Jan In my husband's family there was a drowning in a river which separated 2 states.  Perhaps this might shed some light on your situation - When the drowning occurred the authorities were notified.  Being that the group was from the nearest community in MO those officials were notified first.  Somehow the AR officials learned of the situation and they too responded.  The deceased went into the river from the MO side and when the body was recovered it was pulled out on the AR side and thus the battle started.  Both sides believed it was their authority to report the death according to their own state's guidelines/laws. For years the family believed that AR finally won the battle.  A check of the death records in AR came up with nothing.  At this point I figured that perhaps something was not properly done by the AR officials.  When the MO death certificates became available I was surprised to see the death certificate among the list.  At least I know there was a death certificate and that the story regarding the filing was either made up somewhere along the way or the extended family was not made aware of the true filing location. With this in mind I would check all resources because you never know what may have happened regarding the filling of any report.  However note that in the time period mentioned you probably won't find any death ceritifcate.  Most states did not require death certificate filings until after 1900 (IL in 1916; MO in 1910; AR in 1914 just to name a few for examples).  The newspaper article is most likely the only thing that you will have to use as a resource.  Most likely any railroad records for that time period are long gone even if the railroad company had made a file on the incident.  Coroner's usually convened a coroner's jury when the cause of death could have been 2 or more reasons.  If the cause of death was very evident then the coroner would not have made any record unless he was the one who pronounced the person as deceased because no other official or physician was there at the time to do so. Debbi Geer --- On Mon, 1/4/10, Jan Miller <jgrellim@sbcglobal.net> wrote: From: Jan Miller <jgrellim@sbcglobal.net> Subject: Re: [ILMACOUP] railroad fatalities To: ilmacoup@rootsweb.com Date: Monday, January 4, 2010, 10:12 AM Excuse me for butting in, but I have been intrigued with your work as you have communicated with others day to day.  It may be you can provide some insight to my problem, but if not, that is okay.  I think people who work in a particular area know more than a clerk is often more precise. I have a relative who lived in Chicago--a young man with a wife and infant son.  He worked for the G.R & I and was killed 1875 in Michigan--a coupling accident on a run between Grand Rapids and Indiana. The area was apparently somewhat remote, the newspaper said "near Clam Lake" (MI).  I 've since learned there are 2 counties that could have jurisdiction over the incident. I am told the RR itself had its own procedure--but the locals are first on the scene. I have bounced around between the 2-3 entities and haven't been able to pin down any correct order or procedural 'protocols'.  I wind up "flapping my apron" just trying to find out what they are or where to start. Perhaps your research has revealed what happens in situations like this--unfortunately, there were probably many such accidents in this period--so I'm hoping you can help. Other than the local news clipping to which I referred, I have a couple of haunting questions:         Who would be the first responders?         What was their role?         What was required in attending to the remains?         Would the coroner do any sort of physical preparation before returning the body to Chicago?         If it winds up as a county record, does the county keep that record or the RR? Both?         What 'papers' would be kept with the body--in other words, what do the officials [on scene and RR] do before transporting  remains?         Where would a death record be--Antrim or the 2nd suggested county (which I shall go look up before I send this message). >From Chicago City Directories I know the victim's home address.  But being a young couple, I am assuming they were in an apartment. I am hoping an obituary might suggest a mortuary but Chicago was a big city even then.  Didn't the Big Fire occur in this period? If I can get more details maybe I will have luck, but I understand the line went bankrupt, so I may find myself on a wild goose chase after all. If you can provide any insight at all, I would be most appreciative! Thank You! Jan in California -- Original Message ----- From: "W Hinton" <wmhntn@frontiernet.net> To: <ilmacoup@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 5:57 AM Subject: [ILMACOUP] railroad fatalities > The railroads page has been updated > with the addition of fatalies that also > include those that weren't train wrecks. > plus a few bit and pieces of other data. > And a outside the county news article > about the Kortkamp mine near Hillsboro. > http://gillespieil.com/gillespie/railroads.html > additonal items are welcome. > > Wayne > http://gillespieil.com/ > > > > Check out Macoupin County ILGenWeb page at > http://www.macoupinctygenealogy.org/. > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ILMACOUP-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message Check out Macoupin County ILGenWeb page at http://www.macoupinctygenealogy.org/. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ILMACOUP-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message