RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 1, 2009
KINSEARCHING
by
Marleta Childs
P. O. Box 6825
LUBBOCK, TX 79493-6825
[email protected]
For many years in the United States, Thanksgiving has been the major holiday observed in November. Often traveling a long distance, many families use the occasion for an annual gathering. For some people, Thanksgiving is the only opportunity they have to see their kin.
Due to the increasing Hispanic population in the U. S., another celebration in the first part of the month is also becoming well-known: El Día de los muertos (The day of the dead). November 1 is the day of remembrance for departed infants and children, while November 2 is the day of remembrance for deceased adults. When possible, one custom many families follow on these two days is to visit the graves of their ancestors and relatives. In this manner, young people learn who their forebears were and where they are buried. Therefore, the celebration can serve as a way of passing along family information from one generation to the next.
During this time, family members may also be remembered in newspapers. For example, the October 2009 (Vol. 3, No. 10) issue of the Latino Lubbock Monthly Magazine, published in Lubbock, TX, printed on pages 14 and 15 more than 150 photographs of deceased relatives submitted by readers.
Since most states did not start keeping vital statistics on a regular basis until the first part of the twentieth century, finding the exact birth or death date of ancestors before that era can be difficult. Although states required certificates, records in the beginning may sometimes be incomplete.
Genealogists often use the ten-year interval between federal censuses to estimate a death date for individuals. Calculating a death date between 1880 and 1900, however, is harder. Due to the destruction of most of the 1890 U. S. census, approximating a death date covers a twenty-year period instead of only ten, making it even less accurate.
Pages 289 - 291 of the Texas Bar Association Proceedings of the Thirty-first Annual Session Held at Galveston, July 2-3-4, 1912 (Austin, TX: A. C. Baldwin & Sons, 1913) contain a list of names of deceased members. The roster provides exact dates for most of the lawyers who died in the 1880s and 1890s as well as in later years.
Name of individual, place, and date of death
p. 289
ABBOTT, Jo (sic), Hillsboro, 11 Feb 1908
ADAMS, Z. T., Kaufman, 9 Jan 1886
ANDERSON, Jas. M., Waco, 3 June 1889
(Editor's Note: Jas. was an abbreviation often used for
James.)
ANDREWS, A. W., Terrell, 5 Feb 1887
ARCHER, Osceola, Austin, April 1898
ARMISTEAD, Geo. J., Texarkana, 1 May 1908
(Editor's Note: Geo. was an abbreviation often used for
George.)
ATTLEE, E. A., Laredo, 5 Jan 1910
AUSTIN, Wm. J., Denton, 7 Sept 1888
(Editor's Note: Wm. was an abbreviation often used for
William.)
BAKER, Jas. A., Sr., Houston, 23 Feb 1897
BALL, F. W., Fort Worth, 9 Sept 1900
BALLINGER, D. C., San Antonio, 1 Sept 1910
BALLINGER, T. J., Galveston, 27 Oct 1889
BALLINGER, W. P., Galveston, 28 Jan 1888
BANKS, W. S., Temple, 19 Jan 1911
BASSETT, B. H., Dallas, 15 July 1893
BLEDSOE, D. T., Cleburne, Aug 1892
BLAKE, S. R., Bellville, Nov 1908
BONNER, M. H., Tyler, 25 Nov 1883
BOTTS, W. B., Houston, 7 Mar 1894
BRADLEY, L. D., Fairfield, 6 Oct 1886
BRADSHAW, C. J., La Grange, 13 June 1888
BREWER, David J., Washington, 28 Mar 1910
BROWN, R. L., Austin, 9 Nov 1910
BRYANT, J. D., Richmond, 16 Aug 1904
BURGES, W. H., Seguin, 24 June 1898
BURTS, J. H., Austin, 15 Jan 1894
(To be continued)