Ancestry Saturday: Will The Real Harry Platt Please Stand Up?

UPDATE:  The real Jacob Harrison Platt was found.  He died 13 Oct 1917 in Glendale, California.  His granddaughter Gail Dian Gordon Elam spoke on the phone about my research that linked us in 2019.  She died in 2021.



I called Wava Platt to try to answer whether her grandfather Harry Platt was my great grandfather's brother. I had hoped the ancestry.com family trees and findagrave.com memorials were right, and I might find a distant cousin possessing of a stash of family photos or copy of a family bible.

Wava's doubt about Amos and Melinda Platt being her grandfather Harry's parents was enough for me to dig some more. I became convinced her Harry was not my Grand Uncle Harry, but without proof of parentage of either there were doubts.

Harry T. Platt is easily confused with J. Harry Platt. Both were born in Western Pennsylvania in 1874 time frame. J. Harry seemed to disappear from the Census about the same time as Harry T.

The recent publishing of the second round of Pennsylvania death certificates at Ancestry.com helped answer the doubts.

Harry T. Platt's parents were Charles Clinton Platt and Rebecca Raker Platt. Those are Wava's great grandparents.

I owe her another phone call.