Back in February after I discovered the death notices for Bridget McDonough Murray and Ella (Nellie) Murray Nelson, I sent off for their death certificates in the hope that I could learn more about them. A couple of weeks ago I came home to find a plain white envelope from the Department of Public Health in my mailbox. I opened it up and saw that it was the death certificate for Nellie. As I read it over, I found that it had a lot of useful information.
According to the certificate, Nellie was born on July 4, 1883 which would have made her 25 when she died on March 4, 1909. According to the 1900 census record, she was born in July 1878 and figuring out her birth date is one of the things I was hoping to learn from the 1880 census record, but at least I have the day and a range for the year. According to the death certificate, she died in childbirth and from what I can decipher it doesn't appear that she delivered the child. Having spent a lot of time combing through the birth/marriage/death notice sections of the San Francisco Call, it didn't come as a surprise (and actually was what I suspected happened) as death in childbirth was fairly common. It's amazing how far we've come in the 100 or so years since Nellie's death. Where once it was commonplace for women to die in childbirth, it is now a rare circumstance (at least in the more developed parts of the world.)
I also learned that she and her husband Edward Nelson were living at the Overton Hotel in Santa Rosa, but had only been living in Santa Rosa for 4 months at the time of her death. I'll have to figure out where they were before then as I've yet to find a definitive record of them in San Francisco. I suspect Edward was working for the hotel because in the 1910 census I found a record for an Edward Nelson who is listed as widowed and is living with several other people with job titles like "porter" and "housekeeper." The death certificate also has Nellie's parents listed as John Murray and Bridget Donohue, but I suspect that is an error as the information would most likely have come from Edward. I'll make a note of it just in case though.
As you can see, there is a lot of information that can be learned from a single piece of paper. So you can imagine my excitement when, a week after Nellie's death certificate arrived I came home to find another plain white envelope from the Department of Public Health. When I opened it up the cover page informed me it was in response to my inquiry about Bridget Murray. Alas, when I turned to the second page I found it was a notice that the death certificate could not be found. Well darn. I had hoped that Bridget's death certificate would help identify her parents and thus allow me to dig up more on the McDonoughs. For now, I'll have to see if the other McDonoughs I've identified are relatives and try to track down the relative in Chelsea, Massachusetts and hope one of those will lead me to the family back in Ireland.
I've not given up all hope on finding Bridget's death certificate as I have found a record for her in the California Death Index for 1905-1939, so I hope that by requesting the record again and providing the additional information I found it will help dig up the record. It's still possible I'll be disappointed again and that the record has been lost in the 105 years since her death, but if there's one family trait that I've inherited it is Irish stubbornness!
According to the certificate, Nellie was born on July 4, 1883 which would have made her 25 when she died on March 4, 1909. According to the 1900 census record, she was born in July 1878 and figuring out her birth date is one of the things I was hoping to learn from the 1880 census record, but at least I have the day and a range for the year. According to the death certificate, she died in childbirth and from what I can decipher it doesn't appear that she delivered the child. Having spent a lot of time combing through the birth/marriage/death notice sections of the San Francisco Call, it didn't come as a surprise (and actually was what I suspected happened) as death in childbirth was fairly common. It's amazing how far we've come in the 100 or so years since Nellie's death. Where once it was commonplace for women to die in childbirth, it is now a rare circumstance (at least in the more developed parts of the world.)
I also learned that she and her husband Edward Nelson were living at the Overton Hotel in Santa Rosa, but had only been living in Santa Rosa for 4 months at the time of her death. I'll have to figure out where they were before then as I've yet to find a definitive record of them in San Francisco. I suspect Edward was working for the hotel because in the 1910 census I found a record for an Edward Nelson who is listed as widowed and is living with several other people with job titles like "porter" and "housekeeper." The death certificate also has Nellie's parents listed as John Murray and Bridget Donohue, but I suspect that is an error as the information would most likely have come from Edward. I'll make a note of it just in case though.
As you can see, there is a lot of information that can be learned from a single piece of paper. So you can imagine my excitement when, a week after Nellie's death certificate arrived I came home to find another plain white envelope from the Department of Public Health. When I opened it up the cover page informed me it was in response to my inquiry about Bridget Murray. Alas, when I turned to the second page I found it was a notice that the death certificate could not be found. Well darn. I had hoped that Bridget's death certificate would help identify her parents and thus allow me to dig up more on the McDonoughs. For now, I'll have to see if the other McDonoughs I've identified are relatives and try to track down the relative in Chelsea, Massachusetts and hope one of those will lead me to the family back in Ireland.
I've not given up all hope on finding Bridget's death certificate as I have found a record for her in the California Death Index for 1905-1939, so I hope that by requesting the record again and providing the additional information I found it will help dig up the record. It's still possible I'll be disappointed again and that the record has been lost in the 105 years since her death, but if there's one family trait that I've inherited it is Irish stubbornness!
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