FAY-L Archives

From: Linda Kaufman <>
Subject: [FAY] MI Austin Fay, obit
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 17:18:54 -0500

Concerning the obits submitted to the Michigan line (see the website,
at:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~faywebsite/goosehat.html)
for Austin Fay. The first is dated 1920, refers to Austin Fay, Jr. The
second refers only to Austin Fay, has a HANDWRITTEN notice at the bottom
"Obit File 1904? And Sept. 25, 1859."

The question is: are we dealing with one Austin or two?

Answer: we are definitely dealing with one Austin, who was born
9/25/1859, died in 1920, had a father named Austin and a brother named
Wilmer. See above for the listing of Austin, son of Jonathan, father of
Austin and Wilmer. So far for the info from OPF.

Next: The obit itself says that Austin was born in 1859. Somehow, the
date of the original obit was lost. Someone read the obit itself for
hints. Look at the sentence : "Austin Fay was born at Flat Rock,
September 25, 1859, and had spent 45 years of his life in Exeter
township." If you add 45 to the 1859 date, you come out with 1904:
which is exactly the date that someone wrote in hand on the bottom.
However, it does NOT say that Austin died at the age of 45 or that he
spent his WHOLE life in Exeter. That is a false inference. Since the
original date of 1920 IS on the burial notice, I would definitely accept
1920 as the date of death, and assume that he died at the age of 61,
which fits in a lot better with the description "failing health" and so
on.

Does anyone disagree that we are dealing with one and the same
individual? Does anyone have corroborating information?

Linda

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• [FAY] MI Austin Fay, obit by Linda Kaufman <>