Recently I've been working on filling in some of the blank spaces in my family tree profile - missing dates and places. The blanks are mysteries and are often more intriguing than the known facts! Knowing exactly when a person died doesn't change anything, but when it's the grandfather of my beloved great-grandmother, the late Mary (Harvey) Reese Gaul, I feel the information is worth preserving. His name was John Clark Harvey and he was born about 1824 in Lapeer, Cortland County, New York.
In Lapeer, there is a road called Harvey Hill Road, named after Newman Harvey, Clark's father and namesake of his son, Newman A. Harvey. After finding the home on a property map, I took a drive to get a better look and shared a video to preserve the place's memory. There's a good chance Clark was born on Harvey Hill Road, although I'm sure the house is long gone.
Better known as Clark Harvey, he was my 3rd great-grandfather. Birth records were not required in New York until the late 1800s, so I've accepted the fact that his birth date is probably lost forever. Perhaps a church record or old family Bible will produce the date later, but he was counted on nearly every census from 1850 to 1892, so a record of his death shouldn't be hard to find. Still, no grave for him can be found on Findagrave, and searches on Ancestry.com failed to produce any record of his death. I also searched area newspapers for his obituary, without success. (If anyone finds his obituary, please share!)
He was counted on the census of Lapeer in 1892, but when the 1900 census was taken, his wife, Betsy, was marked "widowed". Other records for men named John Harvey or Clark Harvey were found after 1900, however, and with no definitive death date, we might never know if those records pertained to him or not. Maybe Clark had actually left Betsy and she just told the census taker she was widowed simply because she was a widow prior to marrying Clark. This is one reason why these blank spaces need to be filled! The blanks raise too many questions!
In my notes, I found that Clark probably died in 1898, so I decided it was time to find the answer once and for all. I was prepared to check New York's Death Index for each year, if necessary, but I decided to start with 1898. I flipped through the online pages to HARVEY and, lo and behold, there it was! The quality of the copy is very poor and nearly illegible, but we can make out the faint impression of Clark Harvey who died 30 Dec (1898) in Lapeer. Certificate #48357. Hooray! Another blank space filled. Of course, there are still unanswered questions. Was an obituary published? Where is he buried? Perhaps Quail Hill Cemetery in Lapeer? (See my video of it here). The search continues!
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