Death Records Now

Edison master 5200-C, rec. December 7 1916.
John Young (1st tenor), Billy Murray (lead), Steve Porter (baritone), and William F. Hooley (bass) with orchestra.
This ensemble was something of a vocal “supergroup” when they first started recording in early 1909. All of the group’s members had been singing with other quartets and/or were well-known as solo performers, and so it is no big surprise that their records sold exceedingly well. At the time this American Quartet (there was an earlier group led by Hooley between 1901 and 1904) cut its first titles, Edison was not yet selling his “Diamond Discs”, so the group had exclusive contracts with Victor as well as with Edison. All Edison titles were published as by “The Premier Quartette”, whereas the Victors were marketed as by “The American Quartette”. In 1920 the quartet chose not to renew their Edison contract; the numerous Edison releases by a “Premier Quartette” from 1920 on were in fact pseudonymous recordings sung by Billy Jones’ “Harmonizers”. Around this time some sides cut by Murray’s quartet for Gennett, Okeh, Pathé, and Vocalion were labeled as by “The Premier-American Quartet”.
To most listeners today, however, this group is known simply as the “American Quartet”, as their Victor sides had the widest distribution of all. This is, in fact, the third line up of the group. Original first tenor John “The Canary” Bieling had to retire because of chronic throat illness in September 1913. He was replaced by Robert D. Armour, who himself was replaced hardly two years later by Young. With the death of Hooley in October 1918 the quartet lost a few hardcore fans – Hooley’s recording career had spanned almost 30 years, and he was called the “King of the Quartet Basses” -, although in my humble opinion the new bassist Donald Chalmers was a very worthy successor.
The American Quartet was the first vocal group to fully embrace and cultivate ragtime music, so they practically they are the fathers of all the jazz and novelty groups that followed later. I will try to upload something of each of their line-ups in the next months, so you can follow their development.

Duration : 0:3:14

Read more…

I’m doing some family history research and I’ve found some death records for certain family members…other documents state that this person was born around 1860 in texas, but when I looked at the state where the social security number was issued it said kansas…why would this be?
keep in mind that this person would have been born a slave in 1860…I’m assuming that he may have moved to kansas sometime after the emancipation of 1863, and that’s where he applied, but I have yet to find a record for him in kansas…all of his children where born in Indian Territory, Oklahoma in the early 1900’s and 19-teens. and I have found census records of that.

Social Security was first enacted in August 1935; payroll taxes were first collected in 1937; the first monthly payment was issued in January 1940, but it wasn’t until 1972 that the US government authorized Social Security to enumerate children at the time they first entered school. Only in 1988 did Congress require a taxpayer identification number, which was ordinarily a Social Security number, of each dependent child age two or older.

Accordingly, US Census records could very well document that your ancestor was born in Texas in 1860, but his or her Social Security records would indicate he or she was living in Kansas at the time his Social Security card was issued. I can personally remember a 9th-grade teacher obtaining Social Security numbers for all his algebra students in 1965, so at that point, enrollment for non-working minors was completely voluntary.

You also need not look for a birth certificate for an ancestor born in 1860 Texas. Indeed, about the best you can do on that score, other than looking at US Census records, is to find his or her birth date recorded in a family bible. Up through the 1920s, births in many states were only recorded if a child was born in a hospital, but in rural and small town Texas, most children were born at home. My mother and dad who were born in 1920 and 1925 respectively didn’t have thieir birth certificates issued until 1981 when Dad decided to take Mom to Europe and show her just where he had been stationed in World War II. In each case, older siblings swore that they were present at the time of birth.

P. S. African-Americans who were slaves weren’t enumerated until 1870, although depending on the family, the census records are fairly accurate in the latter decades of the 19th century. From 1870 and any time afterwards, a census would prpbably show that your ancestor was born in Texas in 1860.