Death by "summer complaint" - Lilly Florence Baca, 1933

My paternal grandparents lost three of their children. One child was Lilly Florence Baca, who was born on April 30, 1933 and died four months and one day later on August 30, 1933.

Her death certificate indicates that she died of bronchial pneumonia, brought on by "Summer complaint" and infectious diarrhea. I had not heard of "Summer complaint", so I decided to look it up.

According to Dictionary.com, "Summer complaint" is

noun

1. an acute condition of diarrhea, occurring during the hot summer months chiefly in infants and children, caused by bacterial contamination of food and associated with poor hygiene.

 

It looks like she died of food poisoning. She was the daughter of Robert Bourguignon Baca and Maria Teresa Torres.

 

sources: 

 

"Socorro County Death Certificates, 1932 - 1935," database, Family Search (www.familysearch.org: accessed 29 March 2016), death certificate: Lilly Florence Baca, DOD August 30, 1930.

 

Definition: summer complaint, Dictionary.com, , accessed 29 March 2016. 

A couple more deceased uncles, and an aunt....

Yesterday, I mentioned that I found a death record for my father's stillborn brother Robert Lewis Baca. As I mentioned, Robert Lewis was born before my father - hence, the same first name as my dad. However, my family also mentioned that there were two other children of my paternal grandparents who were also stillborn.

I didn't know if they were born before of after my father's birth. However, I found a couple of death record abstracts on the Family Search, Record Search page that confirmed that they were born after my father:





Lily Florence Baca died on 30 August 1933, while Raymond Eugine (sic) Baca died on 15 November 1934. My father, Robert Carlos Baca, was born on 6 April 1932. My aunt Teresa once showed me where my father's two brothers and sister were buried - there is no gravestones, just a few stones mark the spot in the San Miguel Cemetery.
I also searched for a record for another uncle, this time a son of my maternal grandparents Santiago Baca and Pablita Zimmerly (remember, my mother's maiden name is also Baca.) Estevan Baca, who was named after my great grandfather Estevan Zimmerly, died a little over a month after he was born. The family story was that the doctor did not know how to use forceps and crushed my uncle's spine. My uncle Estevan, or Steven as the gravestone has his name, is buried in my family's plot at the San Miguel Cemetery in Socorro, New Mexico.
Below is the abstract that shows that he died on 5 May 1938 in Socorro, Socorro County, New Mexico. I didn't know until I found this record yesterday that his middle name was Carlos.

Coincidentally, today is El Dia de los Muertos - the Day of the Dead.

Creepy Halloween Find

I found a creepy death record today; one perfect for Halloween. On the Rootsweb Socorro County discussion list, someone posted the Family Search, Records Search page. He said it was a good place to search for New Mexico death records. I put in my father's name, Robert Baca. The search brought up a number of men by that name who died in New Mexico, but none after the mid 1940s. My dad died in 1999. However, one of the abstracts caught my eye:

I recognized the names of the parents of the deceased as my grandparents, Robert Baca and Terecita (Teresa) Torres, and that the death place was Socorro, New Mexico. A Robert Lewis Baca, the son of my grandparents, died on 6 May 1931. He was 0 years old.

I knew that although my father was the oldest child of his parents, he certainly was not the first one born. He was also not the first one with the name Robert Baca. According to my father, my grandparents had a child who was either stillborn or died soon after birth by the name of Robert Luis Baca. This abstract confirms that I had an uncle who died as a baby.

Happy Halloween!

Flora (Zimmerly) Salazar's Death Certificate

Below is the death certificate for Flora (Zimmerly) Salazar, a daughter of Juan Jose Zimmerly and Isabel Torres. According to the record, she was born on 2 January 1895 in Socorro, New Mexico and died on 4 January 1935 in Albuquerque, NM. Her residence was 901 North 15th Street, Albuquerque, NM. She was married to Ramon N Salazar, who was also the informant for her death certificate. Click on the image below to get a larger view.


This record was given to me by B. Mares.

Death Certificate: Estevan Zimmerly

Below is a photo of my great-grandfather Estevan Zimmerly. He was my maternal grandmother Paublita (Zimmerly) Baca's father. He was not quite 49 years old when he died.

Below is Estevan's death certificate. According to this record, he was a White male who was married to Delfina Tores. He was born on 30 October 1887 and died on 20 September 1936 in Socorro, New Mexico. His occupation was clerical, and he worked for the conservancy district; he last worked there in February 1932. His father was Samuel Zimmerly, who was from Germany (Samuel's marriage records indicates that he was "Swiss".) His mother was Paublita Torres of Socorro. R.M. Zimmerly was the informant for this record.

His death certificate lists a number of ailments that he suffered from. Since it's hard to read the handwriting, I won't try to guess what they were. My understanding was that he was left paralyzed from a botched operation, and that this somehow led to his death.

Death Certificate: Guadalupe (Padilla) Torres

Below is a picture of my great-great grandmother Guadalupe (Padilla) Torres. She and her husband Jose Epitacio Torres were the parents of my great-grandmother Delfina (Torres) Zimmerly, which also makes her the maternal grandmother of my maternal grandmother Paublita (Zimmerly) Baca.

Below is her death certificate. According to the record, Guadalupe Padilla Torres was a Spanish married female. Her husband was Jose E. Torres. She was born in 1869 in Socorro, New Mexico. She died on 4 November 1920 of a cerebral hemorage. She was 51 years old.

Her father's was Manuel Padilla of Socorro (other records attest to his name being Felipe Padilla.) Her mother's name was not known (from other records we know that her name was Juana Maria Garcia.) Her son Valentin Torres was the informant for the certificate.

Click on the document below to get a larger view.

Online New Mexico Death Records and Indexes

No, I am not morbid. However, I do like death indexes. The Online New Mexico Death Records and Indexes site contains many links about the dearly departed. We are genealogists: we research dead ancestors. It's not ghoulish; it's family!

This site is part of the larger Online Searchable Death Indexes & Records site.

Happy haunting ... um, hunting.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

A couple of years ago, I found a website that had Albuquerque burials from 1726 and 1776. I promptly printed the list - 46 pages - and filed it away. Today I was looking trhough my cabinet and found the lists. I decided that I would share the list on this blog so I put in the URL. It was gone! Just in case, I searched Google. It couldn't find it anywhere on the web.

If you are looking for these records off line, they are on LDS Roll # 0016645 - Archives of the Ardiocese of Santa Fe.

Crespin Torres' Death Certificate

Crespin Torres, my 2nd Great Grandfather

This is the Crespin Torres, father of my great-grandfather Ignacio Torres. I've always liked this photo. He looks like a very rugged individual. I think I've inherited some of my looks from him - I have the Torres nose.

Crespin was born on 25 October 1847 to Anastacio Torres and Josefa Montoya. He married Andrea Trujillo on 5 April 1869. She preceded him to the grave. According to this certificate, Crespin died a few days before his 90th birthday on 21 October 1937 of gangrene caused by diabites.



Crespin Torres' Certificate of Death (click on photo to get a larger picture)

Source: Death Certificate, #5335. New Mexico. County of Socorro.