In case you missed last week’s Tombstone Tuesday article, you might want to read it first since I promised to clear up the mystery of what really happened to the son of Ezekiel and Ella Pettit. The story posted by a family friend at Find-A-Grave left me with more questions than answers, and this compelled me to do a little digging to discover what really happened to Sidney Ezekiel Pettit.
The following information for Sidney was posted at Find-A-Grave:
Birth: Sep. 2, 1886
Boulder
Boulder County
Colorado, USA
Death: Jan. 9, 1906
Carbondale
Garfield County
Colorado, USA
Sidney E. Pettit was the youngest son of Ezekiel & Ella Pettit. Born Sept. 2nd 1886, he was killed on Jan. 9th 1906 near Carbunkle Colorado. His body was never recovered and lies today in that now abandoned silver mine. Since he had no grave his name was added to his mother’s grave stone upon her death in Nov. 1915.
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Hi Sharon – I have contacted the find-a-grave contributor twice to get the info corrected on Sidney’s page. Hopefully he will read your info and mine and change the info. Regards, Phyllis
Thank you so much for your diligent efforts!
Hi Sharon – After the 2 previous contacts about Sidney, I sent a find-a-grave edit to change the place of death. The contributor corrected it the very next day but didn’t change the bio info. What the heck? After a 3rd email (also ignored) I contacted find-a-grave. The response I received today was:
“Thank you for contacting Find A Grave in regards to a declined edit request. We understand your frustration. However, accepting or rejecting information is up to the manager’s discretion, based on their own research. We ask that you respect their decision and not submit the same edits multiple times.”
So there we are. Think I need to lie down as my OCD is kicking in. :o) Regards, Phyllis
Well you gave it your all and I appreciate that! I don’t think the Find-A-Grave bio is correct and believe it’s been proven otherwise. Maybe someday . . .
Hi Sharon – FAG contacted me today to say they would like to see documentation on the ignored edits I sent about Sidney. Some times got to wonder. I sent 3 newspaper articles and a link to this page. Hope this takes care of things. Keeping my fingers crossed. Phyllis
Let me know if they are still resisting …. I certainly didn’t make it up. I did a lot of research (which I do for a living I might add!) before writing the article.
I’ll keep you updated. You put a lot of sources in the article. Hope that makes them happy. Is the birthday and place of birth correct? If not, I’ll work on that next.
Here’s the link https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSvcid=503264&GRid=5462857&
Yep .. it still looks the same as it did when I researched and wrote the story. The most glaring error is Carbunkle, Colorado — to my knowledge there is no such place.