The Wandering Keaveneys Part II

So after locating the records for William Keaveney, and locating some blog fodder, I checked the shaky leafs next to his brother Richard F. Keaveney, 1923 to 1983.  The first records I saw were the 1930 and 1940 census records.  He was living with his parents in Jersey City, NJ in both of these records.

You gotta love findagrave.com, because the next thing I see is an entry in Find A Grave for Richard F (probably Francis – that seems like a popular middle name with this family), born 5 Mar 1923 and died 28 Jul 1983.  And he is buried where?  No, not Holy Cross or Holy Name- he is buried in Oleander Memorial Gardens in Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina – Really?  Find A Grave also lists in the memorial that he was born 5 March 1923 in Hudson County, NJ and is the son of Elizabeth Mayhew and Edward Keaveney.  I have never seen this type of info listed before – it may be common but not with my family.  It also gives a family link to his wife’s Find A Grave memorial – Eleanor Carmela Torre Keaveney (1923-1989).  I am going out on a limb and I will guess that the creator of his memorial is related.  There is a photo of the grave marker and there is no indication of any parental information.  So I clicked on the link to his wife, Eleanor and I see that this memorial has the same type of info.  It says that she was born 9 Feb 1923 in Masontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania and died 16 Dec 1989 in Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina.  It goes on to say that she is the daughter of Josephine Victoria DeMiere and Joseph Paul Torre, Sr.  So not only do I get her maiden name, but I get her mother’s maiden name.  I have sent a message to the creator of both memorials explaining that Richard is my first cousin 2X removed, and asking how the creator is related, but I have not received a response yet.

My next move was to search for Eleanor Torre with her birth date and parent’s names and I found that in 1940 she is living in Jersey City – go figure.  I didn’t think of this when I saw her maiden name, but in 1940 she has several siblings, including a brother Joseph and a brother Frank.  Now, if you are not a baseball fan, this may mean nothing to you.  But if you are a baseball fan and a NY Yankee fan, your heart – like mine – may have skipped a beat.  Yankee manager Joe Torre and his brother Frank, both played major league ball – with Joe managing the NY Yankees.  I immediately searched on line for Joe Torre, and found that he was older than this Joe Torre and lived in Brooklyn, not Jersey City.  Oh well, there goes my brush with fame.

So, how did they meet?  Did they live near each other in Jersey City? After all it is the 2nd most populous city in the state.  Back to the 1940 census, and here is what I found.  The Keaveneys lived at 171 (I think, it is hard to read) Summit Ave, and the Torres lived at 157 (again difficult to read) Summit Ave.  How close is that?  You gotta love Google Earth.  Check this out.  You can do alot with Google Earth, including labeling old homes and locations.

 They lived on the same block, they were the same age, probably went to the same public school in the same grade.  So maybe they met in the neighborhood, or went to the same school.  Either way, they met and married.  Funny thing is that when looking at the 1940 Census Richard has completed 1 year of high school, but so has his brother, Leonard - but Leonard is two years younger.  So you would think that Richard is working at 17 years old - but there is no employment info and it says that he went to school during the year.  As for Eleanor the census says that she attended school since 1 Mar 1940, but it does not list a last grade completed - nor does it give any employment info.  It does say that her father was born in Italy and is a barber by trade (as are two of her older brothers).  Maybe if they were born in Ireland they would all be cops.

At some point they moved to 2534 Birchtree Dr. Memphis, TN 38138-5704, because I found a record on Ancestry.com , which comes under US Public Records - I think it is usually telephone books that are the source.  And then on to Wilmington, NC, where they will spend eternity in Oleander Memorial Gardens, 306 Bradley Dr, Wilmington, NC.  By the way, do you know what famous person is buried in this cemetery? Major League Baseball Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Pirate, Willie Stargell, 1940 to 2001.  Just in case anybody ever asks. 

One more thing I noticed right before publishing this today.  I upgraded my Ancestry App on my Ipad, and it is very good.  It tells your ancestors facts as more of a story and adds historical facts about things going on in the world during their lifetime.  Like a timeline - I like it.