Trying to find Death Info on Nancy Starr (1834) (search, certificate, free)

[tallbarb]

I've used tons of freebies to try to find info on Nancy and hit a dead end when it comes to finding an obituary or death notice. I'm working on this for a good friend of mine, who is related to Nancy. Sure would like to know when she died and where she's buried. Any help would be appreciated. Here's some info on her:

Born 1834 in Canada to
James (b. 1806, d. 1875) and Elizabeth (Palmer) Starr (b. 1810, d. ?)
Believe Nancy died in 1908 but not certain

Nancy married:
John Cantonwine (sometimes spelled Cantanwine) on either April 18th or 22nd, 1855 - Black Hawk County, Iowa. John died Sept. 19, 1868.

Children: Charles, Eugene, James, Wilbur, Effie (who later moved to LaGrande, OR after marrying Robert Helvey - they had a daughter, Vera, who married Barney Lester and she is my friend's mother - she is Marjorie).

Nancy married:
Edmond (or Edmund) Chipman on April 14, 1872. Sometimes it's misspelled as Chipmen.

Children: Lettie, Eva

Nancy is listed as running a restaurant in Steamboat Springs, CO in the 1890 business directory.

Nancy is listed as living with her sons, Charles and James CantAnwine in the Routt County, CO census for 1900 (Steamboat Springs, CO).

I found a newspaper article about some life insurance from the Cantonwine side that mentions her name is now Chipman and was from the Starr family but she had relocated to Los Angels - this really doesn't make much sense to me, but there it was in the July 3, 1903 Iowa State Reporter - so perhaps she went to visit one of her children - have no idea.

That's all I know. Marge sure wishes she had asked her mother before she died where Nancy was buried because she knows that she knew - just didn't think about it until it was too late, darn it.

Would appreciate any help finding Nancy - thanks so much!

[PA2UK]

It looks like the trouble you're having is that the only CA Death Indexes available online are only for 1940-1997. That's annoying since LA county's death certificates go back to 1877.

This is the place you'd need to get an informational death certificate copy from: Birth, Death & Marriage Records - the trouble is that I believe you have to know the date of death in order to request the record. What you need is access to the index which they apparently only provide in person. At least, that is the impression I get from reading that.

Do you know what religion she was? You could try churches in LA which may have cemeteries or burial records or they could at least pinpoint the area she lived in and you could look in non-denominational cemeteries around that area. I tried the LA directories on Ancestry.com but didn't find anything.

Try to confirm whether she went to LA to be with one of her children. Do you know that any of them did indeed move there? If you can find a record of one of them in LA, that will give you a starting point. For example, if you find a directory record of one of her kids in LA, you can then look in that area of the city for cemeteries.

Also, be aware that Nancy can be a nickname for names like Anna and Agnes.

Lastly, having said all that, keep in mind that newspaper articles can be inaccurate. Searching LA may be completely the wrong direction. Apply all of this to Routt County, CO too.