Body of Evidence: Correcting Peter Schiltz's Death Location

Peter Schiltz's burial record from St. Cecilia Catholic Church in Sheldon, New York.

 

One of my paternal 4x great-grandfathers, Peter Schiltz, lived in Sheldon, Wyoming, New York, and died there on 1 June 1870. Or did he?

Was he living with his son Theodore in Sheldon as that year's census shows? What about the special 1870 mortality schedule—the list of the preceding year's deaths—which shows Peter died in Wyoming County on 1 June 1870—but his entry is crossed out?

What’s going on here?

The keys to this conundrum can be found in two documents: the instructions issued to 1870 census enumerators, and a church burial record.

 

Census Instructions

When recording the names of all the individuals of a household, the 1870 census enumerators had special instructions:

"Names of individuals—In column 3 will be entered the name of every person in each family, of whatever age, including the names of such as were temporarily absent on the 1st day of June, 1870. The name of any member of the family who may have died between the 1st day of June, 1870, and the day of the assistant marshal’s visit is to be entered, and the person fully described, as if living; but the name of any person born during that period is to be omitted."¹

These instructions were critical, as Peter’s death fell on that important June 1st date. The census taker recorded the Schiltz family’s information on 23 June 1870. Therefore, while it appeared that Peter was alive, well, and residing in Sheldon on the census day, he had died before that. The instructions compelled the census worker to record him as if he were alive. 

 

St. Cecilia Cemetery, Sheldon, New York.²

 

Burial Record

How do we know Peter died? The interment records for St. Cecilia Catholic Church in Sheldon include an entry for Peter Schiltz (Petrus Schieltz), shown at the top of the post. The Latin to English translation follows:

Day 4 of June was buried in the cemetery of St Caecilia body of Petrus Schieltz died on the 1st of this [month] in St. Catharina's, Canada, age 75.³

This is new information. No other source for Peter’s death has included a reference to St. Catharines, located in Ontario, Canada. According to this, Peter did not die in Sheldon at all.

The St. Catharines reference ties him to his daughter Barbara, who married Joseph Baker in Sheldon in 1856. Joseph, Barbara, and family moved to the St. Catharines area sometime before 1871; Peter could have been visiting them that fateful June day when he died. St. Catharines was about 61 miles from Sheldon, so transporting his body for burial at St. Cecilia Cemetery likely caused the delay in burial until three days later, on June 4th.⁴

 

1870 Mortality Schedule

The burial record also illuminates Peter’s 1870 mortality schedule entry (above) which was struck out. Column headings noted to record the “Name of every person who died during the year ending June 1, 1870, whose place of abode at the time of death was in this family.⁵

The marshals were cautioned: “Care should be taken to have it understood that the period covered by the inquiry is from the 1st day of June, 1869, to the 31st of May, 1870, inclusive...” Later: “Deaths which have occurred between the 1st of June and the day of the enumerator’s visit will not be reported; but the person will be reported as living on the 1st of June.⁶

When the census taker discovered that Peter died on June 1st, he crossed out Peter’s entry from the schedule to correct his figures, reflected at the page bottom. In Remarks, he noted: “Shiltz Peter died June 1st Enrolled in Schedule 1 + Asst. Marshal’s Letter #4-2.”⁷

It was both surprising and exciting to discover Peter Schiltz's burial record, and to correlate it with the mortality schedule and census to correctly identify his death place. Reviewing the census taker's instructions provided the needed context to make sense of the entire record group.

Until next time...

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© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2024. All rights reserved.

This week's post was chosen as a favorite for Friday Family History Finds on 12/22, on the Empty Branches on Family Trees blog. Thanks Linda! 

 

NOTES

¹ Census Office, Department of Interior, Ninth Census, United States. 1870. Instructions to Assistant Marshals (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1870), p. 8. "Mortality.—Schedule 2"; digital image, Census.gov (https://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/census_instructions/1870_instructions.html : 13 December 2023).

² Waymarking, "St. Cecilia R.C. Church cemetery - Sheldon, NY" (https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/wm35PE_St_Cecilias_RC_Church_Cemetery_Sheldon_NY : 15 December 2023), image by Max Cacher, 2014. 

³ St. Cecilia Catholic Church, Sheldon, Wyoming, New York, record of interments, 1857-June 1876, np, Petrus Schieltz, 1 June 1870, in St. Catharines, Canada; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4R-59LT-B?i=296 : 12 December 2023); citing parish records, Sheldon. For translation: Nancy Gilbride Casey, "Genealogical Translations" page, Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/GenealogicalTranslations : 15 December 2023), posting "Latin to English, Death Record..." 11 December 2023. Citing responses by Valerie Baginski and Carla Ratcliff.

⁴ For parent/child relationship and marriage: St. Cecilia Catholic Church, Sheldon, Wyoming, New York, marriages, np, Josephus Beker and Barbara Shilz, 29 April 1856; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4R-59GZ-Q : 14 December 2023); citing parish records, Sheldon. Also: 1871 Census of Canada, Province of Ontario, District 21 Lincoln, Nominal return of the living, Sub-District: Village of Port Dalhousie, p. 52, line 20, dwelling 193, family 200, Joseph Beckey household; database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1578/images/4396294_00479 : 17 November 2023); citing Library and Archives Canada, RG31-C-1, Ottawa, Ontario. Also: St. Cecilia Catholic Church, Sheldon, Wyoming, New York, record of interments, 1857-June 1876, np, Petrus Schieltz.

⁵ Wyoming County, New York, 1870 United States Census, Schedule 2, mortality, town of Sheldon, page 1 (penned), 1316 (stamped), line 28, Shiltz Peter, age 75, crossed out; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1626/images/31817_B00466452B-01200 : 15 December 2023); citing New York State Library, Albany. Remarks section notes "Shiltz Peter died June 1st Enrolled in Schdedule 1 + Asst. Marshal's Letter #4-2."

⁶ Census Office, Department of Interior, Ninth Census, United States. 1870. Instructions to Assistant Marshals (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1870), p. 16. "Mortality.—Schedule 2".

⁷ Wyoming County, New York, 1870 United States Census, Schedule 2, mortality, town of Sheldon, page 1 (penned), 1316 (stamped), line 28, Shiltz Peter, age 75, crossed out. Schedule 1 is the population schedule. It is unknown whether Assistant Marshal's letters are extant and available for research.