Charlie and Lily's Story

My grandmother Nora told me a story she heard from her mother Eva Jarvis. Eva said that when she was a little girl, her older brother Charlie and younger sister Lily died the same week from diphtheria.

Eva was born in 1873, long before birth and death certificates were required in North Carolina (1913). I don’t have the family Bible. No newspapers in Wilkes County have survived prior to 1890. So where could I turn to prove or disprove this story?

Everyone is familiar with the U.S. census population schedule. But did you know that there are additional schedules? In 1880, the “mortality” schedule listed all people who died within the year prior to the census enumeration day. In other words, it listed the people who died between June 1, 1879, and May 31, 1880. In Wilkes County, I found Charlie and Lily’s deaths on the mortality schedule!

From left to right in this image:

• 11 is the household number on the population schedule for the Richard F. Jarvis household. Richard was the father of Charlie, Eva, Lily, and many other children.
• Jarvis C.C. was Charles Clinton Jarvis, age 9, male, white, unmarried.  
• He was born in N.C. as were his father and mother.
• The occupation column has a dash.
• He died in September (1879) of diphtheria.
• The next line shows Jarvis L.P. (Lily Prudence), age 4, died the same month.

It’s always a good idea to look for all possible records for a family. Charlie and Lily were born after the 1870 census so the 1880 mortality schedule is the only record of them. They must have had gravestones (their father was a Baptist minister) but I have not found them.

By checking the mortality schedule, I was able to confirm this sad story. It must have been so hard for my great-grandmother Eva, age 7, to lose her closest siblings. They are gone but not forgotten.

Source:

1880 U.S. census, Wilkes County, North Carolina, non-population schedule, Mortality and Manufacturing, Wilkesboro, enumeration district (ED) 214; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.Ancestry.com : accessed 22 Apr 2012); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm M1805, roll 5, lines 2 & 3, C.C. Jarvis and L.P. Jarvis.