Tabitha Watson Death Certificate and Headstone - The Trouble With Dates

Missouri State Board of Health

Bureau of Vital Statistics

Certificate of death, No. 13796

Tobetha Ann WATSON

Died 9 Feb 1937 in Birch Tree, Bartlett Township, Shannon County, Missouri 

[where she also resided]

Born 4 Mar 1846 in Missouri, aged 90 yrs, 11 mo, 5 days at time of death

She was widowed, but her husband's name was Samuel H Watson

Her Father's name was Hull House, and he was born in Missouri

Her Mother's name was Millie Thompson and her date and place of birth were unknown to the informant

The informant was Malinda Moore of Thomasville, MO

She was buried in Union Hill Cemetery on 10 Feb 1937 by John Duncan of Mt View, MO

Cause of death was "Senile Gangrene"

Death certificate was filed 10 Feb 1937 by R. J. Davis, M. D. of Birch Tree, MO 

(his name was also in the field of Registrar). 

I downloaded this death certificate from the Missouri Digital Heritage Site, online database of death certificates from 1910-1960 in March, 2012. It downloaded as a PDF and since I cannot import a PDF into a blog post, I took a screen shot and saved it as a JPG and uploaded the JPG to this blog post. It might be grainy or difficult to read. I have provided the transcript above. 

Tabitha/Tobetha (House) Watson was my 3rd great-grandmother. She was the daughter of Hollingsworth HOUSE and Millie THOMAS. The name on her death certificate for her mother Millie was incorrect as it should be THOMAS and not Thompson. 

There is some discrepancy about the spelling of Tabitha's name. Tabitha's headstone, obituary, and death certificate, all presumably created about the same time, each have a different spelling of her name and different birth and death dates as well! Malinda Moore was the informant on her death certificate. She was a daughter of Tabitha and Samuel Watson. 

Samuel Watson was Tabitha's 2nd husband. She was married 1st to Robert King, July 28, 1870 in Howell County, Missouri. I found their marriage record in the Howell County, MO marriage book. Robert King died in 1876 and Tabitha "King" remarried to Samuel Watson in 1879. I also found their marriage record as well. Samuel Watson preceded Tabitha in death as well in 1925. They were both buried side by side in Union Hill Cemetery in Oregon County, Missouri. Here is a photo of their headstone: 

I can't remember who sent me a copy of this headstone, and as you can see, it's not a very good quality scan and cannot be blown up. The photo on Tabitha's FindAGrave memorial page is a little bit better. According to the headstone, Tabitha died January 9th, 1938. This date is off quite a bit from her obituary and death certificate which both say she died February 9th, 1937! I wonder why there is such a discrepancy? 

If you would like to cite this article, please include the following: Ginger R Smith, "Tabitha Watson Death Certificate and Headstone - The Trouble With Dates," Genealogy by Ginger, posted 24 May 2012 (http://http://genealogybyginger.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). 

The Well-Loved Mother, Mrs. Tobitha Watson of Oregon County, Missouri

These newspaper clippings were sent to me by Wanda Watson, a descendant of Tobitha's husband's brother. Here is the transcription of Tobitha's obituary. She died 9 February 1937 in Birch Tree, Missouri: 

"Tobitha Ann-Watson, daughter of Hol and Millie House, was born in Oregon County, March 4, 1846 and died February 9, 1937 at Birch tree, Missouri. Her age was 90 years, 11 months, and 5 days.

She was united in marriage to Robert King in 1870. To this union two children were born; Fletcher and Dora. Mr. King passed away in 1876. On December 28, 1879 she was married to Samuel H. Watson at King Chapel, Missouri. To this union eight children were born; three daughters, Cora Judd, Linda Moore, Ora Brown, and five sons, Henry, Amos, Bob, Lee and Sam.

Mr. Watson preceded her in death on August 10, 1925. Two of her children, Dora and Henry, also have preceded her in death several years ago. 

She leaves to mourn her passing 4 sons, Amos Watson of Thayer, Mo.; Bob, Lee and Sam Watson of Thomasville, Mo.; and 3 daughters, Cora Judd of Rover, Mo., Linda Moore of Thomasville, and Ora Brown of Birch Tree. She is also survived by three brothers, a sister, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren and a host of other relatives and friends.

She was converted and united with the Methodist Church at King Chapel, Mo., at an early age. She was a devoted Christian, a good kind mother, and a lovable companion.

Funeral services were conducted at Union Hill Church at 3 o’clock Wednesday afternoon on February 10, by Rev. Knight of Mtn. View. A host of relatives and friends were present at the burial at Union Hill Cemetery.

Her toils are past, her work is done

She fought the fight, the victory won

In childhood day her patient smiling face,

Meant more than all the world to us,

There’s nothing here on earth can take her place."

"Card of Thanks

We wish to thank our friends and neighbors who were so kind to us during the illness and death of our mother, Mrs. Watson. And especially do we wish to thank Rev. Knight for his consoling words and those who rendered the music. Also the undertaker and all others who so willingly helped.

The Children."

It has been several years since I have actively done any research on the King or Watson family. This is the first time I've actually noticed that her obituary and death certificate (upcoming post) list her name as Tobitha. I had always thought her name was Tabitha. Most researchers have her listed as Tabitha as well. 

According to her marriage record to her first husband, Robert King, she was listed as what looks to be Tobitha House; according to the marriage record between her and her 2nd husband, Samuel Watson, she is listed as Tolitha King. On her husband, Samuel Watson's death certificate, she is listed twice as Tabitha Watson (once as the wife and once as the informant). However, on her own obituary and death certificate, she is listed as Tobitha Watson and on her headstone, she is listed as Tabitha Watson. I guess I will need to query some of her descendants for clarification. Many of her grandchildren are still living today in Missouri. There is a lot of discrepancy around her date of birth as well, so I am not surprised to see this discrepancy around her name too. 

What is not in question is that Tobitha/Tabitha was the daughter of Hollingsworth HOUSE and Millie THOMAS. I came up as a Family Finder (autosomal DNA) match to a gentleman who also had Thomas as one of his surnames and that prompted me to do some research into my Thomas surname last fall. I learned that my Thomas line supposedly comes from an Ephraim Thomas of Franklin County, Virginia (source: Anne Jobe Brown, via personal email). 

According to the above obituary, and their marriage record, Tabitha House married Robert King July 28, 1870 in Howell County, Missouri. I am in the middle of looking for a notice in one of the local newspapers for their marriage. You can read about my trials and tribulations with historical newspapers here. Her obituary also says that Robert King died in 1876. Again, I have been looking for his death notice to no avail. It could be that the information in this obituary is incorrect. 

Tabitha and Robert King did have two children - Fletcher King and Dora King. Dora was my 2nd great-grandmother who married William Peters. Dora King Peters died of a snake bite around 1912. No record of her death has ever been found. Dora's half-brother Henry Watson, who was mentioned in Tabitha's obituary as the other child who preceded her in death, was shot to death according to Wanda Watson. This obituary contained a lot of very useful information, including the names of the eight children she had with her 2nd husband, Samuel Watson. 

It also states that she was Methodist and was buried in Union Hill cemetery. She was buried beside her 2nd husband, Samuel Watson who died in 1925 and they share a double headstone. Her FindAGrave memorial with photos of her and her headstone is here. This is the second mention of the Methodist affiliation as Tabitha's son Fletcher King was married by a Methodist Circuit Rider named Joseph Martin Willard. 

Next I will see what I can learn from Tabitha/Tobitha's death certificate. Here is a photo of Tabitha when she was older.


Ginger R Smith, "The Well-Loved Mother, Mrs. Tobitha Watson of Oregon County, Missouri" Genealogy by Ginger, posted 22 May 2012 (http://http://genealogybyginger.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). 

“Grand Arrival” – new items at the B. C. Thomas & Co. Store in West Plains, Missouri, June 23rd, 1876

My 2^nd great-grandmother, Dora KING, was the daughter of Tabitha HOUSE and Robert KING. Robert KING supposedly died in 1876 in either Oregon or Howell County, Missouri. While I was looking through Southern Missouri newspapers in 1876 for a death notice of Robert KING, I came across an advertisement for the B. C. THOMAS & Co “Grand Arrival” of new stock and goods (click on image to make larger):

Grand ArrivalOf new goods at B. C. THOMAS & Co’s.
Our new stock carefully selected with
reference to the needs of this community,
is now arriving. Our Prints, Domestics
and Ladies’ Dress Goods will be found
especially fine. Call and see us and see
how cheap we sell goods.
                                                B. C. THOMAS & Co.

I learned a few months ago that I have quite a long line of THOMAS’ in my family. Tabitha HOUSE, my 3^rd great-grandmother, was the daughter of Hollingsworth HOUSE and his first wife, Millie THOMAS. Millie THOMAS was the daughter of William THOMAS and Nancy HUDDLESTON. If you are from Southern Missouri, then you are sure to know the HUDDLESTON family! However, Oregon County, Missouri, where the THOMAS, HUDDLESTON, and HOUSE families are from, was said to have been founded by a THOMAS family. I am unsure if my William THOMAS was related to John and Matilda THOMAS who is said to have founded Oregon County, Missouri. If so, they were probably brothers. Learning more information about my THOMAS family is definitely on my to-do list.

Most of my THOMAS and HOUSE family stayed in Oregon County, but some crossed back and forth between Oregon and Howell Counties. Unfortunately I do not have a list of Millie THOMAS’ brothers and sisters, so I do not know for sure if this B. C. THOMAS was related to my THOMAS family or not. I did a little research on him and found the following on Ancestry.com:

His name was Blackman Coleman THOMAS, born about 1817 in Tennessee. According to the 1880 Howell County, Missouri census report, he was married to Hannah, he was a stock dealer and both his parents were from Virginia. This actually matches up very well for him to be my Millie THOMAS’ brother. Millie was born in 1818. Her father, Ephraim THOMAS, was born in Franklin County, Virginia. He moved to Smith County, Tennessee about 1815 and stayed with his wife’s TEAL family for a bit before removing to Missouri.

Unfortunately, most online family trees have Blackman as the son of William THOMAS and Harriett KEYS from Tennessee. And of course, I couldn’t find any trees (or census reports) pointing to a single source of evidence supporting this theory.

Either way, I just wanted to share this item from the newspaper that my ancestors would have been reading at the time they lived in West Plains or possibly even while living in Thomasville or Alton in neighboring Oregon County, Missouri. Did they visit the B. C. Thomas Store? Did they buy stock from him? I highly doubt the missus purchased dresses from his store as they were probably too poor for that. But they might have purchased fabric to make their children’s clothing out of.

Oh and still no mention of Robert KING’s death in 1876…so I will keep looking. I wonder what other interesting stories I will find in this paper? Oh and I wonder how long it will take for those 33 Ancestry.com online family tree owners to find this post and copy this newspaper article to their online family tree and NOT attribute it. Anyone want to place any bets? And how many do you think will even take the time to write a source citation giving the date and name of the newspaper. Ah hem, even though I have included a citation at the bottom of this post (and note, I did not include a mention of my blog as the secondary source from which the next person to copy this article from also should use.) Hey, it's a start, right? 

Source: West Plains Journal, (West Plains, Howell County, Missouri, USA), 23 June 1876, Page 2, newspaper clipping; The American Antiquarian Society, Massachusetts, USA. Column 1, "Grand Arrival".

My Genealogy Goals for 2012

My class load this year will really start to wind down, so I will need to start to focus more and have some goals if I'm going to get any major genealogy research done. So I have set quite a few goals for myself for the upcoming year based on what I've been thinking about these past few weeks and hoping that I could start working on one of these days. I have organized my goals in to categories to hopefully help me keep even more focus. One thing I do not have on this list is a goal towards increasing my genealogy expertise. I think this will occur naturally and can be incorporated once I get a feel for how the ebb and flow of my life will start to take shape. So without further ado, here is my list:

Think outside the box:

1. Extend my research to University collections, for example, the Thomas Hume papers at UNC (and evaluate Mildred Holladay's papers from UVA which Lori ordered)
2. Search for brick walls on Google and in Google Books - maybe do one surname per week
3. Search for brick walls in newspaper archives online

Organization:

1. Organize my paper files and file cabinet
2. Scan, transcribe, abstract, and analyze all of the documents I have retrieved in the past 7 years of research (they are in a pile), file them in respective family folder(s); add the relevant information to my genealogy database and submit transcripts to respective USGenWeb sites

DNA:

1. Connect with 5 more Family Finder matches - I connected with 5 from July to Dec of 2011, so this shouldn't be a problem
2. Sort through my Family Finder matches by maternal and paternal - my mother took the test in Dec so this should help me sort through them
3. Work more closely with existing Family Finder matches from July-Dec to exchange historical data and recent data; my goal is not just establish a connection then never speak to them again, but to build a relationship with them; ask them for photos, documents, etc...share, share, share!
4. Try to connect some American Godwins to English or Irish Godwins via Y-DNA
5. Update my Goodwin-Godwin Y-DNA surname project website with goals, success stories and summaries of existing lines

Brick Wall Research:

1. Find the parents of Jess Dunlap from Stokes County, North Carolina
2. Find the parents of William Peters, b. 1873 in Thomasville, Missouri
3. Find the parents of James Silas Barton from South Carolina

Research:

1. Do research on my O'Neal family from North Carolina - other researchers, including my grandfather, have a pedigree already drafted which I can use as a guide to find the documents
2. Use more research reports to tract resources searched and analyzed
3. Use  more matrix reports to better display disparaging or corroborating information
4. Build on my collateral lines to help me collaborate with my Family Finder matches in order to see where different branches of each family migrated to (ex. the Cox family)
5. Add the South Carolina wills and probate records on FamilySearch.org to my Cox, McCoy, Cheek, (my SC) family files
6. Work on my Steed and Lewis families of North Carolina. I have lots of documents. I need to scan, transcribe, abstract, and analyze them and add to my genealogy database 
7. Obtain copies of the deeds mentioned in Ann Jobe Brown's genealogy files to validate parentage from Ephraim Thomas and his migration
8. Start building a genealogy profile for the parents of James Franklin Lasiter: John Riley Laister and Emily Jones (per his death certificate, obtained July 2011)

Blogging:

1. Write more blog posts
2. Write about my Family Finder DNA experience
3. Make my blog look more snazzier
4. Turn my header into an image so that I can post a blog link to Facebook and Google+ and the "description" will be of the blog post and not of the blog itself

Graduate School:

1. Graduate in 2012...but in order to do that, I have to complete a few more things...
2. Take 1 more class this spring
3. Write a Master's Paper
4. Take Comprehensive Exams
5. Test out of 1 class
6. Do a Field Experience (Internship)

Addition - I would like to add the creation of Annotated Bibliographies for the geographic locations of my Brick Walls to my list. 

What I Learned Wednesday - June 29, 2011

I was looking through an Ahnentafel report I made of my LaRue ancestors that I prepared to send to Greta from Greta's Genealogy Bog when I happened upon Generation 5 for Peter LaRue and beneath his name was an Elizabeth Cresson. I have been seeing the name “Cress” pop up over and over again throughout my Family Finder results and was wondering where that name came into play. This is not a line that I have actively researched. In fact, the information in this report is from the family tree file that my Grandfather compiled. I keep it as a separate file for reference only and when I am ready to start researching this side of the family, I will use it as a guide.

Speaking of Family Finder DNA results…

One of my matches emailed me about a Thomas and Saunders/Sanders connection. I took one look at my database and realized I had a grand total of 1 Sanders and 1 Thomas family member listed. Now why on earth would I have these two surnames listed in my surname list in my Family Finder DNA page if I didn’t have any information on them? Because they are the surnames of my 4^th and 6^th great-grandmothers.

I looked through my sources and notes on my 4^th great-grandmother, Millie/Milly Thomas and found reference to a couple of WorldConnect online Family Tree files that other descendants of Milly Thomas and her husband Hollingsworth House had posted. The last time I accessed them was in 2005. I accessed them again to see if any of the information had changed or been updated and sure enough one descendant had updated her file to include the parents and grand-parents of Milly Thomas! She even provided transcripts of the documents she had reviewed and cited them accordingly in such a way as to convince me that the parents she designated for each generation was correct.

So now I have that Milly Thomas’ parents were William Thomas, b. abt 1792 in Franklin Co., VA, and Nancy Huddleston, b. abt 1795 in VA; and that William Thomas’ parents were Ephriam Thomas, b. abt 1775 in VA and Maria Catharina “Caty” Teal/Diehl, b. 25 Aug 1774, Dover, York Co., PA.

Thanks to a Family Finder DNA match contacting me, I learned who the parents and grand-parents of my 4^th great-grandmother, Milly Thomas House were!

Unfortunately, my match is in the same situation I started off in: He has one person named Thomas in his tree. It is a female named Olive Thomas, md to Enos Ingraham, Hartford, CT, 1797. So we aren't able to "connect" at this time. But at least I was able to go back two more generations in my tree!

What did you learn today?