The Perils of Researching Pauline

 

It took a village to overcome a number of perils in researching Pauline Jacobs, who sadly died at a very young age.

Pauline, my 1c2r, was a daughter of paternal g-g-uncle Joseph Jacobs (1864-1918) and g-g-aunt Eva Micalovsky Jacobs (1869-1941). She was a younger sister of Flora Jacobs, whose life I wrote about yesterday.

My first actual document recording Pauline's death (see above) came from the cemetery where she's buried, Mount Zion in Maspeth, New York. The cemetery has a handy "interment search" where I located Pauline, her sister Flora, and her parents and grandmother, all buried in the Plungianer Unterstutzungs Verein plot. They copied and sent me Pauline's interment record, shown at top of this post.

Even with this information in hand, I still faced four perils in researching Pauline!

Peril One: Details Count 

If I had not seen the cemetery record card with my own eyes, I might have believed the incorrect death index for Pauline, shown at right, which indicates 1908 as her year of death. There is no access to images of the actual index, just this transcription. In general, I prefer to see for myself, not blindly trust transcriptions.

My guess is that the actual death info was received by New York City in 1908, since Pauline died just two days before the end of 1907. But I believe the cemetery got the year correct and the index/transcription was incorrect. Therefore I searched for Pauline's official death cert with the assumption she died in 1907.

Peril Two: Limited Access to Images

Searching on FamilySearch.org, I could see that Pauline's death cert was in fact in the database. However, images of many vital records are accessible only at a Family History Center. The pandemic has mostly closed these down for the time being. 

Happily, I knew from social media that a few volunteers regularly visit FHC parking lots and access the database wirelessly to pull images by request. It's impossible to say enough good things about these volunteers, who are incredibly generous with their time and energy.** 

A kind parking lot angel saw my FB request for Pauline's death cert (I provided full details, including the cert number from the index and my belief that the year was 1907). Within a few minutes, she had accessed and sent me the image, for which I am truly grateful. 

The cert says Pauline had been treated for 3 weeks at Willard Parker Hospital in New York City (specializing in communicable diseases). The cert also solved the medical mystery of Pauline's untimely death at the age of 7. Well, it would have if I could have deciphered the cause of death. 

** During 2021, Family Search is offering a remote lookup service that takes the place of parking lot angels. I've had very good luck using this service! Try it.

Peril Three: Handwriting and Medical Jargon

The cause of death was handwritten...and I couldn't decipher what it said, let alone what it meant. More eyes were needed. I took a screen shot of the cause of death and posted on Twitter with a request for #Genealogy help. And I got out my tissue box, ready to cry.

Within moments, answers began pouring in. Not only did these savvy folks know that the cause of death was scarlatina (scarlet fever), but they read the rest of the details: 24 days, sepsis. Scarlet fever can be treated today but it was quite perilous in the early days of the 20th century, well before antibiotics, making me tear up. 

Thanks to the helpful Twitter community of genies, I knew a lot more about Pauline's fate. But I still needed one more piece of the puzzle for a better picture of Pauline's life.

Peril Four: Finding the Right Jacobs

My next quest was to obtain little Pauline's birth certificate. I clicked to the Italian Genealogical Group's New York City vital records databases and searched for births of "Jacobs, Pauline" after 1899 and before 1902. Jacobs is a fairly common name, of course. I began with her name as recorded on the cemetery and death documents. I would have tried "Jacob, Pauline" if no decent possibilities showed up--because different official records showed "Jacob" OR "Jacobs" for this family's surname at different times. 

I was able to narrow down the list of possibilities, as shown above, from the ItalianGen database results. In my opinion, the most likely is the second on the list, Pauline Jacobs, born on June 26, 1901. I decided it was worth paying $15 for this record and I ordered online from New York City, saving a week or more in the long waiting time for a response. 

Having overcome four perils of researching Pauline, I'll hope to see this birth certificate before the end of 2020. Meanwhile, I'm remembering this cousin who unfortunately died way too young, keeping her memory alive for future generations. 

-- This post is part of the Genealogy Blog Party "Virtual Research Trip" for July, 2021.