Before I start, I have to tell a funny thing that happened. I mentioned in my first post that I thought I was going crazy because I spent spare time walking through cemeteries looking for headstones of ancestors. Well I have actually gotten worse. I now walk through graveyards looking for headstones of perfect strangers, on behalf of perfect strangers. Allow me to explain. There is a website call findagrave.com, which contains photos of headstones in cemeteries throughout the country (maybe the world, I don't know), along with the photo is usually and short bio of the person buried there. - If you go to findagrave.com and do a name search for Thomas J and Claire Brady, you will find them there, along with uncle Ed Bergen and Aunt Kattie. I did not put them there, nor did I take the photo. Someone with more spare time than me did it. Anyway, I signed up to be a volunteer photographer for the site (talk about spare time) I will occasionally get an e-mail from the web site and they will ask me to go to a cemetery within 5 miles and take a photo for someone. So I get an e-mail from findagrave.com asking me to take a picture of a headstone in Hamilton Cemetery in Neptune. So I am trying to be green and not waste paper and ink, so I write down the name of the woman and the phone number for the cemetery, intending to call them and ask where the woman is buried. I stick the slip of paper in my pocket and while in the kitchen, the slip of paper with a woman's name and a phone number falls out of my pocket onto the floor. Katrina picks up the paper and starts reading the woman's name and phone number. Now any other wife might become suspicious, but Katrina knows me better than that. She looks at me and says "I don't think I have to worry about her, she's probably been dead for some time now". Spoken like the perfect wife for a true genealogy nut.
Now I want to talk about my Great Great Grandmother on my mother's side. Most of the information that I have found, was through the Mormon Church web site: FamilySearch.org. and one of my now famous trips to a cemetery, this one was Holy Name Cemetery, 823 Westside Ave. Jersey City, with my friend and fellow ghoul, George Adams. FamilySearch.org is a free web site put out by the Mormon Church, it has alot of Church Records, Federal Census Records and Military records, and the best part is that you don't have to be a member of the Mormon Church to use it. It is actually the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Some images are available on line, but most are on microfilm, that can be ordered from any Family History Center, the closest one to me is in Eatontown.
In the documents that I found, Crimmins is spelled in various ways: Crimmins, Crimmens, Cremons, just to name a few. Bridget Crimmons was born in County Kerry, Ireland in 1846 or 1847 to Pat Crimmins and Johanna Lanahan, she has a brother William and a sister Ellen that I know of. She immigrates to the US in about 1864 (during the American Civil War), maybe with William and Ellen and I do not know if her parents came over or not.
The first record I found is her marriage on 10/05/1865 to Dennis Sullivan, and they have a daughter, Annie, in 1867. (She is my Great Grandmother - she marries William Joseph "Pop" Bergen in 1887) My mother always said her name was Johanna, but every record I find (including her headstone) says Annie. Anyway on 10/08/1867, Dennis Sullivan dies in Jersey City. The record says that he was a butcher by trade and died of Heart disease (perhaps this is why I have high cholesterol). So now Bridget is a widow with an infant daughter - what to do?
Well, somewhere between Oct 1867 and 1871, apparently she married Thomas Keaveney (Keaveney is also found spelled in many different ways: Kaveny, Kaveney, Keavensy, Kevany, etc...) Now I remember mom showing me a cemetery plot record from Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City, and there were Keaveneys listed in the plot. When I asked who the Keavenys were, she told me that "they are cousins". I never knew how, and didn't ask, she never explained it either. The plot she showed me was owned by Bridget Sullivan and Dennis Sullivan was buried there along with Annie Bergen, William Bergen, two Bergen infants, and a Keaveney infant. Funny thing is that Bridget Sullivan owns the plot but is not buried there. I did not find her grave until I visited the cemetery with my friend George on August 19, 2011.
Bridget and Thomas Keaveney had seven children during their marriage. Mary was born 12 Mar 1871 and lived to be 80, well beyond most of the Keaveneys, and she is buried with her husband Richard Powley in Holy Name Cemetery. Bridget, Thomas and two of their children are buried in that same plot. Next was Catherine Bridget, born 31 Jan 1873, she dies in 1884 at age 11. Next child is John J, born 8 Nov 1875 and he is alive in the 1900 US Census in Jersey City, but that is all I know of him. On 2 Mar 1877 Thomas Francis is born. He marries in Lansing MI in 1913 and dies in the 1930's. He is buried in MI somewhere. Edward L. is born 10 Feb 1882, is listed in the 1900 US Census in Jersey City, and marries Elizabeth Mayhew and has several children. In the 1910 US Census, he is listed in Jersey City and along with his wife and children is "Pop" Bergen, listed as 'brother-in-law" and our grandfather Edward L Bergen. Agnes is born 16 Mar 1883 and dies three months later (She and Kate are buried with their parents in the cemetery plot for Powley and Keaveney). The last child born is George on 29 Jun 1884. Bridget dies on 7 Jul 1884 (I just noticed that this is the same year as 11 year old Kate). Her cause of death is listed as puerfevral (?) peritonitis. Teesh and Joan told me that it is a Latin term "puer" meaning child and peritonitis is some type of infection, so I guess she got some type of infection from childbirth and died from it. Her son George dies on 17 Jul 1884. I found his baptismal record that says he was baptized on 6 July 1884, the day before his mother died.
So when all is said and done, Bridget dies at age 38, during that short time she married twice and had a total of 8 children, only 5 of them survive her. A pretty short, fertile life that had more than its share of heartache.
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