Board: Message Boards > Localities > North America > United States > States > Washington > Counties > Pierce URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.washington.counties.pierce/3313.1 /mb.ashx Subject: Re: James Finley Sherrill "Finley" Author: RBestrom7380 Date: Saturday, June 20, 2009 Classification: Query Surnames:
I found your family tree online and it answered some additional questions, i.e. Stella's death date.When you post, post the link to your family tree for those with Ancestry. Post the date of birth of James and Stella, as sometimes others have posted family trees and they would be the search point. You also said, "and ran the company store". What company? What Store? There "might" be company records somewhere in the county or State if it was a company store. Local county genealogy society "might" have information on it. They "might" also have town records, church records (showing Frank's birth, death, James death, family leaving, etc). If you haven't already, obtain her obituary. She died 30 October 1953 in Norwalk, California (per your records). It "might" identify a bit more information; however, I doubt it. Since James Finley Sherrill died 10 March 1908; and Frank died sometime in 1905 time-frame, obits for them "probably" don't exist. Obituaries in that period of time were not as popular as today. Also, if they were living in Wilkeson, a bit out of area for Tacoma, an obit in the Tacoma paper probably wasn't considered. Back then, most living in rural areas knew who in the area had died, so obits were not considered. I also checked the Washington State Library online catalog for newspapers, Wilkinson didn't have one. http://www.secstate.wa.gov/library/catalog.aspx (search on keywords, click on Newspapers to see the list of microfilmed papers). Puyallup had the Herald, starting in 1911. The Puyallup Republican from 1905 to 1911, continued by the Tacoma Herald. The Washington State Library has a free research service, the ask-a-librarian program, where they will look for information in the archives, in this case the newspaper microfilm for an event, such as an obituary. They will look up to an hour and send you the results. Contact them at: http://www.secstate.wa.gov/library/ask.aspx . Depending on the amount of requests, it could take up to a couple of weeks. IF you find the exact date of Frank's death, this might speed up the process, otherwise, I doubt they would look through paper after paper for the hour duration, only to find nothing. Now James is a different matter, I'd suggest you attempt to find something on his death since you know the exact date. The Washington Death Certificate Index verifies your date. You could also obtain his Death Certificate. For help: The Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness has volunteers in Pierce County. READ THE GUIDELINES FIRST: http://www.raogk.org/washingt3.htm Other links in Pierce County. http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~suzysprague/ALHN_WA/PierceCo.html While a person visiting a genealogy society or Heritage Quest in Puyallup might be able to review shelved materials, research fees might be prohibitive if you ask someone to do it for you. Ron Bestrom
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