His death certificate states Hiram Griffee, age 88 years 4 months 23 days, born 2 Dec 1837 in Virginia, died 25 April 1925 in Mariba, Menifee Co., Ky, married, father John Griffee, mother’s maiden name Mary Botts, both born in Va, cause of death senility and paralysis due to old age, informant Polly Griffee, Mariba, Ky, burial in Mariba, Ky.

Many family trees on Ancestry.com have his name as Hiram Griffith, with the dates 2 Nov 1836 to 22 April 1925, presumably from a gravestone inscription erected by descendants who used the Griffith spelling. That birthdate may well be correct; it is more consistent with the census record than the date on the death certificate. But the attending physician attested that death occurred at 10:10 pm on April 25, so I’m inclined to believe that death date.

Several family trees on Ancestry.com (which list Hiram’s surname as Griffith) give her date of death as 26 Oct 1907. But since that is also the date of Hiram’s second marriage, and it seems highly unlikely that he would remarry on the day of her death, I suspect that the ultimate source of these is that someone’s database had her date of death entered as “before 26 Oct 1907”, meaning she must have died before Hiram remarried, and somehow in transferring data between databases the “before” got dropped.

This family is only in my database because their son William Henry married Elizabeth Wells, who is related to me on the Downing side. Normally I wouldn’t enter so many census and death records for a family with such a slight connection, but since William Henry appeared under so many variations of his surname, and the census records in which Henry and Elizabeth appear with their children are under Griffin and Griffith, while her death certificate is under Griffey, I needed other evidence that Griffin, Griffith, Griffee and Griffey were all possible spellings for the same family name.

1860 census of Morgan Co., Ky, division 2, enumerated 28 July, lists on pp. 104-105 as family #695:
Hiram Griffith, 24, laborer, b. Va; Cyntha, 28, b. Ky; John, 1, b. Ky; Mary E., 3/12, b. Ky.

1870 census of Menifee Co., Ky, enumerated 27 July, lists on p. 13 as family #97/93:
Griffee, H., 34, farmer, b. Va; Cynthia, 41, b. Va; John, 11; Mary B., 9; James, 7; Allice, 6; Alamander (f), 4; Henry, 3; Nancy, 1. All children born in Ky.

1880 census of Menifee Co., Ky, Ridge precinct, enumerated 16 June, lists on pp. 44-45 as family #369-388:
Griffee, Hiram, 43, farmer, b. Va; Sintha A., 50, wife, b. Ky; Marry A., 20, dau; James A., 18, son; Allie J., 16, dau; Almanzer, 14, son; William, 12, son; Nancy A., 10, dau; Emily A., 8, dau; Boss, 5, son. All children born in Ky.

1900 census of Menifee Co., Ky, district 5, enumerated 15 June, lists on p. 11A as family #162:
Griffey, Hiram, 57, b. Sep 1842; Scyntha A., wife, 60, b. June 1839.