Charles Cavanagh Sr and Charles Jr

Charles Cavanagh, Sr was the eldest son of Bernard Cavanagh and Catherine Bergen.  He was born in Jersey City on 28 May 1897, and baptized on 6 Jun 1897 at St. Mary's Church in Jersey City.  He was the older brother to Edward and Mary Cavanagh, and man of the house at age three when his father Bernard died.

Charles married Ellen McDowell at Our Lady of Grace Church in Hoboken, NJ on 14 Feb 1917.  He was 21 years old and she was 22.  Ellen, who everyone called "Nellie", was born and lived in Hoboken with her parents and siblings.

Next, Charles registered for the draft on 5 Jun 1917, which is only four months after getting married.  Apparently he wasn't used to the whole marriage thing because if you look at line #9, it asks if you have a father, mother, wife, child under 12 who is solely dependent on you for support.  He initially writes no, but then crosses it out and writes "Wife".  At the time of his registration, he is employed as a checker at the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, 150 Bay Ave, Jersey City.  For those youngsters among you, the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company is the A&P, it's a grocery store.  I like the description on the back.  He is described as tall, slender, brown eyes and red hair, with no distinguishing marks.  I don't believe he serves in WWI.

By 1920, he is living with his wife on Willow Ave in Hoboken, with two sons: Charles Jr, age 2 and Gerard, age 4 months.  He is employed as a clerk in the Steaming industry, which I'm guessing is a Steam Ship company.  In 1930 they still live on Willow Ave, but they now have a daughter Mary, but their son Charles is not listed.  They also have Nellie's brother Joseph age 19 living with them.

This is what I found in the Hudson Observer about Charles Jr in 1928, which explains why he is missing from the 1930 census:

Sadly, young Charles died falling over a fifteen foot high gate and struck his head.  Very sad story, and it makes you wonder how you could ever deal with this type of thing.

Anyway, in 1930, Charles Sr is appointed to the Hoboken Police Department, just like his brother Edward, who was appointed a Patrolman in Jersey City.  Charles serves for seven years when another newspaper article appears in Hoboken Observer:

Some vacation.  Charles dies of a heart attack on 9 Oct 1937 at the ripe old age of 40.  But if you read the article, he was very well liked by both his fellow Officers and the citizenry of Hoboken.

So Charles only lives 40 years.  His father dies when he is barely three years old.  Who knows if he even has any memories of his dad.  I know that his uncle Thomas Bergen lived his family for a time, so maybe he gave him advice and helped him along, but that can't replace his father.  Then he marries, and his brother goes off to WWI in Europe.  He has three children and endures the heartbreak of losing his oldest son at the age of 10.  After that, he becomes a Police Officer in Hoboken for seven years, and dies of a heart attack. I just realized that both he and his brother Edward was employed as Policemen during the Great Depression.  They both had jobs, but I would be willing to bet that it wasn't an easy time to be policing two large cities.

I have one more trip to make to see if I can find any more info on Charles - The Hoboken Police Department Museum.  I have to call them and see what they have there - hopefully a picture of him in uniform.

My Sullivans of London, England

My mom always said that both of her grandmothers were named Hannah Sullivan - one was Hannah and one was Johanna.  I never knew which was which, but it never seemed to matter back then.  That is until I started researching.  Now that I care, mom is no longer here to ask.

Anyway,  Johanna Sullivan was born in London, England 6 Sep 1866, to Michael Sullivan and Mary Dunn.  This is according to an old family tree that my mom's cousin had made quite a while ago, and this info was confirmed by Hannah's death certificate.  She was the oldest of four children, a sister Mary, and two brothers: Timothy and Michael.

According to my mom's cousin Florence Armstrong, Johanna's dad was a tailor to the Ladies of the Court at Buckingham Palace, and Johanna and her sister used to play on the Palace lawn.  She and her sister Mary were flower girls at the wedding of Lady Alice.  I had never heard this story until Aunt Florence told me, but I had never been able to confirm it either.  Maybe it's the Detective still in me, but if I can't confirm it, it doesn't get added to my tree.

Well, I was able to confirm a piece of it lately.  It happened mainly by mistake. I was checking on Hannah Sullivan McConville on my Ancestry app, when I noticed a shaky leaf on her brother Timothy, so I clicked on it.  This is what I saw:

This is an 1871 Census from the UK, it says:  Lambeth Parish, Ward of Princes, Parlamentary Borough of Lambeth, and over to the right is says Ecclesiatrical District St. Marys.  I don't know what all of that means, but I remember Aunt Florence saying that their church was St. Mary's, so it makes sense.   Now the first line says House # 51, but there is no street, but several pages before this is says Model Home 5 - I don't know what that means either.  But now we get to the good part:  Michael Sullivan, male age 30, occupation is Tailor (journeyman), born in Ireland, next: Mary Sullivan, female age 30, occupation is Tailoress, born in Ireland, next is Johanna, daughter, unmarried, age 4, next is Mary, daughter, age 3, and last is Timothy, son, age 1.  Actually, there may be one more.  Below them is listed Ann Hall, Visitor, female, widow, age 50, occupation Servant, born in Ireland.  I don't know if she belongs in their household or the next family.  I don't know who she is at this point anyway.  By the way, this record also says the three children were born in Surrey Lambeth.

This seems to confirm what Aunt Florence had told me about her being born in London ( I think this is close to London) and the whole Tailor part of it.  Not that I ever doubted Aunt Florence, but this was really a good find.  I think I never found it before because I always looked for Hannah, but this record says Johanna, and I found it because of her brother. No matter how I found it, now I have it.

This record doesn't mention Michael (her Brother) so I guess he wasn't born yet - after all, Timothy is only 1, and I don't see them in the 1861 Census - probably still in Ireland, or the 1881 Census - I guess the parents have died by then and the children may be in the US.

So I have a lot more research to do, but this was a big boost that let me know I am on the right track.

The Historic Jersey City and Harsimus Cemetery

The Historic Jersey City and Harsimus Cemetery is located at 435 Newark Ave, Jersey City, NJ.  It consists of about six acres of land and unfortunately became abandoned and neglected over the years.  However, in 2008 they created a new board of directors and it is being cleaned up and cared for by the Board and a group of dedicated volunteers.

According to their website the cemetery was formed in about 1829.  The cemetery was one of the very first Garden Style landscape cemeteries established, which revolutionized cemeteries across the nation. It was also the first cemetery companies founded in the state of New Jersey.  The cemetery is home to hundreds of Civil War Veterans, as well as, veterans of many wars.  Legend also has it the there is an underground railroad connection, which played a major role in the freedom of thousands of slaves during the Civil War. The tunnels may still exist below the cemetery's hills and hidden crypts.

Along with all of this history and buried heroes from America's wars, foreign and domestic, lies an unknown veteran of World War I, and my great uncle John McConville.  You may recall that I posted about Uncle John not too long ago.  I found that he was buried in Jersey City Cemetery mainly because he married a Methodist and the church would not allow him to be buried in Holy Name or Holy Cross.  He is buried here with his wife, my aunt Gertie.  Her name was Gertrude Rothchild McConville, with members of her family.

I had called the cemetery a few months ago to attempt to locate his grave.  After a few e mails back and forth, I got my answer:

Hi, Tom  - I have some info for you.

Both John & Gertrude McConville are buried together in Block #41, Plot #8, Grave 1.   He was 68.  She was 71 - both died of heart failure (good to know for present family members....) 

This family plot was purchased by  Mary B. Rothchild of 107 Wayne Street, JC.  Later the deed was transferred to Mrs. Mildred Strand of 117 Van Wagenen Ave. 

In  this plot are 7 persons as follows:

John and Gertrude McConville

Frank Stroud -1973 and Mildred Strand - 1993

Walter Rothchild - 1981 and Harold Rothchild - 1995

Edward Rothchild - 1982

This e mail came from Eileen Markenstein, president of the Board of Trustees. With this info in hand, I got my trusty cemetery partner, my son Tom, and off we went on an adventure to find an uncle he had never met, (and I barely remember).  We got to the cemetery and and met "Digger" who is on the grounds almost everyday.  He got out a map and showed us to the general area of Block 41, Plot #8.  I had some trouble at first, then realized that this was probably her family's plot so the main name on a headstone is probably Rothchild.

After a short walk on a nice afternoon we came upon this stone:

That name on the stone in the center is familiar, and yes right there on the left if the one I have been looking for:

I doubt that I would have ever found this stone, had it not been for Eileen Markenstein, "Digger", and the rest of the volunteers that run this cemetery.  So Thank you.  

I find that I still have one question from this venture: What is a Harsimus?