michaeljohnneill 9:20 am on October 30, 2016

Returned Home in Their Old Age?

Is it possible that relative you can’t find “returned home” in their old age? A relative of mine left Illinois in the 1870s with his family in his thirties, living in Colorado and New Mexico. Sometime after the 1910 census, he returned to Illinois where he had some relatives (mostly cousins) and eventually died. Why he returned I don’t know, but his children were scattered throughout New Mexico and the western United States.

Patty Gilbert 2:51 pm on October 30, 2016

I discovered that too with a distant relative. SHE was born in a place up by Chicago, then moved out west then moved back to her home place to die & be buried.
Kristy Gravlin 8:20 pm on October 31, 2016

Sometimes a person might really want to be buried in the cemetery where the rest of the family was buried.
The easiest…and probably by far the cheapest way to accomplish that would be to “go home” when all it took was a regular ticket for the transportation. Maybe in addition there were members of the family that the person wanted to see one last time before it was too late. From a distance (in both space and time) that may be difficult to determine…but you may be able to see if there is an “important” cemetery in the family…and the person was buried there. Depending on how long the person lived “back at home” there may be some person still living that remembers when Auntie came back home and spent a lot of time with other relatives or with friends from her youth. Is there an article in the paper telling of her return and/or of her spending time with relatives or friends from her early years?

Genealogy Tip of the Day

with Michael John Neill

Returned Home in Their Old Age?