What's in a name?

Another name puzzle has shown up in an ancestral document.  Is it Whitfield or Whitefield?  From the time I started search family history my grandmother surname was known to me as Whitfield.  which includes all the records I have discovered; marriage certificates, census report, etc....,  Now, a question pops up on this recently discovered document for Frank E. Whitfield.  First, notice that the document didn't record a full name, but the state of Illinois has this document recorded against Frank.  Also, the date of death, first name of the parents, the physical address and the first name and middle initial of his wife are all correct.  The question is the recorded last name of Whitefield! So, is it Whitfield or Whitefield?  I am sure it is Whitfield and this is just a record error by Registrar!  I have seen many errors such as this, so it really doesn't surprise me at all.  But, it may explain why I haven't been able to find anything concrete for Elisie Minnie Grothmann Whitfield after 1919.  Oh by the way, Elise's last name was record on the marriage certificate as Grotman, where it should have been Grothmann.  Errors are very common!

Suburbanite Economist Notice

Who is Frank E Whitfield?  He is my great grandfather on my mother side.  You can see more about Frank at his Ancestry.com page;  Frank Whitfield  .  The notice to the right can be found at
the Ancestry.com page for the newspaper Suburbanite Economist, Englewood Times.

This is an update to Frank's blog record as his resting place has been found in the Oak Wood Cemetery, Chicago Illinois lying next for Frank is Elsie's second husband, Orrin P Talley.  Frank Whitfield lived an died in Illinois.  His parent's John and Elizabeth are from England and are still a mystery at this point.

Please find in this blog other posts of the Whitfield family.

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Waters or Watters! Muddy waters indeed!

A while back I found my great grandmother in 1910 US census living Lowell Massachusetts with new husband and my grandfather (a boy at this time) and his sister Flossie. For whatever the reason, it wasn't until this past month I decided to request a copy of the marriage certificate from the state of Massachusetts. I was hoping there would be more information on the certificate than just the union of the two. So, after gathering the proper information and time frame of the marriage, I sent the request to Massachusetts. I was told to expect a long wait for the return on any documentations. Happily, I received the certificate in just over four weeks. Not long at all for government work. Anyway, I hit pay dirt and more confusion, at the same time, about my great grandmother's nee, in which this blog post is about.