I recently asked for help finding my grandmother's baby sister. I think I found her. I remembered her name being something like Emily, and I found an "Eveline" in KY death records, who might have been Emmeline/Emmaline/Emiline/Emileen (or similar) written in poor handwriting (the other infants' names show up very badly, such as Monne/Horme/Flonne/Fanie, who was really Fannie). She could not have been named Evelyn, because that was my grandmother's middle name. The only problem is that "Eveline's" parents were not listed, so I can't be 100% certain. This is what I got from Ancestry:
Name: Eveline Luttrell
Death Date: 26 Aug 1928
Death Place: Casey
Age: U/1
Volume: 44
Certificate: 21748
I found exactly the same info on KYKinFolk and Rootsweb. I found similar, less complete information on Familysearch.
The baby I am searching for had a name like Emily, lived under a year (probably 4 days, or maybe 4 months), and was born between 1924 and 1929 in Casey County, Kentucky. All the other babies from the right time and place whose records are available on Ancestry, Familysearch, etc. were either too old when they died, had parents listed, or were male. "Eveline" is the only one that matches. If her birth and death were formally registered (as their first two newborns who died were), then this has got to be her.
I am intrigued by this certificate number. Does this mean that I could drive to Frankfort (KY state capital) or Liberty (Casey Co seat) and look this up manually? Is there a way I can check this online, or at a library in Northern Kentucky, such as in Boone County? (Boone Co Library is less than an hour away, whereas Frankfort and Liberty are both hours away.) Is there another source someone can point me to online to try to locate a birth record or death certificate with one or both parents' names? I used Ancestry, Familysearch, Find a Grave, Google,
deathindexes.com, rootsweb, kykinfolk.com/casey/births.htm, worldvitalrecords.com, and others I can't recall offhand. No birth record, no death certificate, no parents' names, just the certificate number and other info above.
I know there are a lot more resources out there. If I make the trip, how do I find out where these records are kept? I went to Frankfort for genealogy in 1992, but a lot surely must have changed since then.
There is another baby, born and died in 1927, who is buried in Birdie Russell Cemetery in Casey County, Kentucky, and I am not sure if any records ever existed. Her name was Colene Luttrell (I assume this is an odd spelling of Colleen). I will ask separately about her once I determine whether "Eveline" is my grandmother's missing baby sister, but since I am 90% certain Colene is not the correct baby, I will ask later (if I'm wrong about Emmeline) unless someone has an idea right now.
All I know for sure is that my grandma and mom always said that my great-grandma, "Lost all those babies," and twice in the 1990s, my grandma and I ran across a hand-written list of their names and dates in my great-grandmother's handwriting (possibly saved or copied from an old Bible that fell apart). I remembered Stanley, Fannie, Edna, and a fourth baby that we specifically discussed, because she was younger than Grandma, and Grandma remembered her birth, brief life, and death. She was old enough to remember, but young enough that I asked whether she remembered. Unfortunately, I have gone through everything in the cabinet where my grandma kept her photos, and the list is missing. I have a very good memory, but not good enough to remember an entire list that I only saw twice, over 20 years ago. I have located birth and death records for Stanley, Fannie, and Edna. I only know burials for Fannie (Bowmer Cemetery in Casey Co) and Edna (South Fork Ridge Church Cemetery in Casey Co). I have many relatives in each cemetery (plus the Birdie Russell Cemetery, for that matter). I am trying to find out whether any of these cemeteries kept a list of burials as they happened, rather than just a list of the monuments (Edna, who died at age 9, has a headstone, but I don't think the infants ever got headstones).
My great-grandparents had at least five (maybe seven) children. All died as babies except for 2. Three died between age 4 days and 17 days. 1 died at age 9. 1 died at age 87. There may have been one or two others who died at about age 2, born between 1919 and 1922, but I don't recall clearly enough to be sure about them. This youngest baby, I remember very well, and I think I found her, but I want to be sure, if it's possible. And maybe someday, that list will turn up inside a book or something. I found my grandma's 8th grade diploma exactly that way, stuck inside a random book in her living room.
I also have this info for a film:
Source: Commonwealth of Kentucky, Health Data Branch, Divisision of Epidemiology and Health Planning. Kentucky Death Index, 1911-present. Frankfort, KY, USA: Kentucky Department of Information Systems. Is this where I would go to view a death certificate?
This might also be of use:
Stanley L. Luttrell December 7 - December 24, 1917
Fannie M. Luttrell November 7 - November 13, 1918
[Baby Boy] Luttrell 1919 - 1920 or 1921)
Edna Hazel Luttrell September 13, 1920 - June 11, 1929
[Baby Boy] Luttrell 1921 - 1922 or 1923
Eulah Evelyn Luttrell October 31, 1923 - March 8, 2011
[Emmeline or Emily] Luttrell (August 24?) - August 28, 1928
The missing boys would have been born between September, 1919 and December, 1919 and between July, 1921 and December, 1922. I have not found boys in these records.
Oddly enough, I also have not found a record of my grandmother's birth. I know that her family lived in Casey County on every census, but for all I know, they lived somewhere else beginning any time after the 1920 census but before the 1930 census. I know they did not always live in the same house, especially because my grandfather was a little boy when my grandma moved down the road from him, and the first time he saw her he thought, "That's the girl I'm going to marry when I grow up." They always claimed that she was born in Casey County. I do have a delayed certificate of birth for her from the 1940s, but I always thought that this was because the original was lost. It makes very little sense that she would not have her birth registered in 1923 when at least 3 of her older siblings had their births registered right away, even though two of them died shortly after birth. My only guess is that they put it off because they believed she was going to die (she was born with crossed eyes, later corrected by surgery when she was an adult, and they believed it was an indication that she was going to die soon after birth, so they may have delayed registering her birth and then just never did it). If she was born elsewhere, then perhaps that is why I can't find records. Her mother was born in Vermilion County, Illinois, but I can't find any record there, either. Nor can I find a birth record for her mother, Luvinia Green, born 14 Feb 1901 in Indianola, Vermillion Co, Illinois. Birth records are not so important for them, but it sure would be nice to find them!
Thanks for your help!
