Maggie Lewis Messer Death Certificate

[Note: the following e-mails have been edited and more information added to the response for clarity. Permission has been granted to develop this as an article for the ETGS newsletter and my blog.]

Subject: Maggie Lewis Messer

Hello Scott Fitzgerald,

 

My name is Maurice Shackelford and I am a member of the East Texas Genealogical Society.

 

I wanted to see if you can point me in the right direction to find my Great Grandmother's death certificate. All of the living relatives that I know of, have no idea about her death or attended her funeral.

 

I know that her maiden name was Maggie Lewis. There is a family bible that says that she was born on July 7, 1878. On the 1880 Census record, she and her mother, Sally Lewis (divorced), were living in Palestine, Anderson County, Texas. Maggie Lewis married William Franklin Messer on November 18, 1896 in Smith County. She died on January 5, 1953 in Whitehouse, Texas.

 

My Great Grandfather died on September 12, 1956. Holmes Funeral Home, in Whitehouse, handled his service. I was never aware that Whitehouse had a funeral home in the 1950's.

 

I have looked on line through FamilySearch.com, and Ancestry.com. We went to the Smith County records and they do not have any records of her death.

Do you know where we should look next to see if her death record exists?

Thank you for any information you can give us.

Thank you very much.

Maurice Shackelford

 

Hi Maurice,

Well I did not find it either.

My thoughts are:

• • It could have never been done. Hopefully this is not common in this time period. Maybe the doctor thought the funeral home did it and vice versa. Or it was an unattended death and no one took responsibility to prepare a death certificate.
• • It was never filed with the state. The county forwarded the certificates to the state who generated an index. Both Ancestry and Familysearch use the lists and records of the state. You should double check with county to see if they have one.
• • It could be misspelled in some way - under Familysearch your great grandfather was indexed as Measer. The M could have been mistaken for an N or H.
• • I checked the Smith County civil court cases [http://judicial.smith-county.com/CivilSearch/civfrmd.asp] which included probate and did not find any that matched. This is a compiled index that could have missing cases or misspelled names, so it could be worthwhile to check the original index and records.
• • Need to check newspapers for obituaries. Not sure if there was a Whitehouse paper at that time period but Tyler and Troup are possibilities. You can request a search from the local history/genealogy room of the Tyler Library at localhistdesk@tylertexas.com .
• • I have not heard about Holmes Funeral Home that handled your great grandfather’s funeral so I am not sure if they have records that have survived. The owners or their families could have retained the records or a subsequent owner. You might check the Whitehouse area for the Holmes family or if any funeral homes in the area have any information.
• • There is a picture of the joint tombstone at http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSsr=1121&GScid=180466&GRid=39936808& The tombstone could have information on the funeral home that handled your great grandmother’s funeral or the monument company that the tombstone was purchased.
• • If your great grandparents were members of a church, their passing could be recorded in the minutes or a church bulletin.
• • The cemetery association could have records of the plot purchase, the burials, funeral homes or the monument company.
• • The cemetery listing that is on-line [http://files.usgwarchives.net/tx/smith/cemetery/whthoume.txt] enumerates several Messer burials. It is a good idea to research all collateral lines. You never can be sure who knows what or who kept it (it being the exact thing that proves exactly what we are researching).

 

Hope this helps,

Scott – quarterly@etgs.org