Is There A Doctor In Your House?

Did you know the AMA (American Medical Association) maintained a database of deceased physicians?  The AMA Deceased Physicians Card File developed out of an attempt by the AMA to keep a reliable directory of physicians in the United States.  Up until 1969, the staff maintained over 350,000 of these physician index cards and after that date began entering the information into a computer database.  In 1993, two volumes of these cards were published as Directory of Deceased American Physicians 1804-1929. 


The database is searchable at Ancestry.  Knowing that I had a few physicians in my family, I decided to see what I could find.


Dr. William Anderson CHEW (1858-1914) was a physician of Salamonia, Jay County, Indiana and my paternal 2nd-great granduncle.  He was found in the database, though they have him indexed as William H. CHEW.

I did not find an entry for his father, Dr. Ezekiel Cooper CHEW (1822-1888), who also practiced in Salamonia.


Jethro Ayres HATCH (1836-1912), my maternal cousin 5 times removed, was a graduate of Rush Medical College and practiced in Indiana and Illinois before retiring to Texas.

Abraham Leander SHERICK, my paternal 2nd-great granduncle, practiced in Ashland, Ohio and founded his own private hospital.  He interned at Bellevue Hospital in New York and attended Baldwin University.