Site Navigation


OOPS - Errors Found
I will try to add errors like these, when I find them.
Headstone errors - William M. "Squire Bill" Deputy, his headstone says he died December 31, 1894 but I found his Obituary in the North Vernon Banner Plain Dealer, the paper was dated January 10, 1894. Houston, that was a problem. So I started checking more and found his estate notices in the same newspaper dated late January and early February. He could hardly have died in December of 1894 if all that was going on in early 1894. His Obituary states he died December 31, 1893. So this one looks like the tombstone was made with the wrong death year.

January 10, 1894 - Banner Plain Dealer
The second error has been corrected but just in case anyone used it in their tree (as many people on Ancestry.com did). The death year for Lucinda (Speer/Spear) Elliott who is buried in Zenas Cemetery was listed on Find A Grave as January 5, 1888 and her actual death year was 1883. I again found death notices in local papers, and if you actually look at the close up of the headstone you can read it is 1883. I put a correction in Find A Grave to person who had created it and she changed it but she also transferred both her memorial & that of her husband David Elliott to me. I did not ask for the transfer and she is one that does not accept private e mails or messages so I seem to have just inherited them.

January 11, 1883 - North Vernon Plain Dealer, Page 3


January 12, 1883 - Greensburg Standard, Page 3

August 16, 1877 - North Vernon Plain Dealer


This one is a double whammy - the headstone is correct (1877) but the listing on Find A Grave and on one of our three listings for this cemetery at the library was wrong, showing 1873. Then the NewspaperArchive.com date the paper where his death is listed was dated wrong in their data base it should be 1877 but is listed on their database as 1876. I had found this clipping at the library in the August 16, 1877 issue of the North Vernon Plain dealer but when I pulled it up at NewspaperArchives it said 1876 - if you go back to page one of the paper you see that the actual date on the paper is 1877! Aaaagh! I have asked for and the Find A Grave listing has been corrected. Thank you Linda Cardinal Erler!
November 13, 1903 - North Vernon Banner Plain Dealer



In this one little Bernice Yater's headstone as seen on Find A Grave is marked with a death year of 1904. Both her obituary and Death Certificate are dated 1903. She is buried in Hillcrest Cemetery in North Vernon. I cannot change a headstone but the death certificate is available on Ancestry.com. only it is listed under the name Bernie Yates. Deep sigh.
    Another confusing one - I found the following Death Notice -
March 10, 1864 - Vernon Banner
    John Basnett, son of Mr. Philander L. Basnett, and member of Co. H, 26th Ind Vols., died at this place, at his father's residence, on Monday night last. His disease was chronic diarrhea, contracted whilst in the field. Thus another faithful, brave son has given his life in the cause of his country. Brave and faithful, he stood high among his comrades in arms, and the community mourns another son sacrificed \ on the altar of his country.


    I try to add a link to a Find a Grave if there is one listed and I went to do that. I found a John W. Basnett listed but the information on the listing did not match the death notice above. It had him as the husband of Emily (Bullock) Basnett, with a birth date in the 1820's. Oh Oh, more checking required. I downloaded the headstone picture and found it said this John W. Basnett was born in 1842. I was pretty sure that was the fellow who matched the death notice. Also the stone said he was in Co. H of the 26th Regiment, Indiana Volunteers which matched the death notice. I again contacted Linda Erler and she double checked me and corrected the Find a Grave listing, so it is now correct for John W. Basnett.
    This one is just an incorrect headstone. William G. Berkshire is buried in Vernon Cemetery and I have contacted Linda Erler to correct the Find a Grave listing. His headstone death date says 1888 but if you note the date on the following Obituary you can see it is in the paper a year later than that, there is no Death Certificate but I found the same Obituary in the March 7, 1889 issue of the Versailles Republican so it looks like the headstone is off by a year.
February 27, 1889 - North Vernon Plain Dealer.
DIED
    BERKSHIRE-At his residence in this city, at a quarter past four o'clock, Tuesday morning, February 26th, of pneumonia, after a short illness, Mr. William G. Berkshire, in his 83rd year. William G. Berkshire was born near Cynthiana, Harrison county, Kentucky, April 22d, 1806. He and Thirza Ann Harding were married January 11, 1830. They had four children three of whom are living, the oldest being Judge John G. Berkshire, of this city. His first wife having departed this life, he on the 15th of October, 1841, was married to Narcissa Jane Cook. They had two children, both of whom are dead. After the death of his second wife, Mr. Berkshire was married on the 11th of March, 1849, to Mrs. Nancy Hoover, who survives him. They had seven children, six of whom are living.
    Soon after his first marriage the deceased took up his residence in Indiana, and has resided in this State ever since.
    A loving husband, kind father, and honest man, after a long and busy life has gone to rest.
    Funeral services will be held at the residence of his son, Judge John G. Berkshire, commencing at 2 o'clock, on Thursday afternoon, February 28th, and the remains will be interred in Vernon cemetery.
    Another incorrect headstone - this one is off by 10 years. The Find a Grave memorial has been corrected but the headstone does not match the actual death date. It is another one where the incorrect date has been used in "on line" trees.
Frank Richard Couchman
June 10, 1926 - North Vernon Plain Dealer
RICHARD COUCHMAN PASSED AWAY WEDNESDAY
    Richard Couchman, seventy-seven years old, died at the home of his son Howard Couchman, Wednesday after noon, June 9th. Funeral services will be held at the residence at two o'clock Friday afternoon, conducted by the Rev. C. A. Wade.
    Mr. Couchman's death followed an injury which he sustained when he fell from a wagon a few days ago. He is survived by two children: Howard Couchman, of this city and Mrs. Florence McGannon, of Pomona, California, also by three grandchildren.

Frank Richard Couchman Death Certificate

Frank Richard Couchman - Dowd Funeral Home Record, Jennings County Public Library

Frank Richard Couchman - headstone picture by Vivian Find a Grave #48366212
John James Sutton Family Confusion
    This one is a confusion over more than one wife and researchers combining them into one person. My digging into it began with the rather simple attempt to add a death notice to section 5 of the Obituaries & Death notices on this site. In doing research I had seen two notices of deaths in the North Vernon Plain Dealer for the date of April 30, 1890. One of them was in the Hayden column for a Mary Sutton who had died on April 27, because I am transcribing the Old Oak Grove Presbyterian Church Records I thought I would see if I could figure out who the husband of this Mary Sutton was as he is only listed in this clipping as J J Sutton. There was a large group of Suttons who were members of the Oak Grove Presbyterian Church.

    I usually include a link to Find A Grave with a death notice and I found someone had added this Mary Sutton to the Oak Grove Cemetery using the information from this clipping. I then checked Jennings County Early Death Records from the Library and found this.


    So, having verified who she was I then checked marriage records to see which Sutton a Mary George had married so I would know who J J Sutton was.

    Feeling pretty good at this point, and recognizing the person who married them, Charles K Thompson, as having been a minister at the Oak Grove Presbyterian Church. I went to see if I could find John J. Sutton and their children. Things went rapidly down hill at this point. Not that I didn't find him and trace him in census records from the first census after his birth here in Jennings County (1860 census), to his death in Jackson County in March of 1923 and all 6 of he and Mary's children. When I went to look for his burial and a memorial on Find A Grave I ran into a problem. I don't use other trees in most cases when doing research I just go by my step by step methods. As you can see Mary died in 1890, in 1899 John married a Melinda/Malinda Beukman (spelled all sorts of ways) in Jackson County.
    John passed away in 1923 before Melinda and is buried in his wife Melindas family plot in the Ackeretts Chapel Cemetery in Jackson County. What I found when I checked the Find A Grave listing for John & Melinda is somehow Mary & Melinda have been combined into one person named "Mary Melinde George Sutton", Melinda's actual maiden name is thereby missed and one of Mary (George) & John J. Suttons children Ernest is listed as the child of John & Melinda - unfortunately John & Melinda had no children and Ernest was born sixteen years before they married. Ernest also seems to have been confused because on his marriage record in 1912, here in Jennings County, he lists his mother as Mary Malindy George - he also states she is dead but the Melinda who his father was married to was still living in Jackson County and he had been living with them at least until the 1910 census. "GROAN" At this point I went and looked at some on line trees and low and behold the confusion between Mary and Melinda is wide spread. I can see how it happened as Mary died during the break in census records (1890 missing census) and John remarried prior to the next census so people just seem to have figured Mary and Melinda were the same person and merged them. Ernest would have only been about 7 when his mother died so was probably confused since Melinda raised him. Since they are not the same person the actual mother of all John's children got somewhat missed in the records and Melinda is given the wrong parents on Find A Grave. I am going to be trying get Find A Grave listing for John & Melinda straightened out. I now have records for five of John & Mary's 6 children and am still trying to document the oldest son James W. Sutton who was born here in Jennings County about 1872. I still lament the fact that quite a few people have errors in their trees which will just continue to multiply as one person copies from another and there is no easy way to correct that.

Possible reason you can't find a Death Certificate

    The picture below is of a Death Certificate from Jennings County and the text with it is how it is listed on Ancestry.
    I didn't find this because I was looking for it, I found it because Bonita Welch and I were looking for an entirely different Death Certificate and since we were having no luck I had just entered the death date and county of the person I wanted and the name Rasetta Driglitor came up at the top of the page. I have lots of names here in Jennings County and was pretty sure something was wrong with this listing. I clicked on the entry and when I saw the death certificate that came up, it was such a comedy of errors I decided to put it on here. The index listing says this woman is Rasetta Driglitor or Rasetta Wsbster when her actual name is Rosetta Singleton and her maiden name is Webster. It also says she died in about 1905 when a clear death date June 13, 1905 is listed. It has her father as Sanford Wsbster and her mother as Eliz Cobeth Wsbster when they should be Sanford Webster and Elizabeth Kelly. Her husband Thos Singleton is listed as Shas Driglitor.
If you were looking for this and put in the normal search terms such as her name or even her maiden name good luck. Even if I was doing a death date and county search I might have missed it because the listing is so far off.

You may use this material for your own personal research, however it may not be used for commercial publications without express written consent of the contributor, INGenWeb, and