Another trip to Schuylkill County

As promised, I went to Ashland, Pa on Friday and searched for my great grandfather's final resting place, which I thought would be St. Joseph's cemetery.  Once again, I came up empty.  But the good news is that at least this time I found the right cemetery.  Apparently the first time I went there with my sister we were actually in the wrong cemetery.  This time - after searching for a while - I actually had the sense to ask someone.  I recently heard a talk and the speaker was talking about searching cemeteries and how she found the grave she was looking for.  Checking at the office was not the answer - her secret was to look for the guy with the shovel.  In this case there was no office, and no guy with a shovel - so I had to rely on a lady walking her dog - and she pointed me in the right direction.  She told me "there are a lot of Catholics buried beyond those trees.  We drove over and found a cemetery.  Then I found an older man walking a dog (apparently cemeteries are like dog parks in PA), who said that there were two different cemeteries.  There was St Josephs, which was for the Irish Catholics and there was St Mauritius to the far west, which was for German Catholics.  There was no physical separation like a fence, just a dirt path.  He told me that back in the day, the churches were very ethnic, so you had German Catholics, Irish Catholics, Italian Catholics,etc... So after searching for a while and not finding what I was looking for, the man saw me again and told me to check with the Ashland Public Library, because they had some funeral home records.

Next stop, Ashland Public Library.  I checked in the library and found that they did not have the year I was looking for, but they suggested that I call Mt Carmel Public Library and the Schuylkill County Historical Society, whom I have called before for this and other reasons, without much success.  Just in case you're curious - here is James E Brady's death certificate from the PA Dept of Health

Even the folks who buried him were secretive, all it says for place of removal or burial is Ashland, PA.  I called Mt Carmel and Schuylkill County Historical Society for Funeral Home records, with no success, but Mt Carmel Library called me back and said that they will mail me a list of burials for Bradys and Bradleys in the time frame I am looking for.  They were very helpful and sent me a large manila envelope of burials in the Tri-County area, but so far I have been unable to locate James.

I know that I did a whole post on my Great Grandfather James E Brady with a wanted poster and everything, but I never included his death certificate.  If you read it, you can see that the informant is Mary G Brady of Scranton - his sister.  She is the one who let the secret birth place of her parents out of the bag - Swinford, Ireland.  It also says that he was 54 years, 9 months, and 19 days of age - YIKES - that's younger than me.  He died of Cardiac Failure and myocardial degeneration.  All the papers I have seen for him list his occupation as Fireman on the railroad, but this just says laborer.  Maybe that was just a generic term for railroad worker.

The thing that I always wondered about (and I know I have mentioned it before) is the name of the doctor who signed the death certificate: Thomas McCutcheon of Gordon, PA.  Not his brother William, who was a doctor in Scranton.  Now that I am thinking about it, and after driving from Gordon to Scranton last week it took me an hour and change.  So back in 1914 it must have been a long trip - even if you had a car.  So anyway I looked up Dr. McCutcheon in the 1910 census, and I couldn't find him - until I used a wildcard search in Ancestry.com.  I searched McCu* for a last name and found his name spelled McCutecheon, living on Biddle St in Gordon, he was 31 years old, born in Canada (Eng), single and came to the US in 1902, and was still a Canadian citizen at the time.  Funny thing is that the next family in the census is Guy Hubler, his occupation is listed as Druggist.  Just thought that was interesting - Birds of a Feather and all that.

So after my trip, I still don't know any more about the Bradys in Schuylkill County, but not because of a lack of trying or helpful librarians and historians.  I just think that they don't want to give up any secrets yet.
                                                                                                    

Thomas A. Brady - My Great Great Grandfather

Okay, it's time to return to the elusive Bradys in the tree.  So I figured I would write about the oldest Brady I have found information on - my great great grandfather: Thomas A. Brady.  No, I don't know what the "A" stands for, but I know he had a son named Andrew - so that's where my money is.  I know a few things about him, but his date of birth and/or age seems to change from record to record, and I can't seem to find him on any passenger ship manifests to tell me when he came here, where he landed, and who he came with.  His death certificate doesn't even tell his parents names and lists his place of birth as - you guessed it - Ireland.  No town, not even a county.  But the best part of it is that his son William is the doctor who filled out and signed the death certificate.  William does list a date of birth as 11 Apr 1832 and he died of pneumonia on 5 Oct 1904 and is buried in Cathedral Cemetery in Scranton, PA.  You would think that his son would be able to fill out a death certificate with a plethora of information - NOT.  So I was on my own to piece together as much as I could.

The earliest census record that I found with Thomas and his family was 1860.  The family was enumerated on 13 Jul 1860 in Butler Township, Schuylkill County. The census lists the Post Office as Gordon.  The record says that he is 30 years old and a laborer born in Ireland.  He is married to Bridget, age 28, and they have three sons: John age 6, Michael age 3 and James age 9/12 ( he is nine months old - and he is my great grandfather).  This enumeration took place a year before the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln would be elected President for his first term in four months.

 Thomas applied for and was granted citizenship in the Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas on 5 Sep 1864.  The application says that he is 32 years old or there abouts.  Yea right, Homeland Security would be all over him today.  I wonder who he voted for, when he was able to. 

1870 finds him still living in Butler Township, but the post office is Ashland, and we have added some children.  The first thing I notice is that there is a Patrick Brady, listed as 17 years old and born in Ireland, John is 16, Michael is 14, James is 11, William (the doctor) is 9, Mary is 4, and Bridget is 11/12, off to the right it says that she was born in June.  The funny part is that Thomas is listed as 45 years old, and Bridget, his wife, is 40.  Somehow in the ten years between federal censuses, he aged 15 years and she aged 12 years - go figure.

1880 finds him living in South Butler Township (it also says Village of Gordon).  The family listed right before him is that of his son John, who is married to Annie and two sons, Thomas and John Jr.  Our hero is listed in the next family as being 56 years old - man it must be a tough life in coal country - he has aged 26 years in 20 years.  Bridget is listed as 49, so the aging process is slowing for her.  We also have a new child - Andrew, who is 10, but was not listed in the census 10 years ago.  The interesting thing about this census is that there is a catagory that says:  if a person is sick or temporarily disabled and unable to attend to his/her business on the day of the enumerator's visit - what is the disease or disability.  Bridget (his wife) is listed as "decaying".  Quite honestly I don't want to know what is going on with her that day, but I thought it was interesting.

At some point he moves to Scranton - to the big city, where they are listed in the 1900 census.  John and his family have also moved to Scranton.  William (the doctor) is also married and living in Scranton, married to Hannah Casey.  Living with Thomas and Bridget are two of their children: Mary aged 24, and Andrew aged 22 (Andrew has just returned home from the Spanish-American War - where he fought in Porto Rico - that's how it is spelled in his service record), and their grandson, Thomas aged 8.  As you all know Thomas is my elusive grandfather, who continued in the family tradition of leaving behind very little evidence of his life.

Just to keep you on the edge of your seat (where I am sure you have been for the past three and a half weeks just waiting for my next post) I will tell you that tomorrow I am going to my sister and brother-in-law's house in Penn.  On my way, I am stopping in Ashland, Penn to look in St Joseph's cemetery to see if I can find my great grandfather James's final resting place.  (My sons will be beside themselves with excitement - it's not every day that you drive three hours to look for a grave that may or may not be marked - if he is even there.) James, as it turns out, is even more elusive than his son, leaving even less evidence of his existence.  So I will let you know how I make out.