How sad indeed, this grand and beloved entertainer of her time, "The first Lady of the Phonograph", buried in an unmarked, uncared for grave!! what ever happened to perpetual care?? Time to take up a collection?? Remember Cal Stewart's deplorable gravestone?? No better not tamper with history I guess, who are we to judge what the reasons were for leaving it unmarked. Sorry, I couldn't let this one go by without a comment. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ryan Barna" <ryansrecords1 at hotmail.com> To: <phono-l at oldcrank.org> Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2008 3:48 PM Subject: [Phono-L] Re: Ada Jones Jones' grave is unmarked. Milford Fargo took a picture of it back in the 60s (which he sent to Jim Walsh, which I looked at last August at the Library of Congress). Not only was it unmarked, but it was very unkempt with weeds covering it. Jones is not the only person with incorrect information on her death certificate. Arthur Fields has the wrong birth year, age, and parents on his. In fact, I don't think Fields ever legally changed his name (when he applied for Social Security back in 1938, he applied as "Abraham Finkelstein"), so it's possible that the name on Fields' certificate is a false one! And what about Will F. Denny? A terrific singer of such forgotten and amusing songs like "You'll Have to Get Off and Walk," "I'm the Man That Makes the Money in the Mint," and "Up Came Johnny with His Camera." Denny was traveling with a show when he died in Seattle in 1908, and nobody knew who his parents were, or his correct age. And that's a puzzle I'm still trying to solve. At least three of us (including myself) tried to obtain Billy Murray's birth certificate at the Philadelphia City Archives, but it was never recorded in the birth registries (neither was Arthur Fields). The only primary sources we have for Murray's birth is his World War I draft card, and his Social Security application. And neither of Murray's younger brothers were ever recorded in the Colorado birth index, because Colorado did not require birth and deaths to be recorded by law until 1900. This whole discussion comes to show that you can't simply rely on one source for definitive background information. It's not my intention to reproduce incorrect information on the Internet, but it's all the more reason to share some of these original documents anyway -- to demonstrate what was originally done, then correct them. I will definitely be annotating the documents when I get a chance this evening. In response to Douglas, I would definitely like to see the discography that Milford put together. I also have some discography resources in which I might be able to improve some of it, and I'd like to share it when I create an Ada Jones section on my website. I'll let his wife Lois know about this, and I'll make an effort this week if my friend can locate any of Fargo's papers. I would be grateful for your help, Douglas. I'd hate to start over again at square one when someone like Milford spent over 40 years researching and collecting detailed information regarding Jones' life, some of which he probably never published. (This also makes you wonder what will happen to your research when you're gone -- will it be preserved someplace where future curiosity seekers will find it, or would they have to start over from scratch? This is part of the reason why I created Phonostalgia in the first place. At least if something happened to me, most of my stuff [and others] will still be preserved and accessible.) Ryan Barna www.phonostalgia.com _________________________________________________________________ More immediate than e-mail? Get instant access with Windows Live Messenger. http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_instantaccess_042008_______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org