I am looking for the obituary of my grandfather's first wife. Flora Lavigne Goulet. She died June 13,1907.
She was 21 years old and committed suicide. She died in Central Falls Rhode Island.
The death record states she is buried in Notre Dame Cemetary in Pawtucket Rhode Island. However in contacting the cemetary she is not buried there.
I have also contacted the surrounding cemetaries no luck.
I am hoping the obituary will lend some insight.
Thank you lilgram253

The obits I've read from that period were pretty basic and didn't give a whole lot of information, nothing like the ones we have today.

If she committed suicide, it's unlikely she'd be buried in concecrated ground. suicide was one of thos major no-no's back then with respect to whether or not someone was eligible for burial in a particular cemetery.

Rather than hoping that an obit might have been published, I'd suggest that you contact the RI State Archives for a copy of her Death Report which might mention where she was buried...most do.

Note that what you will get for that period won't be an individual death certificate but a copy of a pare from a ledger style book that will have one individual listed per line and all the basic info that one normally expects to find on a DC.

Additionally, besides the ledger, which was the official record, the town/cities would also keep a separate "return of" on each individual. These were a more detailed record. The official record in the ledger was created from these. The "return of"s could contain such details as signatures of the bride and groom & places of birth or burial location. The city/town where the event occurred SHOULD have these records in their possession or know what happened to them and tell you where there are presently. If a municipality tells you there was no such thing, tell them there was and is per the Head Archivist for the State of RI, Ken Carlson who is the person who made me aware of the existance of these more detailed "return of" records.

The system of two records at the municipal level and an official record at the state level ceased on 1 July 1921 when a BMD would be recorded, one certificate per event at both the local and state level. From 1 July 1921, the records would be one certificate on file local level, one certificate on file state level, for each BMD.

Contact Info:

Rhode Island State Archives
337 Westminster Street
Providence, Rhode Island 02903
Telephone: (401) 222-2353
Fax: (401) 222-3199
Email: reference@sec.state.ri.us
Web: www.state.ri.us/archives/ ~~website is poorly designed and pretty much useless from a genealogy point of view.
Open to the public Monday-Friday 8:30 am - 4:30 pm

Deaths from about 1856 to 1958. Births and marriages from about 1856 to 1908. On 1 Jan of each year, another year's records are released so 1958/1908 will increase to 1959/1909 next 1 Jan 2010. There is a couple month lag in availability while Archives processes the newly received records and prepares them for public use. Anything which falls after 1958/1908 must be obtained from the RI Health Dept. / Vital Records.

Archives also has RI State Censuses done on the "5" years from 1865 - 1935 with the exception of 1895 which is MIA.

BTW - I forgot to mention that Central Falls is in Providence County so you might also consider posting on that board.

And, if the information you have contains a funeral home name, you might check to see if that home is still in operation...some are. If is isn't, you could also contact present homes in the area and see if any of them have the older home's records. This sometimes happened. Unfortunately, RI has nor regulations/laws regarding the disposition of funeral home records when a home goes out of business and it seems the bulk of the records just got dumped.

You could also check for local historical societies in the Central Falls/Pawtucket/Lincoln area on the off chance that the records got donated to one of them or the RI Historical Society Library, Hope St, Providence. Consider too, the reference departments at the local library or the State Archive although Archives rarely is home to funeral home records, you never know.

Because of the nature of her demise, she could also be buried in a pauper's grave in unconcecrated ground. Did you think to ask Notre Dame if their cemetery contains such an area?