I'm not on Ancestry, simply because I have trouble parting with money. However, I decided to spend some bucks on an "official," honest-to-goodness copy of Chester's death certificate. I had to go through the Pennsylvania Department of Health and answer all sorts of questions about my background in order to prove who I was. I thought, these folks don't mess around with legal documents! (And this one is 110 years old...why would anyone care about it except me?!). Anyway, I got to thinking that I probably could've found it on Ancestry and should've joined, considering I paid one third of the cost of membership just for this one piece of paper. But, hey...now I have a real, certified copy. (I justify it that way).
Yes, I did already have practically all the information I wanted on Uncle Chester. After all, the "mystery" behind his untimely death was solved with the Tribune-Democrat article, right? Not quite. There's one tiny part of Chester that's driving me crazy, that I can't seem to nail down: his middle name. "Chester B. Burtnett," I read everywhere; it's on his tombstone, in the article about his death...but what on earth does that middle-initial "B" stand for?! Surely the death certificate would provide closure.
I ordered it close to three weeks ago and paid more for UPS service than I did for the paper itself, simply because through the postal service, it could've taken up to three more weeks to arrive. A few days after I ordered it, I saw Chester in a dream. I asked him what the "B" stood for, and he said, "Burke." Just like that, no frills, no beating around the bush. I thought, "Burke" sounds funny alongside "Burtnett," and that name has never come up in my research before.
Today, the UPS man put a thin envelope into my hand, and I didn't even go inside to open it. What I saw stopped me in my tracks, but in a sad way. The certificate told me nothing new, absolutely nothing; the "B" was still a "B," mystery unsolved. My sorrow comes from the fact that the certificate was filled out in Latrobe, PA, by a stranger who left a lot of basics as "unknown," simply because he didn't take the time to find out the answers. It's as if he had to sign off on the death because it was his job, and not much more thought was put into it. Poor Chester.
Because this is a true copy of the record, I'm not at liberty to photograph it. However, here are some of the details included (everything underscored was written by the doctor, and below, by the undertaker):
Place of Death.
County of Westmoreland
Borough of Latrobe
FULL NAME Chester B. Burtnett
PERSONAL AND STATISTICAL PARTICULARS
SEX Male COLOR White
DATE OF BIRTH June 1884 [This makes me mad! He was born May 24, 1884!]
AGE 22
[Now, for Birthplace, Name of Father, Birthplace of Father, Maiden Name of Mother, and Birthplace of Mother, the doctor wrote "unknown." This breaks my heart. I already know the information, but Chester's death certificate should have all these details on it; he's worth it!]
OCCUPATION Brakeman
MEDICAL CERTIFICATE OF DEATH
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 1906
I HEREBY CERTIFY, That I attended deceased from --- 190---to----
190---that I last saw h---alive on------190----and that death occurred, on the date stated above, at 4:50 pm. [There is a line drawn on each blank denoted here by the dashes, indicating that the information is not applicable.]
The CAUSE OF DEATH was as follows:
Injuries by being run over by train on Pennsylvania Railroad.
Contributory Accident
(Signed) Charles A. Wynn M.D.
June 26, 1906 (Address) Greensburg
THE ABOVE STATED PERSONAL PARTICULARS ARE TRUE TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF
(Informant) Jno. F. Stader
(Address) Latrobe, PA
PLACE OF BURIAL OR REMOVAL Wilmore, PA
DATE OF BURIAL June 27, 1906
UNDERTAKER John F. Stader ADDRESS Latrobe, PA
Filed June 26, 1906
W. Osborne
Registrar
And that's the death certificate. Although I'm glad to have it, I feel let down; not for myself, but for Chester, that neither the doctor nor the undertaker took the trouble to fill in the particulars about his parents. I will do it for him:
BIRTHPLACE Cambria County, PA
NAME OF FATHER William Keesey Burtnett
BIRTHPLACE OF FATHER Cambria County, Pennsylvania
MAIDEN NAME OF MOTHER Martha Allenbaugh
BIRTHPLACE OF MOTHER Pennsylvania
I'm sorry, Uncle Chester; it's the least I can do. I will continue the search for that mysterious "B!"
On another note...
What about this beautiful photo of my great-grandfather, Harry Burtnett, with his schoolmates? How many people are blessed to have such a picture from a great-grandparent's childhood?
All I know about this group is that it had to be around 1895, and it was at the school in the area of Summerhill, Cambria County, PA. I submitted this delightful treasure to the genealogy group of Cambria County on Facebook in hopes that someone could identify the location, or maybe find an ancestor of their own. Surprise! A dear lady wrote me back that she, too, has Burtnett blood. We discovered that her great-great-great grandfather (Daniel Burtnett) and mine (Peter Burtnett) were brothers! Do the good times ever stop?
No, they don't. See, my whole motive for digging out this photo had to do with (you guessed it!) Chester. I remembered the picture, and thought that since children of many ages attended school together, then perhaps I would find Uncle Chester in the photo, too. After all, he was four and a half years older than young Harry. If Harry was around five, then Chester would be pushing ten in the picture.
Maybe I'm grasping at straws for Chester, but I want so badly to believe I see him. Do you see him, too? Notice the two boys in the very back, a little right of center, between the windows. I think Chester might be the one on the right.
Is there a resemblance?
Every fiber of my being believes there is.
Incidentally, just as a goofy aside, those who know my husband will get a kick out of this. Look back at the photo; did you notice the pair in the first window: a young man next to an older woman who was probably a teacher? Look again at that young guy, very closely:
Does this fella look like Jeremy??
Sometimes genealogy can take us to the Twilight Zone!
The good times really do not ever stop!
Until the next one!
