John Charles Slowey - Wisconsin to South Dakota - Part 8

Gosh.  It's been a while since I spent any time with my great great grandfather.  Fortunately, because of the weather, I've been forced to stay indoors and get some of the organizational portions of my New Years' Genealogy Goals done.  I have gone over all the information I have on JCS and made sure everything was properly sourced, original documents scanned and protected, and filed in its proper place in my new filing system.  I took the opportunity to create a to-do list for the information I still need.  I even took some advice from a friend in SecondLife (Elyandra Waverider), and put together a basic biographical outline for JCS.  Her sample outline can be found here.  I did mine a little differently.  Instead of putting it in a timeline form, I just started writing his biography with the information I already had (complete with footnotes and photos).  At some point (when there aren't so many blanks), I will probably post it.  I keep a timeline on my wall where I can see it from my computer to help me while I search online records:

I have all the pertinent information about John's life, as well as significant historical events (wars, epidemics, the usual morbid stuff) and significant life events (deaths of parents, relocation, etc.).  It comes in handy.

At this rate, I should be completely done with my organizing by 2091.

In my last JCS post (found here), I created an entry on Find-A-Grave and requested a photo.  Brad, owner and administrator of South Dakota Gravestones website, responded to let me know that my great great grandfather was not, in fact, in the Mayfield Catholic Cemetery in Irene, SD as previously thought.  He is buried at St. Columba Catholic Cemetery in Mayfield, SD.  I edited the entry on Find-A-Grave appropriately.

Brad was kind enough to upload a photo for me as well.  (Thanks, Brad!)  I got a little chuckle when I saw the tombstone transcription, and all I could think was that he is "Father John" and on my great great grandmother's tombstone, which I have not seen yet, I imagine it reads "Mother Theresa."

I have also been searching far and wide for an obituary for this man.  He died in 1928, so it's not like it was 100 years ago or anything ... ok, maybe not quite 100 years ago.  But still.  Is it too much to ask that those old newspapers get digitized?  If you ask me, they've had plenty of time.  But I digress.  I simply cannot find anyplace - virtual or physical - where they have obituaries archived from the Yankton Press & Dakotan before 1997.  I guess I'll be writing some more letters.

Update: I sent an email to the South Dakota State Historical Society requesting copies of the obits for John Charles and Theresa Slowey, along with two bios I found listed on their website for John's brother Bernard, and his father Patrick.  Within about 3 hours, I received a response letting me that I can get the information I requested all for the low, low price of $21.20.  I will be putting that payment in the mail tomorrow!