Where Does It All Come From?

From one document we can extract an awful lot of information.  For example, from a “Standard Certificate of Death” I obtained the following:

Frank Walker Rockholt, born 4 May 1867, died 12:00 noon, 16 December 1949 at York County Hospital, Rockwell, South Carolina.  Cause of death was coronary thrombosis.  His residence was Rural, Rockwell.  His usual occupation was farmer.  He was born in York County, father was Jason Rockholt, mother was Mary Jane Parrish, and wife was Maggie Sexton.  Burial was on 18 December 1949, Bethesda Church Cemetery, York County, S.C.  The reporting individual was Frank Rockholt, who was probably a son or grandson. 

With this information we now have several areas to seek additional information and family connections.  The parent’s names, the wife’s name and possibly a son’s name.  His age, given as 82 in 1949, narrows a search for his family.  Searching the census data from 1870, 1880 and 1900 (1890 seems to have been lost) might turn up Frank’s brothers and sisters.  1850 and later might allow you to determine age/birth year for Jason, Mary and Maggie, this would allow some educated conclusions to be drawn from 1840 and earlier when family members were not listed but simply counted in age/sex groups.

1920 Bethesda tsp, York County, S.C. census gives us a little more information:  Frank Rockholt is head of house, he rents, is a married white male, 49 years old.  He does not read or write English.  He was born in South Carolina, as was his mother, his father was from Tennessee.  Wife Maggie, white female, 48 years old, also does not read or write English, she, her mother and father were all born in South Carolina, as were all the children:  Bula J. (16), Eula R. (13), Frank B. (10), Ready M. (8), Ada Ines (6), and Emma E. (1  8/12).  Also living in the house is Louis W. Sexton, 19 year old, Frank’s brother-in-law.  This confirms Maggie Sexton.  Next door is Hosia Rockholt, 18 years old, and his wife Emma L.  Since Hosia is born in South Carolina as were his parents it would be reasonable to assume he is not Frank’s brother, since Frank is 49 and Hosia is 18, so Hosia is probably Frank’s son.  Further indications are the age of Hosia compared to Bula; the two year difference is typical of child births in the 1800s and early 1900s.  1910 census might confirm Hosia's father as Frank  1910 and 1930 might reveal additional children, these, along with 1940 might reveal more information.  Due to privacy considerations the 1950 and later census data is not made public yet.

1880 Hazlewood, Chester County, South Carolina has Jason Rockholt (40) wife Mary (34), children William (15), Leroy (13), John (11), Sarah (8), Franklin (6) and Peter (4).  This Franklin could be our Frank.  Mother and Father seem to match, but there is a problem with his age.  Death certificate says born in 1867, 1920 census shows 49 years old, which indicates birth about 1871, and now we have 1874.  The date on the death certificate is the date which was provided by Frank (the son) who reported the information upon his death.  I’m sure it was the best information that could be provided at the time.  Additional research might prove productive but 1876 is probably the best date, after all it is the earliest recorded date.

Printed historical books are often cataloged on the internet, some have even been digitized and published as electronic books, and some are available on-line at no charge.  Family bibles often are a very accurate source of information, don’t forget to look at the several unprinted pages usually found at the back of the printed book, often they contain notes entered by grandmother or some great aunt.

Twentieth century records, for the most part are accurate, the problem comes when the individual reporting the information does not have correct information to report.  The same can be said of the earlier documents.  Who ever was at home, and provided the information for the census taker, provided the information to the best of their knowledge.  Since that probably was the woman of the house, I can only guess that mistakes were frequent and sometimes severe.  (Not to slight the women, it’s just that they did not have all the right information.)  Those who took and recorded the census can probably be blamed for a lot of the name spelling errors, a lot of the early family did not read or write and could not tell what the proper spelling of their names were.

Another problem is actually reading the documents.  Early cursive scripts are often very hard to read.  When the records are transcribed into on-line data bases, mis-read names are entered wrong and searching them becomes difficult.  Early inks were mostly “iron-gall” and they fade in time, especially if exposed to moisture or high humidity.  Some early documents are just too washed out to read.

 Sometimes, long after their death, with information engraved in stone on their tombstone, we learn that what we thought was the truth, is simply not.  My grandfather was known as Walter, he often used the initials W.W. as his signature and on documents.  The family, at least the younger members, knew him as Walter William Rockholt.  When he died, his grandson provided the information for his death certificate and tombstone, so Walter William was recorded and engraved.  I have since come to accept that his name was, in fact, William Walter, not Walter William.  What can be done about it?  Nothing really, a simple note in the family tree, explaining what I believe to be true, is about all that can be done.  Suffice to say, constant vigil and a willingness to revise, when it becomes apparent, are very necessary as we search for our ancestry.