{"id":689,"date":"2016-04-26T21:03:43","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T01:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/?p=689"},"modified":"2018-07-30T20:45:43","modified_gmt":"2018-07-31T00:45:43","slug":"fallen-firefighter-research-resource-find-a-grave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/fallen-firefighter-research-resource-find-a-grave\/","title":{"rendered":"Fallen Firefighter Research Resource – Find a Grave"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, May 7, 2016, the annual memorial service for North Carolina’s fallen firefighters will be held at Nash Square in downtown Raleigh. More about that event<\/a> in an upcoming. ‘Tis also the season for Mr. Blogger to update his records, notably his fallen firefighter database<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rediscovered a nifty research resource on that front. Find a Grave<\/a><\/strong>, a web site with burial records on 145 million (!) people. Did a cursory search on about a dozen fallen firefighters (across decades and centuries) and found records for eight.<\/p>\n

What’s so great about burial information, you ask? For research purposes, the entries may also contain complete names, birth and death dates, biographical information, and narratives about their deaths. In one case, a scanned death certificate was also included.<\/p>\n

My first findings?<\/p>\n

Details about Robert Young, a volunteer fireman in Winston-Salem, killed in a race riot in 1918. (He’s being added to the state memorial this year.) Proper first name for John Gaskill, a New Bern fireman killed in 1904. My records always listed him as “Johnnie.” And a full name for Henry Barnett, one of three Asheville fireman killed in a train wreck in 1891, as they were returning from the state fireman’s convention.<\/p>\n

Give it a whirl.<\/p>\n

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