Getting to Know Hannah Lathrop Keith: Contacting Archives

This is a continuation of my previous two posts about my ancestor, Hannah Lathrop Keith. She lived for a short time and did not show up by name in census records or vital records. I had a few family sources about her, but I wanted to see what else I could find online. My first post discussed family sources that had information about her. The second post was about information I found online. This post will discuss some information I found from contacting archives, while still sitting comfortably at home.

Civil War Pension File

My brother ordered the Civil War Pension file for Newell Elijah Gile, the son of Hannah Lathrop Keith. It cost some money, but it was well worth it. The file was full of information. See more about Newell’s pension file in this post.

Hannah was mentioned in her son’s pension file. The pension office wanted proof of Newell’s birth date. Newell did not have a birth certificate or living witness of his birth. The only evidence he could provide he wrote in the following letter to the pension office:

“My Mother tomb stone sayes She died Feb 24, 1844 I was the youngest of 4 children she left no record of my birth Father lost his property the same fall we was Homeles did not meet for 46 years we was straingers almost I saw my father in 1860 I asked what year I was born in he said the year of the Van Buren Hard Cider campian at the time of the muster of the Ohio militia he did not remember the date told me ask Old Judg Hufervalle[sic] I was told Harrison the Whig cadite [candidate] serve a short term as presdnt in 1841 the Ohio militia autum muster was the 4 or 9 of October.”

This letter was dated 2 September 1910. At the time, Newell was seventy-one years old and suffering from many ailments, most of them results of his Civil War wounds. He would die a year later. His father had passed away in 1861. This letter, combined with Newell’s previous account of his childhood that I discovered when I was gathering family sources, gives us a sad picture of Newell’s childhood. However, it is fortunate for me, the researcher, that even though he and his father were “strangers almost,” he still remembered who his father was and thought to speak to him.

This is the only original source I have found that provides Hannah’s death date. The tombstone Newell mentioned has long since crumbled away, as far as I know.

Cemetery Records

Many beginning genealogists use the website Find A Grave without knowing exactly what it is. Find A Grave is a database of graves and memorials that are all contributed by users. Anyone can sign up for an account on Find A Grave and submit information about a grave or memorial. Anyone can request changes to memorial pages and post photos. Sometimes volunteers will go through a cemetery and photograph every headstone, then submit the information to Find A Grave. Sometimes a user will create a single memorial page about an ancestor and where they believe they were buried. The information provided is not always accurate. Users are not required to explain where their information came from. In spite of its limitations, Find A Grave can be a valuable resource for locating gravestones and cemetery records for ancestors.

A Find A Grave memorial page for Hannah Lathrop Keith Gile exists. The user “Medina County Graves” created the memorial page on 1 January 2015. There is no headstone photo, but there is a recorded inscription: “wife of E.H., aged 28y.” I still am not sure where they found this inscription. Someone had requested that a photo of the headstone be added, but a user had looked for the tombstone and was unable to find it.

I contacted the user who had created this Find A Grave page and asked them about the original source of the information. I quickly received a response:

Hello, a map that is in the possession of the caretakers shows many names of individuals buried there without markers. It’s source is unclear although I believe it is from the 1970’s. It only lists names – no dates – and many of them are very vague (i.e. Mrs. Jones, Child of Jones). It would show the location of the grave but nothing else. The map is not complete and has no individual names for the north half of the cemetery – just family lots. The map has numerous omissions as well. It is certainly better than NO records at all but lacks in personal details. Hope that helps.

I wondered, where can I get a copy of this cemetery map? I contacted the cemetery’s caretakers through their website: http://www.friendsofmedinacemetery.com/

The cemetery sexton was very helpful, but unfortunately he did not have much more information for me. He did provide me with a map of the cemetery and pointed out that there is a lot labeled “A. H. Giles and family.” He went out to the cemetery in person and looked for any markers with the surname “Giles,” but could not find any.

The cemetery map was helpful. Although I am not 100% certain of the location of Hannah’s final resting place, the map provides some evidence that suggests it was the Medina Old Town Cemetery. It is possible this “A. H. Giles” lot belonged to Hannah’s husband, Elijah Henry Gile, and at some point someone recorded an “A” instead of an “E” in the cemetery records. There is a grave next to the “A. H. Giles” lot that belongs to an “A. Hotchkiss.” Elijah Henry Gile married a woman named Harriet Hotchkiss after Hannah died. Perhaps one of her relatives owned this lot. This combined with the fact that Elijah Henry Gile owned property in Medina a few blocks away from the cemetery means it is quite possible this is where they were buried.

Conclusion

This is not a comprehensive search of records for Hannah Lathrop Keith. There are more places I could look to find more information about her. However, this is an excellent start. I have more information about her than I had previously, and I have found sources to explain where each bit of information I have came from.

Here are more articles on finding and using sources:

• The Record Exists! Part I: The Internet and Repositories
• The Record Exists! Part II: Families, Collectors, and Everything Else
• 3 Ways to Preserve Old Family Artifacts
• 5 Things You Should Not Do with Old Family Artifacts
• 5 Tips for Using Online Family Tree Sites
• Why You Should Share Your Family History Online