Providence, RI question for Marilyn

Post by **marilyn morning** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:30 am

You can drive through the State of Rhode Island along Route 95 in less then 45 minutes. We are the smallest State in the United States, but we still have plenty of farmland. Cranston is half city and half farm land, I live on the farm land end, a few towns over.

Marilyn

Post by **marilyn morning** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:02 pm

Hi Carol,

I just received a call from URI and they were not able to locate the "Record of Burial" for baby Clerihew.

I'll be dropping copies of your documents in the snail mail on Wednesday, so maybe you'll get them on Saturday? Will try to get some pictures of those addresses soon.

Regards
Marilyn

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 7:36 pm

Well, considering that we're talking about one small piece of paper 95 years old that has been moved around and in storage for a long time, I guess I'm not surprised. But one out of two isn't bad!

Thanks for the leg work and the phone calls. If you hadn't done that, my request would probably still be in the pile on Ken's desk!

I sent Toni a thank you card before I left on my trip last week. It was really nice of her to go back out and take that picture too.

I'm planning a trip to Ohio to try to find my great grandfather's grave and then on to Michigan to get pictures of my grandparents and two great aunts graves. Seeing how you went about looking for the two graves in Providence has given me a very good idea of the kinds of questions that I need to ask the people in charge of the cemeteries that I need to deal with. Hope some of this has been helpful to others also!

Carol

Post by **marilyn morning** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:19 am

Well, considering that we're talking about one small piece of paper 95 years old that has been moved around and in storage for a long time, I guess I'm not surprised. But one out of two isn't bad! Carol, I've not given up yet, the person I spoke to at URI was filling in for someone. I'll be back in touch with her next week. That record has to be somewhere and I'll plead your case. Maybe we'll get lucky and perhaps the Grace Church Records have the "still born" babies somehow indexed differently then the rest of the entries?

Thanks for the leg work and the phone calls. If you hadn't done that, my request would probably still be in the pile on Ken's desk! Happy I was happy to be able to help you further along with documenting your research.

I sent Toni a thank you card before I left on my trip last week. It was really nice of her to go back out and take that picture too. Nice touch Carol, I'm sure Toni will appreciate the thank you. Too bad she doesn't have e-mail, only snail mail

I'm planning a trip to Ohio to try to find my great grandfather's grave and then on to Michigan to get pictures of my grandparents and two great aunts graves. Seeing how you went about looking for the two graves in Providence has given me a very good idea of the kinds of questions that I need to ask the people in charge of the cemeteries that I need to deal with. Thanks Carol, its good to know that I was able to help you along Hope some of this has been helpful to others also!
I hope so too, but if nothing else it served to be some entertainment by having the story unfold for our members.

Regards
Marilyn

Carol

Post by **marilyn morning** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 3:05 am

Hi Carol,

I dropped your documents in the mail today.......

Marilyn

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 10:38 am

Hi Carol & Marilyn

Now that you have rooted out some documents please don't stop

The extended saga has been interesting and informative and may lead to a few more revelations.
The thing which has shown up most is that when dealing with officialdom - don't. Pinpoint an individual and work face-to-face with them and they will often go to great lengths to assist. (Toni sounds lovely !)

The single thing I have learned is don't pick a fight with Marilyn - she always wins

Russell
P.S. When you change governmental departments minds about things is there a special award or will =D> =D> =D> do

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:25 pm

Thanks Marilyn,

I'll be watching for it.

Wini just found a bunch of information for me on relatives who died in Australia. Can't wait to get it too.

Russell:

It does seem to be better to deal one on one with a specific person. The problem is that you can't always get to just one person. I have to say though that everybody I've dealt with since I started this search back in January has been both helpful and interested. Maybe that's the key--finding someone who is interested.

Carol

Post by **marilyn morning** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:26 pm

Hi Carol & Marilyn

Now that you have rooted out some documents please don't stop

The extended saga has been interesting and informative and may lead to a few more revelations.
The thing which has shown up most is that when dealing with officialdom - don't. Pinpoint an individual and work face-to-face with them and they will often go to great lengths to assist. (Toni sounds lovely !)

The single thing I have learned is don't pick a fight with Marilyn - she always wins

Russell
P.S. When you change governmental departments minds about things is there a special award or will =D> do

Hi Russell,

Let me assure you, I've not given up yet! Pleased to hear that you're enjoying watching this story unfold, because I wasn't sure if this tale was putting everyone to sleep.

k

Now that I know there are folk interested, I'll include the rest of the story later this evening. I have another example of "never give up" to share.

Russell wrote

The single thing I have learned is don't pick a fight with Marilyn - she always wins

Regards
Marilyn

P.S. Its easy to change governmental departments, all ya need to do is mention the possibility of them making $$$$

Post by **marilyn morning** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 12:17 am

Hi Carol,

Russell blew my cover when he told us not to give up.

I wasn't planning on it, but I just didn't want to disappoint you in the event there is no
burial record. Here's what I discovered today

The other day when I called Grace Church and spoke to a lovely women, who was most helpful, only she didn't speak English very well. She directed me to URI and when they couldn't find the record, I had every intention of contacting Grace Chruch again, only my daytime job kept getting in the way of progress. So today I stepped outside (beautiful day here in the Ocean State) and dialed Grace Church up again on my cellphone. This time Evelyn answered the phone, so I charmed her with "Oh I love that name, its my godmother's name and she was one special lady." I only had to mention the baby and she knew who I was immediately. Evelyn told me that her and Chad (the gent who offered to meet me at the cemetery) had taken a ride out to Grace Cemetery to look at section ### (sorry I left my file on this case at work) This section is the baby section of the cemetery. The two of them walked the ground to see if they could find a stone for the baby. Evelyn said there were very few stones and they didn't find one for the baby, but they did take a picture of this section, which Chad will send me next week. But wait it doesn't end here.

I asked Evelyn if there was a special section for "stillborn" babies in Grace Cemetery and she thought there was, but she had to ask Chad? I'll be calling her back on Monday, so keep your fingers crossed.

Off topic but still worth mentioning for anyone having difficulty finding a long lost relative.

A few years ago a lovely women "Marty" asked if I could help find her husbands g gf Savatore Somebody (can't remember him last name at the moment) She was up against a brickwall. Of course I would help, so after finding Sal's DC at the RI Archives, my next call was to St. Francis's Cemetery in Pawtucket, RI. They directed me to the Diocese of Providence. A very uninteresed lady answered the phone and told me "nope" he's not at St. Francis's. How could this be, his DC states he is? Salvatore passed on in a trench accident, along with 3 other men. There was a hugh write up in the Providence Journal date 1881, that Marty had posted to me. My next call was to Ken at the RI Archives, who directed me to good old what's his name, at the Providence City Hall Archives, who sent me back to Saint Francis. It took three more phone calls over 6 months to solve this mystery. When I made the 4th phone call I struck gold, this lovely young lady listened carefully to this sad story of mine on behalf of Marty and she told me that if I would give her a few hours, she would go into the basement and look for the original burial record because they were filed by date.

I almost fainted when I called her back

She found the record alright and the reason the other women didn't find it listed in their register, was because Sal wasn't listed by his name.

The name on record for this burial plot was 'FOUR ITALIAN MEN"

These men were here in the United States and working for a company out of New York. They were sent to Rhode Island to dig the trenchs for the new sewer project running along Elmwood Avenue in Cranston. The construction company did pay for their funerals, but not a stone.

Saint Francis's did stake the grave so I could take some pictures for Marty and her husband. He couldn't believe someone from 1/2 way around the world would do that? I told Marty to tell him, out of respect for Salvatore who lost his life here in RI.

Regards
Marilyn

P.S. You're going to be tackling the mailman for Wini & my envelopes

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 12:37 am

Marilyn,

Got yours today and wini's is on the way. Thanks so much and thanks to the people at Grace Church too!

Wini tried to email me the cover letter, but my software didn't match hers so she retyped the letter and email it to me!!!!!!!!!! It feels like everybody else is doing the work and I'm getting off with just being very, very, grateful.

The cover letter gave an address for contacting the department with the inquest file so I will pursue that. It also mentioned that the drowning incident was covered by The Scotsman so I signed up for a 24 hour pass and have been in their digital archives all day. I found two articles--one on the drowning and one on the return to Scotland of the four orphaned children. The people of Queensland donated a whopping 2700 pounds Stirling to a trust fund for them in 1911!

More about all this and the archives. I have to get back to reading files as the clock is ticking on my archive pass. Have already found one ringer too--a Clerihew who was a bigamist! Guess what that does to my research of the family?!

Carol