Who was Lewis Taylor Guffey?

Remembering my mother's wish for me to find out about my family, my very first research subject was her elusive grandfather and my great-grandfather, Lewis Taylor Guffey of Kentucky. Of course, I had to start with a brickwall at least it seemed to me, a beginner! Where do I start? I know we had drove all around Clinton County, Kentucky looking for his burial place when I was younger to no avail. All I had was a name, his wife's name - Ottie, and 3 of the children's names that I had grown up with - my grandmother Millie, her sister Louetta, and a brother, Lewis Jr. I had heard of census records as being one of the most important genealogical tools in finding a family so I decided to look for the family. I picked the year that I knew grandma Millie was born - 1890 - and looked at the census year following her birth. The Federal census was taken in 10 year increments so I first picked the 1900 census to look at. I also looked at the 1910, 1920, and 1930. On each of these I was able to find names of other children as well as where they were living at each census year. From that I could possibly find where they were buried. In the 1900 and 1910 census Lewis and Ottie Guffey were living in Clinton County with 7 children, 4 more than I had known about. In the 1920 census Ottie Guffey was found living alone and Lewis was nowhere to be found. I surmised he had died in the years between. By the 1930 census Ottie had disappeared. From this information I found that I could possibly find a death record as this part of Kentucky had started recording Death Records in 1911. I had found Lewis Taylor Guffey's death record! But none for Ottie? Lewis' death record was a little mysterious. It read a place of burial - river grave. What did that mean? Did he drown and his body lost? Was he buried near a river? That mystery will remain a mystery I guess for now, but at least I knew why we could never find a grave for him. But from this search I learned a lot about the whole family. Unfortunately Ottie's burial is a mystery also, could they both have been buried at a small family plot near a river that has been lost to time? That's what I choose to believe. After all your genealogy quest is a personal one.