that she had been dating somebody but then she died and then around that time the guy she was dating got lost in the desert and also died from
exposure. The family always suspected there was more to the story.

A few decades ago my wife’s grandpa was on a trip doing genealogy and stopped in the town where this great-great grandmother lived and started investigating. He was eventually referred to talk to an old-timer in the town, and it turned out he was even related somehow to the boyfriend they died. He said that the story of the guy getting lost in the desert was a coverup for the family to avoid embarrassment. He said the family did not approve of his relationship with the great-great grandma, and he thought they had committed suicide together star-crossed-lover style. But there was no proof.

So I fired up Family Search and started looking for these people. Sure enough, there were records that had been indexed for both of them, including death certificates. Those death certificates were signed by the same doctor and showed that they both died on the same date and location, and the cause of death for both was “gunshot wound to the head with suicidal intent”. Turns out the old timer’s story was legit.