Death Records Can Be Fun: Don Hilton Talks About His Latest Book

You've read and enjoyed his humorous and whimsical comments here on the blog almost every day. But did you know that he's also a published author with eight books to his credit?

Of course, I'm talking about Don Hilton. He didn't grow up in Lorain County, but that hasn't stopped him from writing a few popular tomes with that theme, including Murders, Mysteries and History of Lorain County, Ohio 1824 - 1956 (which I wrote about here) and Dearly Departed Judges of Lorain County, Ohio 1824 - 2020.

Well, his seventh book came out last year, and I never got around to reviewing it. It's entitled (and it's a mouthful), "Early Death Records of Lorain County, Ohio: A Companion Guide • Probate Court: 1867 - 1908 • Coroner Inquests: 1878 - 1938."

As usual, Don and I met at the Lorain Public Library, so we could talk about the new book (and I could mooch a free, autographed copy).

So what was the idea behind this book?

"It was something to keep me busy during the Pandemic," explained Don.  "I hate to be bored. I had worked with the death records when I did the ‘Murder’ book, so I knew that they existed and how they were structured.

So Don had an idea. "To keep myself busy," he said, "I’ll transcribe the death records into an Excel sheet so that I, or anybody, could use it for research. And sort by what they died from, or where they died, or the location of their death, etc."

The probate records were available online, so he was able to work at home. Eventually, however, he needed to work with the original paper records – and that's when he realized that he had a lot of questions. As he explained in the Preface to the book: "How was it these records came to be? What was their reason for being? How was the data collected? Who was doing the recording? How were the records kept by the court and coroner related? How were they different?"

As a result, Don decided to write a book that would answer the above questions. Thus the book is a comprehensive guide to understanding the probate and coroner inquest volumes. For anyone doing family tree research in Lorain County, the book is an indispensable resource.

It's somewhat complicated trying to do research using Coroner's records and understanding them, and this book will help a lot. As Don notes, "Coroner’s records are kind of loosey-goosey – they might use ‘generally smashed’ as a cause of death; you’ve got to go look that up – someone was caught under a train."

I had two Brady relatives – my Great, Great Grandfather Brady, and one of his sons – that were both killed by trains in Ohio. 

"There were tons of people killed by trains," said Don. "In the wintertime, the only places that were cleared to walk were train tracks. 

"And while roads in Ohio were notorious for zigging and zagging, the train goes from here to there – the shortest distance. People walked the tracks, as well as streetcar tracks."

Don's book explains why there might be a record of one of my relative's train-related deaths and not the other. I told him I could have used this book thirty years ago when I was doing my family tree research and having nothing but problems.

But the book is here now and would be helpful to anyone researching their Lorain County and/or Ohio roots. It's written in Don's trademark style – light and fun.

"It’s not scholarly, laughed Don, "but it’s fact based.

"It’s kind of cool."

And what about the Lorain County Death Records Spreadsheet that Don was compiling that triggered the book? The spreadsheet is downloadable for free on his website, which also has links for the purchase of all of his books – including his latest, The Vanishing of A. E. Lehman, which just came out a few days ago.

The attractive cover design is by Kat Sikord Hilton (Don's wife)