{"id":10699,"date":"2015-05-26T11:22:01","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T15:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=10699"},"modified":"2015-05-26T11:22:01","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T15:22:01","slug":"sukey-i-never-knew-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/sukey-i-never-knew-you.html","title":{"rendered":"Sukey, I Never Knew You"},"content":{"rendered":"

This obituary caught my eye for several reasons.<\/p>\n

\"obituaries,<\/a>
The Balance and Columbian Repository (Hudson, New York), 15 October 1801, page 87<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First is the header, with its poem and graphic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Knell.\u201d
\nNot \u201cDeaths\u201d or \u201cDied\u201d \u2013 which are very common headers for obituary notices even today \u2013 but instead \u201cThe Knell,\u201d as in death knell.<\/p>\n

Crisp. An excellent choice of words that immediately tells us this newspaper editor took time with the layout and content of each issue.<\/p>\n

The poem also is on target to the newspaper\u2019s audience.
\nIt is mournful but upbeat.<\/p>\n

Next is the illustration, centered toward the top of the article.
\nIt evokes an image of the somber tone of the obituaries we are going to read in this newspaper article.<\/p>\n

The tombstone, leaning to the side \u2013 the setting sun \u2013 the barren tree \u2013 all framed by the grass and the outline of the ground.<\/p>\n

Striking.
\nRemember \u2013 this was published in 1801. What a memorable graphic.
\nThis is a good example of the care that \u201cSampson, Chittenden and Croswell\u201d \u2013 the newspaper\u2019s publishers \u2013 took with this newspaper.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n\n
Enter Last Name
\n<\/td>\n		<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n<\/form>\n

The other part of this obituary that caught my eye was the first death notice:<\/p>\n

In this city, Mrs. Sukey Smith, wife of Mr. Matthew Smith, aged 35.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sukey \u2013 that name sounds so familiar \u2013 but at the same time, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever met a person named \u201cSukey.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wondered if it was an abbreviation.
\nNo, according to the dictionary it is \u201ca Hebrew baby name\u2026 [and means] Graceful Lily.\u201d (Source: SheKnows.com)<\/p>\n

Hebrew name? So I checked the Bible to see if there were any women named Sukey who were mentioned in the Bible. Nope \u2013 no one named Sukey is listed in the Bible.<\/p>\n

A quick search of GenealogyBank showed that there are only 6 people with the name Sukey in the Social Security Death Index; there are over 150 marriages and nearly 400 obituaries involving a person named Sukey.<\/p>\n

Maybe \u201cSukey\u201d sounded familiar to me because of Sukey Tawdry from the lyrics of \u201cMack the Knife\u201d by Bobby Darin.<\/p>\n

Do you have a Sukey in your family tree?<\/p>\n

Note:<\/em><\/strong> FamilySearch International (FamilySearch.org<\/a>) and GenealogyBank are partnering to make over a billion records from recent and historical obituaries searchable online. The tremendous undertaking will make a billion records from over 100 million U.S. newspaper obituaries readily searchable online. The newspapers are from all 50 states and cover the period 1730 to the present.\u00a0 Find out more at: https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/family-search\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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This obituary caught my eye for several reasons. First is the header, with its poem and graphic. \u201cThe Knell.\u201d Not \u201cDeaths\u201d or \u201cDied\u201d \u2013 which are very common headers for obituary notices even today \u2013 but instead \u201cThe Knell,\u201d as in death knell. Crisp. An excellent choice of words that immediately tells us this newspaper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[9629,9630,1658,2233,12,465,2424,9623,2020,27,4818,1084,5059,9628,3717,9627],"class_list":["post-10699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-chittenden","tag-croswell","tag-family-history-2","tag-family-research","tag-genealogy","tag-historical-newspapers","tag-historical-obituaries","tag-matthew-smith","tag-newspaper-archives","tag-newspapers","tag-newspapers-for-genealogy","tag-obituaries","tag-obituary-archives","tag-sampson","tag-smith","tag-sukey-smith"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}