Are you sure that she died in the District? Perhaps it was across the District line in either MD or VA? Do you know if she attended church regularly? Many churches maintain a register of funerals services held. Where are other family members buried, particularly her husband? Don't just rely on the engravings that appear on the stone--check with the cemetery office to confirm the names of EVERYONE buried in the grave. Many families use the same undertaker generation after generation--is that a possibility here? Undertakers traditionally maintain very good records of services that they organize. If you can narrow down the year, MLK Library's Washingtoniana Room has the old Evening Star on microfilm. I've done searches like this in the past & you can probably review a full month of funeral notices (they're almost always on the same page, day after day) in about 30 minutes. There's no index to funeral notices in the Star, so this is the only way to go. Don't forget to try distant relatives, too. Often a story will be handed down from one generation to the next about someone's death. It's possible that someone fairly young may have heard such a story from older relatives. Also, was Maud a given name in the 19th century or a nickname? Try backtracking to the 1880, 1900, and 1910 Census records to see if she used Maud consistently, or perhaps another first name. Good luck! Frank Dunnigan -----Original Message----- From: hrcy@juno.com <hrcy@juno.com> To: WashingtonDC-L@rootsweb.com <WashingtonDC-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Saturday, September 22, 2001 9:35 AM Subject: [WashingtonDC'' ] Death of Maud Keating about 1920? >Dear Listers, >My widowed grandmother lived and worked in Wash., DC. >According to the 1920 census she worked as a clerk for the government (no >department) That's the last record I can find of her. >>From other information (something I remember my father saying), I'm >fairly sure she died about that time. No death record at Vital Records, >at least they couldn't find it -twice. Possibly some error in spelling or >someone's misunderstood handwriting from the death certificate. >She was in the 1923 city directory. But I found another ancestor in the >DC city directory that I know was gone two years earlier. >Questions: Has anyone had experience in hiring a researcher to go to >Vital Records and conduct their own search? Is this allowed? >The FHL has a Death Index for DC for those years but I didn't find her. >I've had no luck with cemetery records. >Just thought I'd check to see if any bright person on this list has some >wonderful idea on a next step. >Many thanks. >Betty > > >============================== >Visit Ancestry's Library - The best collection of family history >learning and how-to articles on the Internet. >http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library >