Mattie Essary was the sister of Sarah N. Essary and a descendant of James Leroy Essary. She was born on 23 November 1871 in Alabama.¹ She married Robert Jackson Campbell about 1894 and had ten children.² She died on 9 August 1957 in Berry, Fayette, Alabama.³

Quality Scores

Mattie Essary’s FamilySearch profile has a “High” quality score and is fairly complete. Despite that, it’s still worth using Ancestry record hints to verify the data in FamilySearch.

FamilySearch Quality Scores provides users with a data evaluation of a profile. FamilySearch checks for data completeness, source tagging, source consistency, and conflict-free data and assigns a value on a sliding scale. The score seems to rely heavily on whether the vital data, such as names and dates, match the indexed data of a source record. This approach is logical, provided the indexed data is correct. As a user, it would be easy to see the “High” score and assume there is no work to be done. However, expanding the score provides details where there may be conflicts. A “High” score does not equate to correct. This turned out to be the case for Mattie Essary.

Mattie Essary’s Middle Name

A few source records suggested Mattie had a middle initial of ‘A’. Other documents say it is Elizabeth. It isn’t easy to know what is correct without evaluating records for reliability. For example, a census record depends on who reported the information. If Mattie reported her name to the census enumerator, then the format of her recorded name in the census might be reliable. However, there is no way to know who the reporter was.

Mattie Essary’s death certificate was an official document, so the expectation is that the reported information is accurate. However, a death certificate depends on the informant, and the informant said her name was Mattie Elizabeth.⁴ Was it a family member? Mattie’s obituary also states her name is Mattie Elizabeth.⁵

All the records that mention a middle name or initial depend on the person who reported or recorded the information. Consistency in the records could help the researcher, but not in this case. It is possible Mattie had two middle names, and so her full name is actually Mattie A Elizabeth Essary. The researcher will have to make a decision with the understanding that there could be other possibilities.

Mattie’s Death Date

The death date for Mattie Essary’s FamilySearch profile was 11 August 1957 in Samantha, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This information was based on her Find A Grave Memorial. The death date does match the date on her headstone, but the death location has no sources. Since much of the data in Find A Grave is not sourced, the information needs supporting documentation to be considered reliable.

A photo of a headstone at Find a Grave does help, but even a headstone could contain errors. Some headstones are added long after a death, or an error was made in the order. Or perhaps the dates the family had at the time of ordering the headstone were wrong. There are several possible explanations.⁶

A death certificate is usually created at the time of death. The death date is recorded or reported by someone who witnessed the event and is certified by a doctor. The date, place, and cause of death on a death certificate would be considered more reliable than a Find A Grave memorial because of witnesses present at the time of the event. The rest of the information on a death certificate depends on the informant, who may or may not have firsthand knowledge.

The death date on Mattie Essary’s certificate was 9 August 1957 in Berry, Fayette, Alabama. Since this information would be more reliable, I updated Mattie’s FamilySearch profile and linked the source record for her death certificate. The Alabama, Deaths, 1908-1974 record collection at FamilySearch does have images of the death certificates, but they can only be viewed at a FamilySearch center.

While Mattie Essary’s FamilySearch profile had a “High” quality score, there were still some data points that needed to be corrected. It is well worth the exercise of reviewing a profile for these kinds of data quality problems.

Sources

1. Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 15 May 2025), memorial 162625947, Mattie Essary Campbell, (1871-1957), gravestone photographed by Glenn Holemon, member 48154891. ↩︎
2. 1910 U.S. Census, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, population schedule, Precinct 2, New Lexington, enumeration district (ED) 138, sheet 14A (penned), dwelling 233, family 233, Robert J Campbell household; digital image, FamilySearch, (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 16 May 2025); citing NARA microfilm publication T624. ↩︎
3. “Alabama Deaths, 1908-1974,” entry for Mattie Elizabeth Campbell, no. 18179, 1957, Berry, Fayette, Alabama; digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 28 February 2025). ↩︎
4. “Alabama Deaths, 1908-1974,” entry for Mattie Elizabeth Campbell, no. 18179, 1957, Berry, Fayette, Alabama; digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 28 February 2025). ↩︎
5. Obituary of Mattie Elizabeth Campbell (d. 9 August 1957), Fayette County Times, 15 August 1957; image copy, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : downloaded 8 January 2024). ↩︎
6. Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 15 May 2025), memorial 162625947, Mattie Essary Campbell, (1871-1957), gravestone photographed by Glenn Holemon, member 48154891. ↩︎