The Hunt for Lucia Cahoon Drake Continued

With John C Drake's death date in hand, I went back to the FamilySearch website - again.  Lo and behold, I found his death record.  Name was right.  Date was right.  I clicked in and read a typed transcription record from the handwritten record.  John C Drake.  Father:  John Stout Drake.  Mother:  Tuira Drake.  Tuira?  WTH?  So I dug deeper, going into view the handwritten record.

If you know what you're looking for, Tuira Drake is oh, so obviously Lucia Drake.  It was all about being able to read old timey chicken scratches.  Tuira Drake IS Lucia Drake. This is what it looks like:

Lucia is the one in the middle. 

Now as I was looking at this document, I noticed the name under Lucia.  And then it hit me!  Lucia died 9 October 1871.  I flipped back a page.  Lucia Drake was the next recorded death in 1871.  But, the record -- too -- was written by the same person, so it looks like Tuira -- again.  Finally found Lucia's death record.  I went back to that page where I first found her.  James H Cohoon is listed as her father.  Finally a definitive freaking clue.  Forget the spelling of her dad's last name.  We'll get to that later.  And -- drum roll please -- her mother's name is Mary A Cohoon. 

So listen up all you cousins, searching for our Lucia Cahoon Drake.  Search for her under Tuira Drake.  I haven't tried a search in all the family trees at Ancestry.  Yet.

This document still doesn't solve the spelling issues.  It still doesn't solve the fact that I can't find Lucia Drake in the 1870 United States Federal Census.  It doesn't solve the problem that in 1970 there was another lady -- Elenore -- listed as the wife to John Stout Drake.  It doesn't solve the mystery of Elenore being buried with John Stout Drake, Lucia and Johnnie and Mary Pease.  But it is tangible proof.  John and Lucia were married a long time.  He would've known her family parentage better than some random person.  So in my own personal record, I'm making it official.  Lucia's dad was John H and her mother, Mary A. 

The Hunt for Lucia Cahoon Drake.

So I'm back from Michigan.  What a bust that turned out to be.  I had made arrangements with the Mitchell Research Center in Hillsdale, Michigan to spend a day working on my family tree. The Center was closed for the holidays, but they were going to open it up for me.  Unfortunately, the ice and snow got so bad, I had to cancel and hunker down at my brother's place.  Note to self -- don't ever EVER allow my husband to have any freaking thing to do with my family history research plans.

I've reached the point in most of my research that I really can't move forward now without spending some money.  Either traveling places or ordering vital records or maybe even hiring someone.  So when this research trip fell through, I decided that I'd bite the bullet and order the death certificate from John C Drake, hoping that it would provide me with his mother's maiden name through the actual listing of her name, but I have also seen some entries in family trees at Ancestry listing John's middle name being Cahoon (his mother's maiden name).

So, I went to one of those website's where you can order a copy of vital records and began to fill out the forms.  The reason I chose a death certificate was because death certificates are available to anyone. Things have changed quite a bit when trying to order a birth certificate, a lot more restricted.  My understanding is that if the document you are seeking is more than 100 years old, there isn't a problem. 

This is what I knew:  John C Drake was born 26 April 1871 in Amboy, Hillsdale, Michigan.  His mother was Lucia Cahoon Drake and his father was John Stout Drake.  He died on 30 August 1871 in Amboy, Hillsdale, Michigan.  He dies of the bloody dysentery.  His name is on the tombstone with his mother, Lucia at the Baker/Drake Cemetery in Hillsdale.  He was called Johnny.

So I filled out the forms.  I had been psyching myself up for a few hours that it was perfectly okay for me to spend this money after the busted research trip.  Even if it costs $50 it's still way cheaper than hiring a professional or financing another trip back.  The cost was $46.  And then another $8.50 for processing.  And then another $18 to mail it to me.  HOLY CRAP!  Call me a cheap skate, but that's a lot of money to spend on something I wasn't sure about.  So I decided to fall back -- ONE MORE TIME, regroup -- ONE MORE TIME -- and double check all information just to make sure I wasn't missing something.