Coroner’s records offer fascinating stories. I have a thick one from 1911 in Chicago that details the death of Great granduncle Edgar Royal Stuart. He died on a streetcar and all the other passengers had to be interviewed and their statements are in the file. How many of you can find proof that at a specific time on a specific day your relative was riding on a specific streetcar in Chicago?
The Marin [California] Independent Journal reports the current and new location of coroners records for Marin County as “the files on more than 89,000 coroners’ cases — many handwritten in pen and ink on parchment — have been transferred to the county library’s Anne T. Kent California Room, a rich repository of local historical documents, and the nonprofit Marin County Genealogical Society.”
The article also relates that “library volunteers have already begun organizing the files in acid-free archival boxes and folders, and entering case information into a computer index. . . But numerous issues remain to be resolved in setting up the database, including the legality of public access to medical records and homicide-related files.”
Read the full article here.
© 2011 – 2014, Paula Stuart-Warren. All rights reserved.
