Dear
Beverly,
Here’s the information you
requested:
From
Cemeteries of Brown County,
Illinois
Mt Sterling City Cemetery, pp.
212, 213, 248, 249-250, 409
B. E. Craig (1858 –
1940)
Annie Craig (1873 -
1908)
[The family relationships
section lists B. E, Craig as S. E. Craig. I suspect that this is your Samuel
Craig. If the dates are correct according to the burial certificate please let
me know and I’ll list his full name for future reference. I you have a way to
send a copy of the death certificate, I would be happy to place it on the web
for others.]
John C. Daniels 23 Aug 1838 – 19
Nov 1907
[p. 409 gives his death year as 1901. I
do not know for sure which date is correct. P. 409 is from a separate list the
compilers used and it’s heading is “Deaths in Brown County in 1901”. I tend to
think 1901 is the correct year and the headstone readers got it wrong but I can
not be certain.
Charlotte Daniels 9 Jan 1884 – 7
May 1919
[Charlotte’s year of birth in
the relationship’s section is given as 1844. Given the age of her husband, 1844
is probably the correct date. Four of their children are listed
here.]
You are one of the few lucky
ones who have typo errors in the burial entries that have the correct
information in the family relationships sections. You probably have a record.
You’ve requested four people and three of them have errors. It doesn’t inspire
confidence.
As far as being able to verify
these records, well, you can see part of the problem. This information was
compiled in the 1970’s from all the paper records that could be found and from
actually reading the headstones. The Cemeteries book is a secondary source of
information. Your primary source is Samuel’s Death Certificate. The difference
is in when the records were made. The Death certificate was made on or very near
the time of his death as a result of his death. It is a primary record of the
event. The burial record was compiled many years later and the source of the
information is not clearly stated. It could have been any of the sources I
mentioned above or a combination. Some of it may even have been from the
compiler’s personal knowledge. We don’t know for sure and cannot tell from what
is now available to us.
If you go to Brown County and
ask for this information, they refer you to the book and no further effort is
made. I suspect that the original records may no longer exist in many cases. So
the Death Certificate is your best source of death and possibly burial
information. I say ‘possibly’ on the burial because my 2nd great
grandmother’s death certificate says she is buried in Ripley Cemetery, but I
found her headstone in the Huffman Cemetery over near Cooperstown. Someone
changed their mind after the death certificate was filled out or they waited too
long and forgot where she was laid and put the headstone where they thought she
should be. All the people who might know are gone now. So there you have it, my
little tale of woe on certainties.
Sincerely,
Ken
Huffman
-----Original
Message-----
From: Beverly
Gauerke [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 5:04
AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Burials
Dear Ken
& Laura,
I have
been looking for this family for a long time, and would appreciate your
help. This is what you have on site in the list of permanent
residents:
John C.
DANIELS 213,409
Charlotte
DANIELS 213
Annie
CRAIG 212
B.E.
CRAIG 212
Can you
tell me how I might verify someone is buried in the Mt. Sterling Cem.? I
have a death certificate for my grandfather, Samuel Ernest CRAIG, that says he
was buried there. He is the husband of Annie CRAIG, but is not in your
list.
Thank-you
for your time, and I hope you have a great day.
Beverly
Gauerke