The Wandering Keaveneys - Part I

Okay, get a cup of coffee before you start reading this, ‘cause it may get confusing.  I am going to write about a cousin or two that I had never heard of on my mom’s side:  William and Richard Keaveney.  They are both sons of Edward L. Keaveney, who is the half brother of my great grandmother, Johanna Sullivan Bergin.  You may remember from a post last year (yeah right) that Johanna’s mother was Bridget Cremmins, who married Dennis Sullivan.  After Johanna was born, Dennis died, and Bridget remarried to Thomas Keaveney.  That is the Keaveney Connection.

So just the other day, I went on my Ancestry App and was looking through some names.  I came across William Keaveney and he had a few shaky leafs next to his name.  This means that the app has searched through Ancestry.com and found records that fit the information entered for your ancestor pretty closely.  Sometimes the records refers to your ancestor, sometimes it doesn’t.  You have to check it out.  So I clicked on the shaky leaf and saw a few records, one of which was the 1940 Census.

I checked the census record and found William age 35 and his wife Helen living with their two daughters, Joan and Patricia (sound familiar?).  I checked the address, but it did not sound like an area of Jersey City, so I scrolled to the top to see if they were in Bayonne or Hoboken or something.  When I got to the top of the page, I got a surprise – they lived in Chicago, Ill at 500 East 102 St, he is a foreman in retail window shades.  How did that happen?  Do I have the right guy?  So I checked the 1930 Census and found William and his wife Helen living on Summit Ave in Jersey City with his parents and siblings.  He is a foreman in a paper mill.  So they must have moved, but why?  As I looked at the dates 1930 to 1940, it dawned on me – the Great Depression was in full swing.  Maybe, like so many others during this time, he moved to find work.

So now I continue the Shaky Leaf Shuffle and find a listing in the Social Security Death Index which give his date of birth as 1 Feb 1905 and death as Apr 1985 in Oswego, New York.  I start to question again if this is my Keaveney, and I found a City Directory listing for William and one for Helen in Oswego, NY.  I guess that answers that.

While I was still in Chicago, I checked for marriage records with Cook County IL to see if Joan or Patricia were married there.  It just so happens that Ancestry.com has an index of Cook County Illinois marriages between 1930 and 1960 - Lucky me.  I checked the index and this is what I found:

Patricia S. Keaveney married Edward W. Hedstrom on 17 Mar 1954.  Now I don't know if this is my Keaveney, and I will not know for sure, unless I order a copy from the Cook County Clerk, but I think it is a good possibility.  It would make her 21 years old.  But we will have to check and see what exorbitant fee Cook County wants for a 60 year old marriage license before I order it.

I was going to write about two brothers in this post, but I think I will save Richard F Keaveney for next time.

Where is William Brady Buried

I am certain that this burning question has been the topic of many heated debates, much like the Lincoln - Douglas debates of 1860, and Kennedy - Nixon of 1960.  Okay, so maybe I'm the only person on the planet who actually cares where he is buried.  It is a piece of the puzzle that I don't have yet, so I am compelled to find it.

With this in mind, I traveled to Scranton, Pa to investigate further, and visit living family members while I am at it.  This past Friday I drove to my sister and brother-in-laws home, and enjoyed their company for the night.  In the morning, I was off to the Scranton Public Library to research obituaries on microfilm.  I was able to find the one I was looking for:  John Casey.  WHO??  Yes, John Casey is the father of Hannah Casey Brady, wife of William F Brady.  If you remember, I had said that I thought that if I could find John Casey, I would find Hannah (his wife) and Hannah (his daughter) and her husband, William.  I have heard this called Sidestep Genealogy.  If you can't find someone, look for the people close to him/her and you may find him.

So here is the Obit that I found in the Scranton Times 7 Jan 1935:

Pretty cool, gives you alot of information: where he was born, when he emigrated to the USA, what he did for a living, where he lived, political affiliation, and the part that I was looking for: Where he is buried.  By the way, my sister Pat guessed that he would be buried in Dunmore and she was right.  It says that he is buried in St Mary's cemetery in Dunmore, PA (I think it may actually be a part of Scranton).  So I drove to St Mary's, and I found a Priest at the church, but he could not help me because he had a wedding party there.  Come on now, I can't believe he thought they were more important than a guy who has been buried for almost a hundred years.  Anyway, I walked through the cemetery for a while, but could not locate a headstone.  The Priest said if I called the church on Monday, his secretary may be able to help me.

Monday morning I called the church.  The woman I spoke with was very nice and took the information and my name and phone number, promising to call me back when she found the info.  Five minutes later she called me back with good news.  John Casey is buried there, he is listed as the owner of the plot.  The last person buried there was Hannah Casey Brady.  Hold onto your hat, she died 14 Sept 1958 at the age of 90.  Holy cow, that is some longevity in them genes.  Her father died at 92, and her daughter, Hannah, will die at age 94.  Unfortunately none of those genes crossed paths with me and my crew.  As I sit here thinking about, if Hannah died at 90 in 1958, that means she was born in about 1868.  That means she was born during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War, and died when I was two years old.  That's alot of livin'.

So it sounds like my next visit to Scranton will involve a visit to the library for Hannah's obit, and a very large cup of coffee to take for a walk through St. Mary's cemetery in search of William Brady.  Didn't find him this time, but I am  getting closer.  I am almost certain he is there, I just hope the grave is marked - 'cause as usual the cemetery records from that time are spotty at best.

International Correspondence School

Sorry it has been so long, almost a month and a half.  But I have been busy -  okay not that busy, but busy enough to keep me from doing much research and blogging.  If you remember back, I had talked about my great grand uncle Dr. William F Brady.  Well I forgot to mention one little detail that I had heard from my sister Pat and my cousin Linda.  Supposedly Dr Brady was one of the founders of the International School of Correspondence (ISC) in Scranton, Pa.  He allegedly wrote a textbook for the school on Electro Therapeutics.  No I don't know what that is, but apparently the good Doctor did.  It doesn't sound as interesting as my blog though.

So anyway I was looking up the school on google and it still exists and has been renamed Penn Foster Career School, but it still operates as ICS in the UK and Canada (according to wikipedia).  I called the University of Scranton Library because their website says that they have a collection of documents from the school.  I was told by a woman there that she would check through the collection and let me know if she finds anything about Dr. Brady.

Within a week, I received an email from one of the research librarians advising that there is no record of Dr. Brady being affiliated with the ICS, however, he was listed as a guest at the Fifteenth Anniversary of the ICS.  She also extended an invitation to make an appointment to examine a folder titled "The History of the ICS", and any other documents pertaining to the school.  I might take them up on it, because I have a copy of a document listing him at the Dean of the School of Electro Therapeutics.  So maybe no documents referring to him are still around, after all they are a hundred years old.  Just so you know there is a family connection to the ICS, William has an older brother John (who was the father of 11 children with his wife Anna, who all lived to adulthood).  In the 1930 Census, John is listed as 75 years old (as is Anna) and they were both 20 years old when they married.  That means that they were married 55 years at this point.  Sorry I went off on a tangent, John's occupation is listed as Repairman and his employer is listed as ICS.  I had heard that several family members were employed by the school.

My next email will be directed to Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA.  This is the Medical School that he graduated from in 1884.  I am really looking to locate a picture of him.  It would also be nice to find out anything else that I can about him.