Bam! Katherine Lessie Pinto 1902-1918

Another door closes on the story of one of your ancestor's lives.  Sometimes I get on a streak where I make it my mission to "close the door" on the lives of those that have come before us.  I have many names that lack several details but one of the most significant that sometimes is lacking is a death date.  When a person lacks a death date, they appear as living in my software.  This can be a very long list and it bugs me.  So I go off on the hunt.  When I can close one of those doors, I say "Bam!" to myself. 

Katherine Lessie was the eldest daughter of Antoinette Contenta Lessie and her husband Louis (now I know Luigi).  Antoinette was your great grand aunt (sister to your great grandmother Catherine Messa).  I was working to see if I could track down a death date for Louis Lessie and ran across a possible match with someone called Luigi Lisi.  I discovered that Louis is the Americanized version of the Italian Luigi.  When I started searching for Luigi Lessie, I ran across a record for Katherine Lessie Pinto whose father was listed as Luigi Lessie and mother Antoinette from Belmont County Ohio.  Click.  (But not Bam)

Katherine Lessie Pinto died at the age of 16 of typhoid fever-- a very sad legacy. 

This is a death certificate from West Virginia and it appears that Katherine's death occurred in Wheeling West Virginia (though the certificate says Ohio).  It seems this certificate was created and signed in 1958 by the Medial Record Librarian of the Ohio Valley General Hospital.  I'm not sure of the history of this but all the information fits so I suddenly found myself with this sad story in my lap. 

This certificate provides Katherine's birth date and birth location but does not provide her husband's name.  There isn't even a spot for that, which I find very strange.  Regardless, further research found that Katherine married Frank Pinto (your aunt always told me the Pintos were related) in April of 1917.

It was a very short marriage and I'll continue to look for children just in case.  Yes, a child would only add open ended records to my list, but I like to be thorough :)  Anyhow, Bam and Bam.  Birth, marriage, spouse and death all entered into the software.  But I'm still on the hunt for Luigi Lessie.