Southern Graves

Did you have a nice Memorial Day weekend? I hope so.  This was the first in ages that I wasn't at a "traditional" job.  So I was free and fortunate to be able to attend a local Memorial Day service.  I posted about it here . Earlier in May, Elizabeth Shown Mills shared a link on facebook about a lecture being given by University of Georgia History Professor Stephen Berry.  It was about coroners in the 19th century South.  From lecture summary:  "He discussed the role of a coroner as an agent of the state and talked about the records created from coroner inquests. He argued that coroners can shed light on the emerging patterns of death within a society…" It was a highly informative and very interesting lecture.  As of this writing, it is still available (free!) on C-Span.org . I was able to visit a couple of cemeteries this month.  One I wrote about for yesterday's post .  The other was "the older one" across the way.  I was looking for ...

Mrs. Elizabeth (Strickland) Moore married William H. Sudderth 22 November 1866 in Gwinnett County, Georgia.  The first daughter the couple had together was born 26 February 1869.  Daughter Eunice never married, and stayed with her parents throughout her life. William H. Sudderth, who spent his life farming, died 28 September 1920 at a hospital in Gainesville, Hall County, Georgia.  Just six months after he was recorded in the U.S. Federal census .  Mr. Sudderth's death certificate (image at right via FamilySearch.org; click to enlarge) shares he was born 13 November 1842 to George Sudderth and Elsie Vaughn.  William's cause of death was listed as Uremic coma .  The free [medical] dictionary describes the condition as, "Loss of consciousness caused by the toxic effects of the nitrogen-containing wastes and inorganic acids that accumulate in the bloodstream of patients in renal failure. Coma in renal failure usually occurs after other uremic symptoms, such a...