Expanding my Sterling line

My Sterling relations are mostly cousins, because my great grandfather, Mike O'Dea's sister Mary, married John Sterling.  So Mary O'Dea is actually the start of my Sterling cousins.  Now I would love to take credit for investigating and finding all of these relatives, but I can't do it with a clear conscience.  A few years back, when I first realized that Mary O'Dea married John Sterling, I found a woman on line who was checking the same Sterling-O'Dea marriage.  The difference was that her great grandfather is John Sterling's brother.  So we wound up investigating the same areas, and people.  Sometimes I would email her with stuff I found, and sometimes she would email me with stuff.  Lately it has been a little one sided, with her sending me stuff.  Such as:

Yes, this little beauty.  Katherine Sterling is the daughter of John and Mary Sterling, born in Gulf Summit, NY 27 Jul 1880, and this is her obit.  She died 1 Oct 1964 in Jersey City, at the age of 84. But this obit gives me info that I did not know.  I knew that Katherine had a sister Susan, but I did not know that she had married or to whom.  Now I know that she married a man named Dauth.

She is also the Aunt to Mrs. Leona Pallander - sound familiar?  Well, it took me a minute, until I saw the next article she sent me:

Do you see that last name? Helen Willard - that one really helped.  The only thing that took me a few minutes was this.  I couldn't think of who had a daughter named Leona.  So I went to my family tree and that's when it hit me.  Katherine and Susan had another sister named Mary (but they called her Minnie)  I'm not sure, but it seems to me that "Minnie" is a nickname for a daughter who was named after her mother - the same as calling a son with his father's name "Junior".   Anyway Mary married Michael Sheehan, a Jersey City Police Officer, and they had a daughter Leona. - So that's how they're related, and that would make Leona a niece to Katherine.

Now, it is all becoming clear.  Through all of my investigating, I have come across Leona Pallander's name several times.  Usually as an informant on death certificates for my Sterling relatives, and (if you remember), she was the witness for Helen Keogh's marriage. I know from some of the death certificates that I got from the Archives, that she had listed her address as 162 Carteret Ave in Jersey City (the same address given in Katherine Sterlings obit above).  So I checked the RCAN website to see if Leona Pallander is buried in any of their cemeteries.  The only burial I found is for Michael F Pallander, who was buried on 13 Feb 1991 in Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City.  So I checked for Michael F Pallander in ancestry and I found an entry from the Social Security Applications and Claims Index:

This gives his full name as Michael Francis Pallander, and date of birth is 3 Aug 1936 and date of death if 10 Feb 1991.  But the best part is, once again Father: Francis Pallander and Mother: Marie Shennan.  Okay, so I can see that Shennan could be a confused spelling of Sheehan, but Marie is no where close to Leona.  Up to this point, I could not find a Leona Pallander in Ancestry.com, mostly looking in census records and knowing that at some point she lived on Carteret Ave.  So I gave Marie Pallander a shot and BINGO.

I found her in the 1940 census, living at 164 Carteret Ave with her husband, Frank, age 40, born in Finland, Marie is listed as 37 years old, born in NJ, and there are three children: Mary age 6, Michael age 3, and Frances age 1.  By the way, Frances is a girl. (in case you couldn't tell by the spelling).

Just so you know, on the next page of the census are more Sterlings. Mary, Catherine and John living at 162 Carteret Ave, and Susan and Frederick Dauth, also at 162 Carteret Ave.  It always pays to check the next page of the Census.

Last, but not least, I also found that Marie L. (Leona?) Pallander died in Rochelle Park, Bergen County, NJ.  The Social Security Death Index lists her birth date as 18 Aug 1902 and death as 1 Aug 1995.  Two and a half weeks shy of 93.  Not too shabby.