Finley Sherrill came to Wilkeson, WA about 1903 from N.C. and ran the Company Store. He and his wife lived above the store until his death in 1908. Three children were born there, George in 1904, Frank 1905, and Grace 1907. Frank died shortly after birth and is buried in the cemetery in Wilkeson. I am searching for the exact date Finley came to Wilkeson plus the exact dates of Frank's birth and death.
Fin's wife, Stella, lived there until 1911 in a home on the hill above the store. I am trying to find out more about this family and would appreciate any help available. George was my father and Fin was my grandfather.
Sincerely,
Sharon Sherrill Ehlen
sharonehlen@verizon.net

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/...
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