52W Mark III – Week 47: Random Number

This week’s prompt for the 52 Ancestors Challenge is “Random Number”. At present, I now have 5,442 individuals in my primary RootsMagic database, which assigns each person a unique Record Number. That’s 148 more people than there were as of July 8, 2024, when the theme was “Random“. So, using the same method as last time, I generated a random number between 1 and 5,442. The result was 5,419.

Shirley Elizabeth Baxter is #5419 in my database. Shirley is my first cousin twice removed. As with the result I obtained last time I did this, Shirley did not have a very long life. She was born October 31, 1933 in Goshen, Utah and died April 25, 1934 – not quite six months old. Thus, it bears repeating what I said in last year’s post:

One might think that this is an unfortunate result, in that there is not much to say about someone who lived such a short life. However, I was quite happy with the result. To me, it’s important to remember those who never really got to live their lives. Not only were their lives dismally short, they’re often forgotten as a result. They might not have been long in this world, but their time on Earth should be noted.

Shirley was born to John Grant Baxter and Sarah Florilla (“Rilla”) Burgess, who married on October 12, 1911 in Nephi, Utah. Rilla was my grandpa Leo Burgess‘s aunt. Shirley was the ninth of ten children and the only one not to survive infancy. Her eldest brother Evan was 22 years old when Shirley was born.

One of the main sources of information I have for Shirley comes from an item in the Salt Lake City Telegram published on April 26, 1934. In fact, the evening edition contained two separate items.

The other place where I found information about Shirley was Find A Grave. Her entry includes a photo of her headstone.

Since starting this post, I thought I’d see what else I could find about Shirley. After all, one of the elements of the Genealogical Proof Standard is requires reasonably exhaustive research to have been conducted.

At FamilySearch, I found Shirley’s death certificate. Because there are contract restrictions, one cannot print or download the image. However, it corroborates what I already knew about Shirley, including her cause of death. I couldn’t read the physician’s handwriting (how stereotypical!), but I showed it to my sister who is a medical doctor. She confirmed that it says “gastroenteritis”.

Other than discovering her grave is also included at BillionGraves, I have not found anything else about her.

Everyone dies twice. Once when you take your final breath, and then again the last time someone says your name.

Attributed to everyone from the ancient Egyptians to Banksy

I say the name “Shirley Elizabeth Baxter” and she lives on.