three counties.  Although he died at his home on State Road in Covington (Wyoming county), his death certificate was found in York (Livingston county).

    Doris commented “my point was really to share the idea that in rural areas, death certificates, and birth, often follow the available health care. While we are lucky to have a local hospital (I am in Delaware County), only the most basic medical needs are met. Anything even slightly advanced is sent to another hospital and depending upon the severity and nature of the illness, that could be be Kingston Hospital in Ulster County, Fox Hospital in Otsego County or Albany Med in Albany County.  To those of us who have lived in more populated areas, it is a foreign concept that one must cross county lines, and sometimes more than one, to find doctors and hospitals. But it is simply a fact here, one that can affect where vital records are located.”  How true!  I can relate to this as my brother-in-law passed away in June.  Although he lived and worked his entire life in Stamford, Connecticut, he died at Yale New Haven Hospital.  His death certificate, therefore, is in New Haven (in New England, records are kept at the town level).

    Doris also mentioned “in rural areas do not overlook small weekly newspapers, both for the content they publish and also for the people that work there. Many are family run and employees tend to be long term. They can sometimes lead you to the information or at least to the local people who have it!”  Another wonderful point.  Not only newspapers, but historical societies, reference librarians, Town Historians (another wonderful resource in New York) or social/fraternal organizations.

    Location is important no matter when you’re searching.  As areas became more populous new counties were created, probate districts were added, etc. Perhaps you know that your family owned a farm in (what is now) Cameron county, Pennsylvania and that farm dates back to colonial times.  Where are you going to look for the records?  That depends on the timeframe.  Cameron county came into existence in 1860.  Before that and back to 1843 part of it was in Elk county.  Prior to that from 1804 it may have been in Clearfield county.  From 1800 to 1804 it was part of Lycoming county and prior to that Northumberland county back to 1790.  Records of deeds, probate, courts and census will be found in all of these counties depending on the date the record was created as records stay in the locality that created them.  A great resource for determining when a county came into being (or disappeared) is the Redbook, American State, County, and Town Sources, edited by Alice Eichholz, PhD., CG and published by Ancestry (now in its Third Edition).

    Thanks to Doris for her email and thoughts on locations.