On This Date in Minnesota History: May 19

May 19, 1858 – “Eleven townships in Stearns County were established on [on this date]: Clearwater, Hanover, Lake Henry, Marysville, Richmond, St. Cloud, St. Domingo, St. Joseph, Sauk Centre, Two Islands, and Winnebago. At the Board of Supervisors meeting held 3 August 1858, the townships were reorganized and renamed.”
http://stearnscounty.mn/townships/

On This Date in Minnesota History: May 18

May 18, 1970 – “Jack Baker and Michael McConnell applied for a marriage license in Minneapolis. They were the first American same-sex couple to seek a marriage license and the first such couple to establish a legal relationship through adult adoption. The [Hennepin County] Clerk of Court denied them a license. They sued and lost in District Court, appealed and lost in the Minnesota Supreme Court, and appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which dismissed the case for want of a substantial federal question. The case opinion, Baker v. Nelson, has been frequently cited as precedent in various same-sex marriage cases since then.”
http://comingoutjournal.tumblr.com/post/19298791515/jack-baker-and-james-michael-mcconnell-apply-for-a

On This Date in Minnesota History: May 17

May 17, 1998 – “David Wells of the New York Yankees [pitched] the 15th perfect game in baseball history against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium.”
http://www.datesinhistory.com/may17.php

On This Date in Minnesota History: May 16

May 16, 1955 – Jack Morris, “Major League Baseball right-handed starting pitcher,” was born in St. Paul. Morris was named the “World Series MVP for his fantastic performance” with the Twins during the 1991 series against Atlanta.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Morris

Those Oh So Secret Birthdates, Part II

You may have noticed that I didn’t list death certificates as a resource for validating ancestor birthdates in Part I of this blog.

Because the birthdate is often provided by the informant, it is another field on early death certificates that can be incorrect, or that can just add more confusion to your research. On several searches, I have found one birthdate listed on the death certificate, another birthdate listed in the obituary and yet another birthdate listed on the headstone.  And I don’t mean just the years were different; the month and date were also different. And yet it was the same person, and presumably the information was given by the same family members.

I found the correct birthdate for one of the above ancestors in the local church records. Interestingly enough, she turned out to be a twin, which explained so many things.  Death records showed one twin’s birthday in April, and the other twin’s birthday in May of the same year. I’ve heard of twins born hours apart, but never weeks apart. (Granted that may be able to happen today, but not in the mid-1800s.) Church records showed the twins were born on the same day in April; birthdate validated.

Discover your roots and watch the branches of your family tree begin to grow.

pjefamilyresearch@gmail.com

For more information on my Family History Research services, visit TheMemoryQuilt.com and click on “Family History Research.”

On This Date in Minnesota History: May 15

May 15, 2009 – “A Minnesota couple who refused chemotherapy for Daniel Hauser, their 13-year-old son, was ordered to have the boy re-evaluated to see if he would still benefit from cancer treatment for his Hodgkin’s lymphoma, or if it may already be too late. On May 18 Colleen Hauser and her son, Daniel, who has Hodgkin's lymphoma, apparently left their home sometime after a doctor's appointment and court-ordered X-ray showed his tumor had grown. Hauser and her son returned on May 25 and agreed to medical treatment.”
http://timelines.ws/states/MINNESOTA.HTML

On This Date in Minnesota History: May 14

May 14, 2001 – Jodi Huisentruit, the missing KIMT anchorwoman who disappeared from Mason City, Iowa, “during June of 1995, was declared legally dead [on this date] in Cerro Gordo County District Court.” Jodi was a native of Long Prairie, Minn.
http://iagenweb.org/boards/cerrogordo/documents/index.cgi?read=358210

On This Date in Minnesota History: May 13

May 13, 1852 – “Early in the morning, Stillwater [Minn.] citizens [were] awakened by a deafening, rushing noise. Looking out, they [saw] a vast river of softened earth, slowly descending through the ravine. It proceeds to cover all objects in its path, nearly burying entire buildings. It moves onward into Lake St. Croix and there deposits eight to ten acres of new land, adding a permanent addition of land to the town as well as a fine steamboat landing.”
http://projects.wchsmn.org/reference/events/stillwater-landslide/