Having found Great-Grandma Knez's headstone at Bohemian National Cemetery last week, I was able to come up with her death certificate online (for free). It says her son, my grandfather, gave the personal information such as birth date, maiden name, parents' names, etc. Somebody did a lousy job one way or the other. The tombstone says she died aged 57, and the death certificate says she was 55 (born in 1857). The date of death is November 21 on the marker and November 22 on the certificate. I'm going with the certificate. The doctor should know.
I consider tombstones to be reliable primary sources, but they can have the wrong information. A great-grandfather on my mother's side, William Thomas Weatherford, had a brother named George who died at age 13. I saw George's headstone and was surprised that his birth date was the same as William's, meaning they were twins. Later I discovered George was actually a couple years older than William. Apparently the grieving parents gave the stone cutter the wrong kid's birth date.
This recent find got me all charged up genealogically, and while I was rummaging around on the Internet this morning, I found a site called FamilyLink that promised me I could search the world for information about my family. I signed up for a free three-day trial, but within an hour I called them to cancel it so it wouldn't be billed to my credit card. A woman named Crystal handled my request, confirming my identity, and providing a confirmation number. I was prepared -- in fact, anxious -- to tell her the reason I wanted to cancel the subscription was that they don't have squat, but she never asked me. I guess she already knows.
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