The Value of Browsing

Not all records are indexed!!

Like many other people, I use Ancestry's little green "leaf" hints to direct me to records about the subjects I'm researching. Unlike many others, I evaluate those hints critically in order to make my own decisions on whether they're correct. I also look for records that should be in the list of hints, but aren't.

A case in point is Richmond Patrick Thompson, who was born in Montgomery County, North Carolina in 1856, and died there in November 1918, according to his memorial page on Find A Grave:

​Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi/), memorial 91459021, digital image on 14 June 2012 by Brenda King of Richmond Patrick Thompson gravestone (Stoney Fork Baptist Church Cemetery, Mount Gilead, NC).

On the Ancestry family tree I've created, the profile page for Richmond Patrick Thompson has a total of 9 hints listed:

It's very easy to look at the list of hints that are there. What is not so easy is looking for what's NOT there. In this case, a North Carolina Death certificate. Ancestry's collection of digitized NC death certificates begin in 1909, so Richmond Thompson's death certificate should be there. However, for some reason, it either has not been indexed, or was indexed incorrectly. Just to be clear, Richmond Thompson is listed on the North Carolina Death Index:

The source citation for this record would be:
"North Carolina Death Indexes, 1908-2004," Ancestry > Wilson > 1914 > T > image 13 of 18, entry for Richmond Thompson (1918).

However, there are a couple of problems with this. Richmond Patrick Thompson died in Montgomery County in 1918, not Wilson County.in 1914. I looked at another 1918 death record on this same page (for Roland F. Thompson, who died in November 1918), it was from Duplin County. So this index page is for several counties, and several years, not just Wilson County in 1914.

​When I decided to browse this collection, I found something totally different:

This appears to be a hand-written register for Montgomery County, and according to Ancestry's source information, was created by the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics. Richmond Thompson is not listed.

I still want to see a death certificate, because it is the original record. Indexes like these, even if they are hand-written, are derivative records created from original records.

My next step is to browse Ancestry's collection of North Carolina death certificates, zeroing in on Montgomery County in November 1918:

And sure enough, I found it. At first glance, the reason it wasn't indexed is obvious: the record is almost entirely illegible.

The citation for this record is: "North Carolina Death Certificates, 1909-1976," Ancestry > Montgomery > 1918 > November > image 13 of 14, death certificate 134 (1918), Richmond Thompson.

There are several reasons why I concluded this is Richmond Thompson's death certificate:

• He was a white male of the right age (60) and occupation (farmer).
• His father's name was George Washington Thompson, and although it's a stretch of the imagination, the name of father on this certificate could be "Washg Thompson".
  
• His mother's name was Martha Ann Upchurch; the name on this certificate looks like Patsy Upchurch. Patsy is a common nickname for Martha.
  
• There is no informant listed, but the information here seems to be mostly accurate.
  
• The place of burial is noted as Mt. Gilead, which is where Stoney Creek Baptist Church Cemetery is located.
  

Conclusion:
Be active, and not passive, in your search for your ancestors. Don't just look for the records that are there, but look for the records that aren't there, but should be. This goes for other types of records, too - census, military, immigration - not just vital records. Browsing an indexed collection could reveal the record you need!