I recently downloaded the Ancestry app on my iPad and was looking at some of the shaky leaves, to see if there was any information I could and verify.
Then I started looking at the information.
The 1880 US Census says he was born in 1810, in Pennsylvania.
The 1860 US Census gives a birth date of 1817, Pennsylvania.
The 1850 US Census lists 1815, Pennsylvania as the birth information.
The Michigan Death and Burials Indes, 1867-1995 has his birth as being 1805, Pennsylvania.
And the 1870 US Census says he was born in 1820, Pennsylvania.
Oh, great. I already had Pennsylvania as his birthplace, and the dates are all different.
But, monuments can be wrong.
What can you believe?
Well the Michigan Death and Burials Index and the Gravestone are close. I know it is hard to know what to believe sometimes. The same thing is true with place of birth. Sometimes different census years have them different. At least all you Census years agree as to the state of birth of Jonathan Stiver.
ReplyDeleteI love findagrave.com. I believe about a million new graves are being add every month. At this rate it will reach 100 Million in August. I like to find unusual gravestones.
I am posting the letters of my gg grandfather. Maybe we should follow each others' blogs.
Regards, Grant
http://thestephensherwoodletters.blogspot.com
That's a pretty early resident in that area. He died in Cleon, Manistee County. Cleon is one of those townships that moved around a little between Manistee and Wexford during the county seat battle. (See The View From Courthouse Hill, by Peterson.)
ReplyDeleteThe death return at FamilySearch lists him as 82 years 8 months at the time of his death. < https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-11836-128489-45?cc=1452402&wc=1077168 >.
You'll probably never know for sure, but that is the way it is, that birth date wasn't of much significance to him in his everyday life.