David - I just wanted to add that my original comments in no way were meant to be critical of the wonderful volunteers who have worked on this project. My goal was rather to encourage people not to be too rigid in their searches. As you point out the original recorders of the information could make mistakes - plus sometimes their handwriting was sloppy - leaving the records vulnerable to misinterpretation years later. I am over the moon over this whole project. It's helped me in my research by often confirming (or providing) birthdates, death dates, birth & death locations, cemetery where deceased was buried and family relationships. As a bonus I often get the maiden names of the mother of the deceased. It is also so thrilling to have access to the actual signatures of your ancestors on a document. Carole In a message dated 4/23/2006 12:51:31 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: Hi Carole, I agree as I think the death certificates are an awesome tool for research and to corroborate other evidence! As a word of caution, everyone should keep in mind that there may be errors on the death certificates as the informants were human and therefore prone to make mistakes. For example, I ordered several of my direct-line ancestor death certificates a few years ago and noticed the name of the mother of my great-grandfather Charles Calvin Brown is listed as Araminta Dameron when in fact it is Araminta Martin...he married a Dameron. But all in all, they are still a great tool! I think what you mention too about being creative in your searches on the website is great advice. I have done the same in some of my searches. For instance, I noticed that Lewis Stark who is a brother to my great-grandfather William Howell Stark is shown as Lewis Stork. Interestingly though, if you look at the orginal death certificate, it does almost look like Stork instead of Stark (if one didn't know any better)! I think the greatest aspect of this new search engine is if you had an ancestor who died before 1910, but they had a sister or brother who lived after that date, which could potentially give you the names of the parents of that particular ancestor. I have the Martin surname on another line (through my Grandmother Mary Margaret Asbell Brown) and I was able to find a death certifcate for a Mary Martin in Montgomery County, MO, which listed her father as Patrick Martin. Mary looks to be a sister of my gg grandfather Thomas Michael Martin who was born in Ireland in 1830, migrated to Michigan in the 1830's with his parents, lived for brief period of time in Montgomery Co., MO before moving to Randolph Co., MO in the 1870's where he died in 1900. Until now, I didn't know the name of his father! I hope everyone else finds this as helpful as I have!

Hi Carole, Don't worry as I wasn't offended by anything you wrote. I too appreciate the efforts of the volunteers. But, I do believe the point that both you and I attempted to make is that researchers should not immediately give up on the Death Certificate database if they don't at first find the specific names for which they are searching. This is, in my opinion, a valid point to make that is in no way meant as an attack or criticism of the volunteers or any person that at any time was involved with the death certificates. David [email protected] wrote: David - I just wanted to add that my original comments in no way were meant to be critical of the wonderful volunteers who have worked on this project. My goal was rather to encourage people not to be too rigid in their searches. As you point out the original recorders of the information could make mistakes - plus sometimes their handwriting was sloppy - leaving the records vulnerable to misinterpretation years later. I am over the moon over this whole project. It's helped me in my research by often confirming (or providing) birthdates, death dates, birth & death locations, cemetery where deceased was buried and family relationships. As a bonus I often get the maiden names of the mother of the deceased. It is also so thrilling to have access to the actual signatures of your ancestors on a document. Carole In a message dated 4/23/2006 12:51:31 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: Hi Carole, I agree as I think the death certificates are an awesome tool for research and to corroborate other evidence! As a word of caution, everyone should keep in mind that there may be errors on the death certificates as the informants were human and therefore prone to make mistakes. For example, I ordered several of my direct-line ancestor death certificates a few years ago and noticed the name of the mother of my great-grandfather Charles Calvin Brown is listed as Araminta Dameron when in fact it is Araminta Martin...he married a Dameron. But all in all, they are still a great tool! I think what you mention too about being creative in your searches on the website is great advice. I have done the same in some of my searches. For instance, I noticed that Lewis Stark who is a brother to my great-grandfather William Howell Stark is shown as Lewis Stork. Interestingly though, if you look at the orginal death certificate, it does almost look like Stork instead of Stark (if one didn't know any better)! I think the greatest aspect of this new search engine is if you had an ancestor who died before 1910, but they had a sister or brother who lived after that date, which could potentially give you the names of the parents of that particular ancestor. I have the Martin surname on another line (through my Grandmother Mary Margaret Asbell Brown) and I was able to find a death certifcate for a Mary Martin in Montgomery County, MO, which listed her father as Patrick Martin. Mary looks to be a sister of my gg grandfather Thomas Michael Martin who was born in Ireland in 1830, migrated to Michigan in the 1830's with his parents, lived for brief period of time in Montgomery Co., MO before moving to Randolph Co., MO in the 1870's where he died in 1900. Until now, I didn't know the name of his father! I hope everyone else finds this as helpful as I have! ==== MORANDOL Mailing List ==== Questions for the List Administrator? Send them to Leslie at [email protected]