John Lake in 1855

This is an image of the signature of John Lake, obtained from his BLM preemption claim of 1855. John's property was located in Chariton County, Missouri.

Ten years later, John was dead. Killed by bushwackers in his barn. This claim will be the focus of an upcoming "Casefile Clues" article in Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter Plus Edition.

Signature of John Lake--Missouri-1855

This signature is from John Lake, written in 1855 when he was completing his preemption claim in Chariton County, Missouri. John died in the mid-1860s and this document is one of the few I have that provides his signature. Really kind of neat as the family has no pictures of this Kentucky native.

John is my wife's great-great-grandfather. I'm working on a column on John's federal land file for an upcoming "Casefile Clues" column for Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter.

Google searches for John are always difficult, considering the nature of his last name.

Getting A Preemption Claim

John Lake appears on the Bureau of Land Management's database of land patents as having received a land patent for property in Chariton County, Missouri, in April of 1857. Never having seen a preemption claim, I am curious exactly what it contains. My contact at the National Archives is working on getting me a copy of the file. I'll post more when I know more and will probably use the information from the file for a future Casefile Clues column for Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter.

John Lake was in Mercer County, Kentucky, in 1850. I'm hoping there will be something in his preemption claim file that will help me pinpoint his migration into Missouri.

Missouri Death Certificates 1910-1957

It appears as if the Missouri State Archives has completed the digitization of most of the 1910-1957 death certificates for the state.

The image in this post is part of the death certificate for William Lake, who died in Chariton County, Missouri on 1 December 1924.

The nice thing about the free online death certificates is that one can then easily obtain them for extended family members and potentially reveal new clues about the family.

In this case, I was hoping for a little more detail on the parents, or perhaps a different piece of information than I had before. I will keep looking in the index for the rest of the children of John and Charlotte Brown Lake.

There are a variety of records on the Missouri State Archives website. The death records are just one.

And if anyone is related to William Lake, fire off an email. His youngest brother, Granville, is my wife's great-grandfather.

Think about the informant

Think about the informant on the death certificate or other record you are viewing. Is there a chance they might not have had first hand knowledge of the information on the deceased. The informant on the 1946 death certificate of Granville Lake in Marcelline, Linn County, Missouri, was his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Ola Lake. While the information she provided in this case appears to be accurate (based upon other records), it is always possible that an informant is uncertain of some information, especially parents and place of birth for the deceased.

Make Certain You've Seen the Whole thing

The death certificate for Granville Lake (died 1946 Marcelline, Linn County, Missouri) contains an omission: the year of birth. Part of Granville's death certificate is shown along with this post entry.

This certificate was located on the Missouri State Archives Death Certificate website.

The year of birth is a detail I would like to have. On the Lake certificate, like others from this era, there is a supplemental certificate to correct the omission. It always pays to read the entire document or see if an additional document is filed after the first one has been located. Of course, they had to stamp "supplementary" OVER the year of birth, but it is still legible (1863).

Granville is my wife's great-grandfather.

Clarifying Clara

I wrote "Clarifying Clara" long before the Missouri Death Index and images came online, but the article still makes valid points about how a record can be analyzed.

It is also important to note that a record can easily contain errors--the birth place of Clara's father, William Rhodus/Rhodes is most likely Tennessee and not Kentucky. The birth place of Matilda Jones, the mother, is likely Missouri and not Kentucky either.

Clara is my wife's great-grandmother and I'd love to hear from anyone else researching this family.