Not everyone moves to where they have other family members. Sometimes people do pack up and move.
That’s what Emma Cawiezell of Davenport, Iowa, did in the 1890s. She went to New York City to become an actress and that’s where the twenty-something Iowa native died in 1893. Compounding the issue is the fact that she changed her name from Emma Cawiezell to Emma Davis.
For some time she was “lost” and I simply assumed she had died young in Iowa and somehow missed having a death certificate and tombstone. I was wrong.
Emma’s mother also died in 1893 and several years ago I decided to see if there were other obituaries for her besides the one I had originally found. In that second obituary was a reference to Emma having died in New York City a short time before her mother died in Iowa. That was the lead I needed.
There’s reminder number two: always get as many obituaries as you can.
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