Are these two Joseph Martin Davis actually the same person?

+7 votes
150 views

These two profiles are both named Joseph Martin Davis. 

Davis-51276 is estimated as born in 1835 and died in 1932 in Haleyville, Marion, Alabama. His wife's name was May Lou Lindy Davis

However, 

Davis-47327 Joseph Martin Davis has a multiple census records showing a birth around 1848. He is buried in Haleyville, Marion, Alabama, United States, with a photographed tombstone dates 1847-1930 and his wife's tombstone in Georgia makes direct reference to it. 

 

I am very confused. 

WikiTree profile: Joseph Davis
in Genealogy Help by Lance Martin G2G6 Pilot (125k points)
Joseph Martin Davis was visiting cousins in Alabama where he passed away. He had been fishing and ate supper,became ill and passed away. He was buried there, but their home was in Canton Cherokee County Georgia where his wife is buried.

1 Answer

+2 votes

Lance ~

If the only evidence for Davis-51276 is that death record on his profile... I'd think they are the same person.  I see no original, but I suspect the year of birth or age may have been transcribed incorrectly.  They use one to determine the other.

by Mary Cole G2G6 Pilot (109k points)

I agree, Mary, I think they're the same person too, and that the death recorded in the Alabama state record was of an 87 year old person, in spite of what the online index now says.  We can't see the original record to compare but any of the following errors could have happened: the informant could have been mistaken, the coroner misunderstood the informant's accurate information and wrote 97, the coroner wrote 87 but it looks like 97, the indexer saw 87 but typed 97, or the indexer genuinely thought it said 97, or or or.  

The parents, spouse, and locations matching is strong evidence that these records are for the same individual.  And the research/conflict note on the profile about the AL death record will help future researchers understand why duplicate profiles/dates of birth for this ancestor may tend to proliferate in online trees.

And what about the tombstone? Isn't it weird the date is two years before he died?

I could see an engraver making a mistake, but a mistake on a death date like that?
PS The value of the death record is it gives the name of the parents. Is this good enough information to create parents? There is a census record that has an Elizabeth as mother for the better sourced, younger Joseph Martin. In the bad death record it says his mother was Elizabeth Ray or Wray.
Yeah, I thought about the death date.  It's not that uncommon for the date on the tombstone to be estimated.  The tombstones are sometimes added long after death, even decades after.  And his wife's stone is quite detailed in comparison.  Almost as if his stone was an afterthought.  Though it is odd that the birth year is spot on and the death year is off by a couple.  It's usually the other way around.  Those are pretty common names, but if you see nothing concrete (no pun intended) to dispute that there're the same man I wouldn't worry about the "1930" death date.

And the death record is in the very least enough info to start searching for more records on the parents if not create profiles.
OK I am going to add them as matches rather than merges. Death records, especially corner reports, are supposed to be pretty definitive, so until someone actually orders a copy of the corner report or where ever this record comes from, I don't think there is much more to do. Thanks for the help.
Lance, I didn't intend to create doubt there.  Sorry if I did.  If I were you I would go ahead with the merge, but keep the 1947/1948 birth date for the final profile.  You're the manager on the profile in question and it is unconnected so there will be no harm done from a merge.
No. You didn’t create any confusion. A match is what I think makes most sense right now.  This will address anyone else who happens upon the same death record until I can establish proof.

I have emails out to everyone I can find that might know more.

There was mention that the actual record had a different age.  A link to that information or citation would be helpful for further research on this.
E Compton can you provide reference to where you saw the different age?
The only record I looked at closely was the Alabama death record index entry on FamilySearch.org.  From there, I would not rule out that record being for someone actually about 85-87 years old, if other details (named parents, named spouse) matched well.

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