One of the things I learned early on in the teachings from my mother was how much can be gleaned from a death certificate or a headstone, despite their brevity. The same can be true of an obituary.
At the time I was finishing off my research so I could publish my book, I did not know about newspapers.com. I had instead traveled to the small owns were Fannie and some of the others had lived and visited libraries and historical societies. Knowing I would never know all the answers about wo was pictured in Fannie’s album, I decided in 2015 to bring my research to a close, knowing there would always be more work to do.
Last month I came across the obituary of Mary T. Williams, a name I came to know not because it was in Fannie’s album but because when I visited the small cemetery in Frankford on my second trip to the area I saw her headstone. I knew somehow this person was connected to Fannie because there was also the headstones of Frank and Josie Peak right next to Mary, her husband Tom and her daughter-in-law, Jossie.
So many interesting facts were packed into this obituary and confirmed quite a bit I had only speculated about. Of course, however, I was left with many more questions. To read the obituary, click here.
