I went there with the intent of ge.tting death certificates for Hanna McConville, Edward S McConville (Momma and Poppa Mac), William "Pop" Bergen, Edward L Bergen Sr and then I thought that I may as well get birth certificates for my Bergen uncles: Ed Bergen and Bill Bergen. Well I found Uncle Ed's birth certificate without a hitch, but I could not find one for Uncle Bill. Maybe his birth was not registered, I don't know. I did get death certificates for Hanna McConville, Pop Bergen and my grandfather Ed Bergen, and my mother's uncle Edward S McConville, Jr, who died when he was 23 years old on Christmas Eve 1925.
But I found a couple of bonuses. While looking through files, one of the ladies who works there said they had birth certificates back to the 1860's. I tried to find a birth certificate for Annie Sullivan Bergen, who was born in Jersey City NJ 1867, but I couldn't find it (she married Pop Bergen and is my great grandmother). So I decided to look for our grandfather, Edward Bergen Sr and lo and behold, I found it. He was born 6 Sep 1893 in Jersey City to William Bergen and Annie O'Sullivan (I don't know who put the "O" in O'Sullivan), it lists an occupation for William but I can't read it, and it gives an address of 475 Henderson St Jersey City.
I have tried on several occasions to find a death certificate for Annie Bergen, and have never been able to find it. Yesterday, I decided to check again and I found it almost by mistake. I had gone past the Bergens (they are arranged in alphabetical order for the year on microfilm) and while going back through B-E-R-G-I, I found it. She spelled it Bergin, so it was filmed later on that roll. The certificate is hand written and I cannot read the cause of death, but when I looked at the date, I did a double take. She died 29 Oct 1909 (102 years ago today), but I found it yesterday. I also went to the Jersey Journal to check for an obit and the obit gives her name as Anna L. Bergen and says beloved wife of William and sister of Mary, Thomas, Edward and John Keaveney. No mention of her son/our grandfather, Edward, which I thought was kind of odd.
The last thing I found, that was sort of odd, was a death certificate that I was not looking for. While looking through the Bergens in 1943, for Edward and Willliam, I first found Edward (they are alphabetical), but then I found a Mary Bergen, age 70 of Jersey City, but it says that she is the widow of Patrick Bergen (this is William "Pop" Bergen's brother) Her death certificate says that she is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington, NJ, it also says that her maiden name was Fitzgerald. I had found a marriage for Patrick Bergen and Mary Fitzgerald on Familysearch.org, so I know that this is William's sister-in-law. I called Holy Cross and found that Mary is buried there and the plot belongs to Thomas Bergen ("Pop's" other brother). Thomas was buried there in 1931 and Patrick was buried there in 1933. "Pop" also had two sisters Kate and Mary, You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a Kate or a Mary in Irish families, that is what make them so hard to track. Below is a picture of "Pop" Bergen with my uncle Ed. Florence Armstrong said "He was the biggest man I ever saw."
So all in all it was a good day, but even a bad day at the archives is better than a good day at work. I will try to sort through the rest of the stuff I found and go back to the interview with Aunt Florence cause I think there is more stuff that I didn't mention yet.
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