Amanuensis Monday: Death Record for Andrew Van Every (1798-1873)

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them.

I began this project back in February of 2009, and since then, many others have joined in on the meme.  Why do we transcribe? I provide my three reasons in the linked post. You may find others. If you participate, feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments.
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This week I transcribe the death record of my 3rd great grandfather, Andrew Van Every (1798-1873)

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General No.

Name and Surname of Deceased. Andrew Van Every

When Died. 25 July 1873

Sex - Male or Female. M

Age. 78 Years

Rank or Profession. Famer

Where Born. Ontario

Certified cause of Death, and duration of Illness. Brights Kidney, 18 mos

Name of Physician, if any. James Stinson

Signature, description and residence of informant. James Stinson, M.D. St. George

When Registered. 21 August 1873

Religious Denomination of Deceased. Baptist

Signature of Registrar. (David Baptie)

Division. South Dumfries

County. Brant

REMARKS: 030865

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Notes:

1) I received the above image of what is clearly a microfilm page from a cousin who contacted me via email. (it is clipped from a larger image containing multiple records. Pages 41 and 42 of a book containing 6 records each.)  I wondered where it was from.  Before doing the perhaps simpler thing of emailing the cousin, and asking, I went to FamilySearch and found the transcription to the left.

The Record Number matches the Record Number on the microfilm, so even if the cousin retrieved the microfilm from the local government records as opposed to a Family History Center, it's the same record.

FamilySearch labels this: Ontario Deaths, 1869-1937 and Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947.
Their citation for the collection is: Archives of Ontario. RG 80-8. Registrations of deaths, 1869-1937.


While I understand that not every bit of information on the records gets transcribed by FamilySearch, I am somewhat surprised that when they describe the contents of the records in the database, they don't mention that it may list Cause of Death, Profession, or Religion. I guess perhaps it's the difference between a genealogist and a family historian, and FamilySearch only thinks about listing information that is of concern to the strict genealogist who only cares about names, dates, and place information

2)  Needless to say, I do find interesting the information on profession, religion, and cause of death.  I knew Andrew Van Every was a farmer, though the Religious Denomination is new information.  My great grandfather (Andrew's grandson) was Methodist.  The Van Everys who originally settled in America were Lutheran.  My grandmother adopted the Christian Science tradition. I appear to come from a line of 'seekers' who didn't necessarily follow the religions of their parents.

3) Bright's Disease would today be referred to as Chronic or Acute Nephritis.