Filling in the Blanks

#52ancestors Week 34, Aug. 20-26 

Filling in the Blanks: Non-population schedules 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2018 

It’s easy to overlook certain records, like Mortality Schedules, but a mistake to do so, I’ve learned. My ancestor, James R. Vanderpool, died in 1880, and I had found his 1879 will and also located his widow and children in the 1880 census. Plus, I had compiled a great deal of information about him. 

Capt. James Vanderpool, Anna and 6 of their children, Arkansas, ca 1878

He had been a Union officer in a Confederate State and was a local hero in Newton County, Arkansas, for among other things, his role in leading a wagon train of civilians out of the Ozarks to northern Missouri to escape the bushwhackers and Confederates. According to the county’s history, on that trip he shot a Confederate lady’s cow that had had the audacity to “moo” at their wagon train, and the Union families ate the beef for dinner. 

His military service and pension records are rich in details and historical notes. He served in the Arkansas State Legislature briefly during Reconstruction. Then he returned to Newton County, ran a mercantile store, farmed, and once was sued for illegal imprisonment. I obtained copies of his Homestead papers wherein he explained why he had not lived on that property since 1 September 1875: "I was compelled to remove to Yellville, Arkansas to carry on a daily mail contract which was awarded to me in 1875 from Yellville to Fayetteville, Ark."

 Additionally, family letters revealed that his wife Anna (née Henderson) and her sister, Sarah, got into a fight over something pertaining to their children and Sarah slapped Anna. Then Capt. James and Sarah's husband (Greenberry Kelley) got into a fight and Capt. James threatened to shoot him. Sarah and her husband left Arkansas for California shortly thereafter and the two sisters never saw each other again. 

I knew when and where Capt. James Vanderpool died and was buried and as a result almost overlooked checking the 1880 Mortality Schedule for Arkansas. Because of the lack of state or county death records for Arkansas before 1914, this schedule can be an important genealogical document. 

While there are several errors in it pertaining to my ancestor, I learned that he died from Bright’s Disease (nephritis) — inflammation of the kidney — something I never knew until I found this schedule. 

For those who are working on one-name databases, a check of the 1850-1880 Mortality Schedules may be the records that will provide some answers as to whatever happened to those “lost” ancestors and enable you to untangle the three or four Johns and Marys. Of course, you run the risk of finding someone whose place in the family tree is a big mystery and then you’ll have another project to work on. 

Ah, such is the joy of genealogy.