2014 Christmas Greeting

Our 2014 Christmas Greeting

I Need a Coffin!

No, not THAT kind!  I need Sybil Coffin.  Sybil Coffin married my second great uncle, John Washington Burrill, in 1889 in Minnesota.  Sybil was born in Michigan in September of 1867, the 10th of 11 children of Isaac and Jeanette (Richardson) Coffin.  Son, John Wesley (usually seen as Wesley) Burrill was born 13 Feb 1891 in Minnesota.  Cousin Ellen Jean advised me that John's sister wrote to the family mentioning that her brother, John, was going to San Francisco, California to join the Yukon Gold Rush.  Family lore states that John ended up working on cable cars and was crushed by one on 22 Jul 1898 at the age of 41.  He is buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.

In June of 1900, for the 1900 census, Sybil is in Arbuckle Township, Colusa County, California, recently married to John W. McDonald, a widower with three sons.  Son Wesley is with her and his stepfather.

By Feb of 1906, Sybil filed a lawsuit for divorce because of neglect.  In the 1910 census, Sybil is in Burney Valley township, Shasta County, California as a housekeeper for a single farmer, Alonzo B. Metzker (also seen as Metsker).  In May of 1911, two pieces of property in San Francisco on Edinburgh Street, one from Wesley and one from Sybil, are transferred to an Ella Feige.  Here is where the trail ends.  I don't know if Sybil married again.  I find no info on death for her.  

I do have a FamilySearch death notice for her son, Wesley Burrill, on 12 Feb 1916 in Clackamas, Oregon at 24 years of age.  I've not been able to find an obituary for him, either.  Sybil's father, mother and at least two of her brothers died in Oregon, so I have concentrated my research in Oregon and California.  So far no luck.