Tombstone Tuesday...

Veronica Alphenia MANLEY

Born:  7 Sep 1893

Died:  4 Feb 1894

Buried:  Green Hill Cemetery, Logan county, IL

Veronica (nicknamed Ronie) was the daughter of John Milton and Rachel Anna (Carrothers) Manley.  She died just shy of 5 months old.  John and Rachel must have wanted a lasting memory of this precious baby and had this photograph taken after she died.  Five of their twelve children died at under 2 years of age.   

An update on my "test"...

On New Year's Eve I posted an article on a test I was performing to see how many researchers with wrong information would be interested in making corrections when provided with documentation (you can read that post here).  Out of ten e-mails I sent, three not only expressed gratitude for the information, but quickly corrected their Ancestry Public Tree entry.  I am so grateful for their attitude and how swiftly they made the correction. 

According to their Ancestry profile a few of the others haven't been on the web site for 6 months or more...so it may be a while before those will be corrected (if ever). 

However, there still remains one researcher who in spite of documentation prefers to hold on to the inaccurate information.  She found a John Manley buried in Iowa and seems to disregard any information that proves her wrong.  I've sent her the correct headstone photo and offered to send her the other sources (obituaries that list her ancestor as a survivor, and the death certificate which lists the correct parents and spouse), but still she doesn't seem interested in accuracy.  I find that attitude very sad.

This is a test...

Today I did an Ancestry public trees search on my husband's great grandfather, John Milton Manley. This isn't new...I periodically do searches to see if anything has been added that is of interest. I specifically do John Milton Manley because I've been trying to get one of the submitters to correct a headstone photo they have attached to John. The submitter had the correct birth and death, but attached a headstone photo that was for the wrong John Manley (and had information that didn't even match their own dates). I sent the submitter the correct headstone photo. I was thanked and have been waiting (since August) for it to replace the wrong photo that is there. I noticed today that the wrong photo is still there. The only thing that's changed is that the submitter replaced the correct birth and death data that was there with dates that match this wrong headstone. Why? Wouldn't people prefer to post correct information? I don't get it. John's wife was Rachel Anna Carrothers. The wrong headstone photo showed John's wife as Mary. The correct headstone photo I sent showed John Milton Manley's shared headstone with his wife, Rachel A. Carrothers. The submitter shows John dying in Iowa and being buried there. John died in Illinois (he has an Illinois death certificate). He can be found living in Illinois in every census from 1880 to 1930 (well excluding the 1890 census of course...but I'm sure he was there then too).

What is really frustrating is that when I did my search today I found 10 other databases that now include this wrong information. It is just being perpetuated!

My test was to send each of the submitters a message letting them know the correct dates and places and listing my sources. It will be interesting to see how many (if any) of the submitters correct their information. I will happily share copies of my sources.

For the record...John Milton Manley was born 25 Jun 1850 in Iowa and died 31 Jul 1934 in Shelby county, Illinois. This is supported by his Illinois death certificate (which correctly lists his wife as Anna Carrothers and parents as Nathan Manley and Catherine Miller), two newspaper obituaries, his headstone (which I personally photographed in the I.O.O.F. cemetery in Moweaqua, IL), and the 1900 U.S. Census.

I will keep you posted on how many submitters want correct information versus how many just want any information. Okay...I'll get off my soapbox now.

One stop shopping???

This is the wedding photo for Robert Franklin Manley and Pearl Osborn. You would never know by looking at them that they were married in a clothing store. We didn't know either...until we found a newspaper article.

I contacted the Decatur Genealogical Society to see if they had a photograph of the clothing store, or if they knew why it was a popular place for weddings. Unfortunately they couldn't help me with either request. So it remains a mystery. Why a clothing store? I wonder if their wedding clothes were rented or purchased?