Saturday, March 2, 2019

Always Look At the Image, Not Just the Indexing

"Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-64GS-47L?cc=1320976&wc=9FRT-SP8%3A1073227701 : accessed 3 March 2019), Film Number (Digital Folder Number) 004009605,  image 1172 of 1771; Philadelphia City Archives and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.


Oh, for Pete's sake.

After years of periodically looking through FamilySearch's "Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915" I finally found Solomon Hartley's death record in Philadelphia:

This is to Certify Solomon Hartley was accidentally Drowned. -- John Dennis Coroner
August 9th 1814
                                 Aged about 40 Years.


What has thrown me off all this time was how this record was indexed ("Solomon McCarkley" instead of "Solomon Hartley").  I should know better by now that indexing is not an exact science, and yet that appears to be the only reason I didn't find this record earlier.

The record basically reveals what I already knew, that he died about 40 years old about 1815 after drowning.  I didn't know the date, and further inspection of the record indicates that he was buried in the same cemetery as his brother George Hartley.


"Solomon Mccarkley"



Solomon's brother George Hartley.


I'm not sure if August 9 is the date Solomon died, or when he was examined by the coroner.

I had no idea that he was Baptist.



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