In my post here yesterday, I was trying to sort out the truth of the death of my great-grandmother, Helene Brittain Yonge, my mother’s paternal grandmother. Did she commit suicide, as one San Francisco newspaper reported at the time, or did she die during the plague outbreak that followed the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, as I’ve always believed based on the story passed down within our family?

By the end of the day, I had an answer.

And the score was:

Document research….. 1
Fake News………….. 0

The suicide allegation had been in an article published by the San Francisco Call newspaper on July 29, 1908, describing an incident in which which Helene’s daughter, Ellen, attempt suicide by taking poison while riding a public street car in the city. She was saved by quick action of bystanders, who rushed her to a nearby hospital.

According to the newspaper’s account:

After she regained consciousness the girl said that she had been led to attempt to end her life by worry over the recent suicide of her mother and at the charges which were brought by her father and sister against her policeman sweetheart. Though they were dismissed before Davey was brought to trial, they preyed on her mind, and last night she left her home at 2415 Howard street, where she had been giving lessons in music and art, with the full intention of killing herself.

Although other newspapers also followed the girl’s story, this was the only reference I could find to my great-grandmother having committed suicide.

After writing yesterday’s post, I contact two cousins, daughters of my mom’s sister. Neither recalled their mother ever talking about her grandmother, so that was a dead end.

And I wasted a lot of time in an unsuccessful attempt to identify descendants of Helene’s son (and my grandfather’s brother) Arthur David Yonge, who might have also heard family versions of the events.

Then I stumbled onto a document possibly pointing to other, deeper problems in the family, although not shedding any further light on the suicide question.

Records of the California State Hospital show that Helene’s other daughter, Madeline Yonge, was committed in August 1904 on the strength of testimony by her father, James F.M. Yonge. At the time, Madeline was 28 and single. Her father described her as both suicidal and homicidal.

From the record:

Evidence presented of insanity: “Talks irrationally, says she is certainly going to hell because she has committed so many wrongs. Has threatened to kill her mother. Noisy and violent at times.”

I was unable to find more about Madeline and how she fared after this hospitalization.

Then, following suggestions left in comments, I then started an online search for how to get a copy of a California death certificate. One of the suggestions in the Google search results pointed to a collection of San Francisco funeral records.

And that’s where I found a copy of an original form titled “Record of Funeral.” It’s part of a collection, “California, City of San Francisco, Gantner Bros. funeral records, 1906-1921,” available online at FamilySearch.org and drawn from a collection at the San Francisco Public Library.

It is dated the day of Helene’s death, September 21, 1907. It shows she died at the Emergency Hospital at 7:30 p.m. where the “certifying physician” was a Dr. Neill.

Most importantly, the 1-page document reports the cause of death: “plague suspect-myocarditis.”

So that appears to answer yesterday’s unanswered question of Helene Yonge’s cause of death. While it doesn’t eliminate all doubt, it does provide the best answer I’ll be able to find. And, frankly, I’m surprised that this set of records, and this particular record for an individual death, were so relatively accessible.

View the funeral record here.