Genealogy Chat

I have now received copy of the birth certificate for "John Samuel Lowe" alias "John Stanley Lowe" and this confirms that he was born on the 26th August, 1868 in Oxford, Oxfordshire. Mgnv, I very much appreciated your suggestion that people rarely changed their actual day of birth but were more inclined to change their year of birth. This has proved to be the case with my "John" as the date he gave on his Declaration of Intention was the 26th August 1972!! Another confirmation that "John Samuel Lowe" and "John Stanley Lowe" were one and the same.

I am still struggling to find John's date of death. I believe he was living with a lady whose father's surname was "Bickley" at that time. It would appear that John Stanley? Lowe born in Oxford on the 26th August 1872? was buried in the Bickley family grave in California. I have seen a photo of this gravestone but unfortunately although his name and 1872 birth year is clear, John's year of death is not very clear - it looks as though it was something like 1936. Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated.

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1®ion=UNITED_STATES
California, Death Index, 1905-1939 1930-1939 Heslop, Nellie-Rzechtalski, Leon Image 300 of 836
John S Lowe d 31/1/1935 a=76 (so he's 10 y too old)


NB People do make mistakes on d.certs - it is a stressful time for the informant, plus some folk just can't do math.
A group of half a dozen of us spent 3 y looking for Elizabeth Anderson MS Scott's (my ggg gran) d.cert. Someone eventually found it - she was rego'ed by her son, Alex, as Christian Anderson MS Scott. Once I had the d.cert, it was easy to find her grave in Terriff ABD (where she died). She was buried as Elizabeth in the same grave as Alex and Alex's wife and son.

Many thanks mgnv. The date would appear to be about right but the wrong age, I think, will need further consideration. (Maybe 67 years could have been wrongly transcribed to 76 years if taken from his correct birth date?) I am having difficulty in reading what the initials in the next column to the "S" relate to. After "Lowe John S" the letter "M" appears on the death register. Do you have any ideas?

Is it difficult to obtain a copy death certificate from the USA? All my other ancestors lived in England so this would be my first attempt in the USA. I should be grateful for some guidance. Perhaps the death certificate would be more enlightening or would it be limited in what information it would give.

Thanks for your help.

Susan, there's a key near the front of the Aabel volume.
M=initials of spouse; 70=Los Angeles Co.

With 50+US jurisdictions, there's no saying what's on a d.cert.
There's also variation in the UK with it's 3 jurisdictions - e.g., my Christian/Elizabeth's d.cert was issued for Christian Anderson, widow of William Anderson Agr Labourer, d/o William Scott, Farmer (decd) & * Scott MS Rainnie (decd), plus the usual age, time, date, place and cause of death. (Alex didn't recall his gran's forename She was Elizabeth Rainy on her marr entry. ). [This was just to give you a concrete example of how much variation there can be in d.cert's from adjacent jurisdictions.]

As a general procedure for US BMD.certs, go to http://cyndislist.com/us/ and pick state, then drill down.
I'm not sure my recollection's correct nor how current it is, but I recall you can buy BMDs from the state and the county (the UK is similar), but the state is ridiculously back-logged, so you'll want LA Co
http://www.lavote.net/Recorder/BDM_Records.cfm

I was thinking someone b 26/8/1868 would be 66 on 31/1/1935, but like I said, there are some folk who just can't do math.

Many thanks mgnv for your continued very valuable info.

The initial given for deceased John S. Lowe would, I feel, be an added inaccuracy as I have no information that my John S. Lowe had any connection with a lady with the initial "M".

A photograph of the grave which I strongly believe to be the final resting place of my John can be found on:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=7934015&PIpi=749710

Unfortunately it is rather difficult to read the year of death but the name John Stanley Lowe and the birth date of 1872 is clear. I should be grateful for any thoughts on what the year of death might be.

Try down loading the image as a Jpeg - right click > save as then choose your destination.

Although others may have a different opinion, it could be 1928. Certainly 192?


Without reading previous posts thoroughly, are the other names on the headstone known to you?

If I go to the left column at Susan's URL and begin a new search, I get:


John Stanley Lowe
Birth: 1873
Death: 1930
Burial:
Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum
Altadena
Los Angeles County
California, USA

Downloading the image as per DetEcTive's prescription, I agree with 1873, and don't disagree with 1930, although it could be 1938, maybe.

Unless you can connect your John with George or Ellen, I would be inclined to say this isn't your John.

Many thanks for your suggestions and thoughts regarding the headstone image.

Yes, there certainly appears to be a close connection with family members of George.

Although the 1935 death is the closest match so far, it would seem from the gravestone that I need to search further for a more complete match.

As I have been unable to find my John on the 1930 US Census perhaps this might indicate a death prior to April, 1930. He was not with the family who presumably arranged his burial at the time of the 1930 census but this does not rule out the fact that he was somewhere else!

I have now found another possible death record for John Stanley Lowe - slight discrepancy again for age at death (aged 54 years) and also recorded as "Stanley Lowe" rather than "John Stanley Lowe". However, spouses initials are "L.R." and these were the initials of his probable common law? wife at the time of his death. Date of death was 26th January, 1930. The age discrepancy is not too extreme - Actual birth date 26th August, 1868 and alternative birth date 26th August, 1872. Stanley was a name which he chose to include in his names in 1903 and perhaps it was a name he chose to use rather than John. This death record can be found on:

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1961-26181-18431-80?cc=1932433&wc=14216749

I would be really pleased to have anyone's thoughts on this.