Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:

It’s Saturday Night again –

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along – cue the Mission Impossible music!):

1)  Have you found a unique document or record (e.g., not a vital record, military record, probate record, etc.) that provided new and/or unique information for one or more of your ancestors?  How did it affect your research?  Please share your find.

To me, answering this question is a two part challenge. The first is to determine a unique record. To figure out the answer to this part, I scanned my list of sources. From that ‘scan’ I identified funeral home records as a possible unique set of records. At first, I was going to write about the funeral record for my Harding cousin who was buried in Rulo, Nebraska.

As I was starting to dig out that record, I remembered that I have a copy of the funeral record for my little brother, Duane Gail Crawford. (Hulpieu-Swaim Funeral Home, Dodge City, Kansas)

As I was going thru the documents I have for Duane’s birth and death, I came across an even more unique record: the church bulletin. This bulletin contained an announcement about the birth of twin boys and the death of one of the boys.

Mrs. Eugene Crawford, while visiting in Dodge City, gave birth to twin boys. One of the boys died shortly after birth. Apparently the other one is coming along all right. Mr. & Mrs. Eugene Crawford, who live at 901 Constitution, united with Grace Church this fall.

In addition to the church bulletin, I have a certificate of birth issued by the hospital where he was born.

These three records are each unique when compared to most of the records in my files. Together they tell the story of Duane’s short life.