On September 20, 1907, my grandfather Orville Wilson Garrison was born in the city of Camden in New Jersey. He grew up in Bridgeton, and his parents were residing there in 1900 and in 1910, but his mother was from Camden. She was likely back in Camden to be with family after her mother passed away there on August 5.

I found two birth certificates for my grandfather in the files I inherited from my grandmother. The first is from the city of Camden and was issued in 1942. The second was from the state of New Jersey and was issued in 1963.

I never met my grandfather. He passed away about four months before I was born, just as his grandmother passed away a little over a month before he was born. He would have been 105 if he were alive today.

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People are listed as living if they were born 100 years ago or less and I have found no evidence of death.

 

Relationship Evidence
	Strong evidence	Birth record, SS-5 application, multiple other evidence
	Some evidence	Death record, vital record indexes, Census records (post-1880)
	Weak or no evidence	Family stories, Census records (pre-1880)

Genealogy is intimately tied to death. Most genealogy jokes revolve around the fact that we spend so much time with dead people, or with the records they left behind anyway. I even subtitled my blog “News about dead people.”

Sometimes these dead people are a lot closer to us however, and we cannot joke about their absence. Each record of theirs we hold in our hands brings back memories, a reminder that all of our ancestors were once living, breathing people, as dear to someone as our recently lost are to us.

I have always been careful not to include the living in research I have posted to the internet. I have often extended this to people who have recently passed away. In my mind they are still living, I suppose.  But, I have also had the desire to memorialize the dead, to extend their lives a bit by sharing what I knew of them with other people.

My parents passed away 13 years ago this summer. I have assiduously kept their information off of the internet. Partly out of privacy, partly out of grief, partly because they are just too young to be “dead ancestors.” But, the 1940 census was released this year and they are in it. And, I decided to begin work on the electronic family tree book I always had in mind, and I want to start with them, so I am finally adding their names to my public database.

Charles “Charlie” Conrad was born in 1937 in Philadelphia to Edward C. Conrad and Susan L. Todd. You can see him in the 1940 census in my Todds on Tioga and Conrads around the Corner post. Carol Garrison was born in 1938 in Philadelphia to Orville W. Garrison and Naomi E. Carman. Charlie and Carol were married in 1959 in Pitman, New Jersey. Charlie served in the Air Force in the 1950’s and later worked as an accountant and comptroller. Carol was a registered nurse. They had their own business in the 1980’s. In the 1990’s they moved to Florida where they both passed away in 1999.

They loved each other deeply and saw each other through sickness and health, good times and bad. This site and my research have always been secretly dedicated to them. Now you know.

The following people were added or updated in my genealogy database in February 2012.

Phebe Clark ( – BET 1860 AND 1870)

Catherine Emmering (Apr 1834 – 29 Jan 1910)

Irving Garrison (29 Jul 1865 – aft 1930)

John Hann Sr. (1808 – )

Oscar Burgess Irelan (8 May 1873 – 11 Feb 1915)

I added or updated the following people in my genealogy database  in January 2012:

Elizabeth Hancock Clark

Annie C. Irelan

Frederic Irelan

Jennie Irelan

Samuel Irelan

Samuel B. Irelan, Sr.

Samuel B. Irelan

William Irelan, Sr.

William Irelan, Jr.

Annie Sniffen

Samuel T. Sniffen

Guido Vogel

Linna Vogel