GOOGLING For Dead People!

Govanstown Cemetery Project

The Whittle Plot

When you feel like you want to scream after a day of asking Ancestry to “Bring Out Your Dead!”– it’s time to go Google for Dead People! As I had already searched the newspaper subsciptions for further mention of Samuel’s fall, I thought it would be a good idea to Google Samuel.

“samuel whittle” Baltimore – brought up 7 responses – a couple were about my Samuel. The first was my posts on this site and the second was an item from New River Notes with a transcription of the 1878 Baltimore County, Maryland Directory. Under the section of Towsontown is a listing for Plasterers and there is Sam’l Whittle. 1

Farther down the page was a Baltobits v-z entry. These are from contributed obituaries that appear as a rootsweb entry.2

WHITTLE Maggie S. 3 Oct 1897 9 Oct 1897 WHITTLE, Maggie S. On Sunday, October 3d, 1897, at 3:30 P.M., at the residence of her uncle, 1130 Forest Place, Baltimore, MAGGIE S., daughter of the late Samuel F. Whittle, of Towson.
Death Of Miss Maggie Whittle. – Miss Maggie Whittle, youngest daughter of the late Samuel N. Whittle, of Towson, died on Sunday last, at 3:30 P.M., at the home of her uncle, Nicholas Whittle, 1130 Forrest Place, Baltimore, from consumption. Miss Whittle was about 20 years of age. Up to a year ago she was in apparent
robust health. About that time she began to show signs of the work of the loathsome disease which caused her death and which she inherited from her mother, who also died with it. The deceased was born and raised in Towson, leaving here several years ago, after the death of her father. Since then she has resided at the home of her uncle, where she died. She leaves one sister, Miss Clara, who also resides in Baltimore. The funeral took place Tuesday from her late home, at 3:30 P.M. Interment was in the family lot at Govanstown. Balto. County Democrat

Maggie S. Whittle as stated is the youngest daughter of our Samuel Whittle. As we now know she died fairly young and is also in the plot at Govanstown. She died on 3 Oct 1897 and was interred 5 Oct 1897 and the obituary appeared 9 Oct 1897. A quick check of GenealogyBank showed a basic funeral notice for Maggie S. Whittle from the home of her uncle, with no name only the address, and no cemetery name. The Baltimore County Democrat is not part of the resources offered by Genealogy Bank. To whoever posted this obit to Rootsweb – Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!

The obit itself leaves us with a few questions. Who is Nicholas Whittle? Could Charles N. Whittle have the middle name of Nicholas? Is there another brother that we don’t know about? Where is Clara living? I haven’t done any work on Samuel’s daughters yet, but now I will have to. More questions than answers as usual.

Also on that page were three other obits from the Baltimore area. Mrs. Elizabeth Whittle, which is the one we already know about, Mrs. Caroline Whittle, died 6 Sep 1909, and Mrs. Honora Whittle died 21 June 1870. New names, that may or may not be related and neither Caroline nor Honora’ obituary mention one of my known family members or Govanstown Cemetery. I created a favorites folder for Whittle and saved the site for future use. Maybe I will find a family connection later, but I have to stay focused on who might be in my Whittle plot.

1. Jeffrey C. Weaver, New River Notes (http://www.newrivernotes.com/md/bco1878.htm : accessed 12 Oct 2008), 1878 Baltimore County Directory.
2. Maryland GenWeb, Extracts & Copies Of Death Notices & Obituaries From Baltimore Area Newspapers (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mdbaltim/obits/obits.htm : accessed 12 Oct 2008), Maggie S. Whittle Obituary.

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