{"id":10383,"date":"2015-04-29T11:29:32","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T15:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=10383"},"modified":"2015-04-29T11:29:32","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T15:29:32","slug":"willard-hyatts-genealogy-puzzler-houston-we-have-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/willard-hyatts-genealogy-puzzler-houston-we-have-a-problem.html","title":{"rendered":"Willard Hyatt\u2019s Genealogy Puzzler: \u2018Houston, We Have a Problem\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

In researching Willard O. Hyatt\u2019s genealogy, I quickly found this entry for his tombstone.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>
Montage showing Willard Hyatt\u2019s tombstone and death certificate. Credit: FamilySearch \u2013 partner site Find-a-Grave.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Great \u2013 that is my target Willard O. Hyatt. He was born in Burlington, Calhoun County, Michigan, and I knew that he died there. \u00a0I could see by his tombstone that he died in 1934.<\/p>\n

Armed with this initial tombstone information it was time to dig deeper.<\/p>\n

By pulling his entries in the old U.S. census, his death certificate, and other records, we can begin to piece together the facts of his life.<\/p>\n

I next found his death certificate.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Credit: FamilySearch, Michigan, Death Certificates, 1921-1952<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hmm\u2026\u201cHouston, we have a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

His date of death in the death certificate is not agreeing with the date carved on his tombstone.<\/p>\n

I looked in the old newspapers in GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> to see if I could find out more about this discrepancy \u2013 and uncovered an unusual story.<\/p>\n

\"article<\/a>
Heraldo de Brownsville (Brownsville, Texas), 4 November 1937, page 9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article in the Heraldo de Brownsville<\/em> newspaper gives us the rest of Willard\u2019s story, telling us why he decided to commission his own gravestone so many years before his death \u2013 and why it has the wrong date.<\/p>\n

[search_box]<\/p>\n

Willard figured that since both of his parents \u2013 Thomas Hyatt (1806-1887) and Mary Ann (Odell) Hyatt (1811-1891) \u2013 died at age 80, he too would die at 80 years of age.<\/p>\n

So in 1906 \u2013 18 years before his projected date of death \u2013 he bought a tombstone and had the carver enter his life dates as he expected them to be: 1854-1934, when he would be 80 years old.<\/p>\n

But as things turned out, it was another 10 years before Willard finally passed away \u2013 on the 28th of October 1944.<\/p>\n

Genealogy Tip:<\/em><\/strong> Dig deep and find every supporting genealogical document. Go beyond census and vital records in your genealogy research. Be sure to search the old newspapers \u2013 that\u2019s where the stories of our ancestors are.<\/p>\n

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