Tombstone Tuesday - Mary LaJoie nee Villers

LaJoie surname tombstone in Calvary Cemetery, Jamestown, North Dakota*

Mary D, 1872 - 1958*

I'm breaking away for a day from tracing my husband's Melzers, but there's more on them in the works!

Mary LaJoie nee Villers is my husband's 2nd great aunt and sister to Florence. I'm always delighted when I find new information on Florence's siblings. Much of the family research on my husband's family doesn't go laterally, but I always enjoyed discovering where those lines went. Where new cousins can be found. Sometimes that's the best way to break brick walls. Perhaps that cousin knows something that I don't. Lateral lines are too often ignored, but can be oh so important.

In my discovery for Mary's FindAGrave memorial and subsequent photo I also discovered her obituary transcribed in it. Now a good genealogist isn't going to just cut that and paste it into their own work. I'll be looking for the Jamestown Sun for July 3, 1958 and grab a copy for my records. I'll verify that nothing was transcribed wrong, but I'll have the record. I'll also keep in mind that while obituaries aren't primary sources of information they are valuable. The people submitting them are mourning and errors are possible even if the newspaper printed everything exactly as they were told. The information in there will help me with dates to get a death certificate as well as know who survives Mary and who predeceased her.

Mary was a tricky bit in my research. Her name seemed to vary in records and I had her down as a very long "Mary Ann Mina Octavia Villers" in my family tree. I had known that she married Felix LaJoie, but this memorial and obituary on FindAGrave helped to firm that up a bit. I look forward to seeing what new information I might find from what was posted on this memorial!

*Images posted with kind permission from FindAGrave contributor BJ Brewer. Thank you!