April 2007

Dorothy Sugden, M.D.

It seems I can not help but trip over the many physicians in our family but this was a surprise. I was trying to find Dorothy Sugden, youngest daughter of Dr. C.E. Sugden (Lydia branch). Dorothy was born in Winnipeg but the trail seemed to be leading towards the U.S. Her sister, Isabel, married Malcolm Charleson, a commercial artist, in 1916 and they moved to Chicago in 1919. By the time that I had ascertained that this Malcolm Charleson was really the one Isabel married, I suspected that Russell Sugden, her brother, was also in the Chicago area but the clues I had did not fit well and I was still examining those when I came across a census listing for Dorothy. At first I thought it said she boarded with a doctor, but when I accessed the film itself, I found quite a different situation than I first envisioned.

In 1930, Dorothy, 24, was living with other staff persons in Highland Park Hospital, north of Chicago. This was a small 20-bed hospital, the first hospital to be found north of Evanston. There were several trained nurses, an x-ray technician, various support staff and one medical doctor: Dorothy Sugden. All of the staff were female except for the man who did the hospital laundry.

I was surprised, but I guess I should not have been. Dorothy’s father was a doctor. He died in 1924 when she was 19. Her mother had died a few years before that. I did not find Dorothy in the 1920 US census, but this new listing explained why. She did not emigrate to the US until 1929, probably when she got the position with the hospital. I do not know yet where she studied for her medical degree. And I suspect that she married and her name changed as I can not find any record of her after the 1930 census.

The small Highland Park Hospital was only a few miles from Evanston where Malcolm and Isabel lived in 1930. It opened in August 1918 with 10,000 sq. ft. of space and was considered “thoroughly modern” at the time. Today it has 450,000 sq. ft. and is part of the huge health network of the area. For a picture of the hospital in 1930, click here.

Chicago was a great drawing card for the medical profession. Witness the many members of the Robert branch of the family who worked there as doctors or nurses. In 1930 Dr. Frank Douglass was practicing in Chicago. Dr. Wm. Timmer (Zella’s widower) practiced in Cicero, west side. Did they know of Dr. Dorothy? Hard to say. Her father was second cousin to Dr. Frank Douglass, and as I have mentioned before, we keep track of our first cousins and sometimes their childen, our second cousins, but after that, unless we make a real effort, we lose track.

This is why they say if you are in a room with 40 strangers, you are likely related to at least one of them.

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Tartan Plaids and Haggis

Do you know where your kilt is? Have you attended the Scottish games? Worn a kilt for a friend’s wedding? Watched the Parade of the Tartans in New York City in April during Tartan Week?

At most of the Scottish Games or the events dedicated to the Scottish ethnicity, along with kilts and the ‘pipes, you will likely also find haggis. These edibles have come to be associated with the Scottish culture. Those who produce them in the United States have Americanized the product for American tastes, but the real haggis are a very interesting concoction. The Scots were frugal people and used ALL of the sheep. Haggis are essentially ground internal organs, including the liver and lungs, spiced and stuffed into intestinal casings, similar to our link sausages, but with their own unique taste. Next time you hear the ‘pipes, try the haggis. They probably will not be like the ones in Scotland but it could be fun to sample a bit of Scottish tradition. Who knows? You might like it.

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Documentation By Death Certificate

I delayed the Digest this month because I was going to the Ohio Genealogical Society conference in Columbus on the 14th and I thought I might learn something there that would be interesting to share with you.

One of the services provided at the conference was the opportunity to print off an Ohio death certificate for someone on your family tree. I went with a list of death certificate numbers and came home with seven certificates. Two of them turned out not to be members of our family, so I have offered them to others on Rootsweb.com.

I was gratified to see on Mrs. Sarah Jane Moore’s certificate that she was indeed the daughter of Catherine Douglass and Henry Harrison. I needed the death certificate to verify it was her because the last record I had for her, she was living in Michigan. She died in Toledo, Ohio, at age 89. While I knew her youngest daughter, Sylvia, had married William Brennan in Toledo, Sylvia died in California, and I do not know of any other of Sarah’s children in Toledo.

Sometimes a death certificate will list the name of the relative who supplies information for the certificate. In this case, the informant was listed as a staff member of the funeral home. I have one more clue to follow up. If I can find a 1940 Toledo Directory, I can look up who was living at 714 Walnut St., Sarah’s residence when she died.

I also got a death certificate for Sarah’s daughter, Caroline Hackstedde, and her husband Henry. Caroline died in 1916, at age 39 of tuberculosis and Henry married twice more. He died in 1949 at age 66. For their family tree click here.

Lineage: Caroline Hackstedde-5, Sarah Moore-4, Catherine Harrison-3, John-2, Alexander Douglass-1

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