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From:
Subject: Re: Puzzled
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 03:04:41 EDT


In a message dated 08/02/2000 12:12:51 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
writes:

<< I have since recieved
the DC's for a couple of the individuals. John's states removed to
Kernville. Ida's states interned at Kernville cem. Could the reason
they weren't found in the cem be that they did not have headstones & the
transcriper didn't have access to info about unmarked graves? Wouldn't
there still be obits for these people in the local newspaper? Or would
they have been overlooked by the newspapers because they were hill
folk? Any clues would be appreciated.
>>

Barbara,
"Removal" on a DC generally means that the remains were taken away from
the area of death to another area for disposal. Generally, a local funeral
home was in charge of making the arrangements to "ship" the body to wherever
it was being sent.
I would say it was very likely that the enumerator of the Kernville
cemetery didn't have access to the records and had to rely on what was able
to be physically seen. Therefor, no headstones, no person.
Kernville is somewhat isolated from Bakersfield and it isn't surprising
to find no obit in the Bakersfield Californian. I always check the
Californian because it is the only continuous newspaper for Kern Co since the
mid to late 1800's. Many other towns have or have had their own newspapers,
but in a very sporadic fashion. They were not preserved like the Californian
was either, and it has several instances of missing issues. There very well
might have ben an obit in a local paper at the time, but the paper is no
longer available or was not fillmed. There are many newspapers from Kern Co.
with large sections of missing issues. Oftentimes, the obits were "fillers"
and if there was no room, they weren't printed. It just depended on the
amount of news in any given week. Most of the newspapers in the outlying
towns were weeklies.
I hope this helps you understand the "whys".

Sharon
Kern Co. Volunteer

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