Solving the Mystery of Baby Jack

There was an old family story, that I actually heard from my dad on more than one occasion.  He told us that when he was young, he had a little brother who had died as an infant.  The boy's name was Jack. For my dad to say much at all about when he was a kid was a big deal.  He talked about his childhood, and how he and his brothers and his sister Margie (who they all called "sis") all got along and took care of each other.  He spoke of his mother quite a bit, but seldom talked about his father.  When he did speak of his father, he said that he was an alcoholic, and that he (my dad) had to help his father in the house a few times because he was so drunk.

I learned years later from cousins, that his father left the family during the Great Depression. Leaving my grandmother to raise five children by herself.  Dad only spoke of the good qualities that he saw in his family and his life.  He served in WWII, being overseas for several years, but didn't really talk about it much, except for some of the guys he served with.  Didn't really tell many "War Stories".

So for dad to mention something bad happening in his childhood was unusual.

Years later, when I started the family tree, my cousin, Linda, said that her mom talked about "Baby Jack".  Her mom (who would be my aunt Margie) would tell Linda every year on December 1, to "say a prayer for Baby Jack, because it is his birthday".  Linda relayed most of what I knew of Baby Jack, by telling me things her mom had said as Linda was growing up.

She said that Jack was born on December 1 during the years between the birth of my Uncle Frank in May of 1924 my Uncle Paul in June of 1929.  If that is the case, that there are only two years that he could have been born:  December 1, 1926 and December 1, 1927.  When Jack was born the family lived in a "cold water flat".  This was a small apartment that had no running hot water, and usually, no central heating.  If you wanted to bathe, you had to heat pots of water on the stove to fill the tub.  
Aunt Margie also told Linda that when Jack was born there was ice on the floor in the apartment.  So it was a cold winter with no heat or hot water.  The last tidbit that Aunt Margie told Linda, was that the had no money to bury Jack, and he was buried in a Potter's Field.

Linda did not know where this occurred, but we figured it had to be either Jersey City, NJ or New York City - because we knew they lived in Brooklyn for a time, and dad said they had lived in "Hell's Kitchen" in Manhattan for a short time.

So with this information in mind, I searched for twelve years.  I checked ancestry.com, and I called every cemetery in Jersey City.  Then I checked the NJ State Archives for birth and death records for a John Brady.  I was very consistent, I came up empty every time.  Then I heard about the potters field in Secaucus at Snake Hill.  When the NJ Highway Authority was building Exit 15 X, they began digging up bodies and discovered it was the old cemetery from Snake Hill.  They wound up exhuming many bodies which had been buried in the potter's field and re interring them in Bergen County.  I went through every list I could find, not Baby Jack.  I heard of another potter's field in New York called Hart's Island.  This is a burial ground which is tended by NYC Department of Correction inmates from Riker's Island.  I checked every data base I could find for that facility with no luck.

Ancestry.com has a new database, which is an index of New York City Deaths 1862 - 1948, Baby Jack fit in that time frame, so I tried it. I found a John Brady who died 4 Jan 1927, with an age listed as 1/12, which would be one month.  Wow, this could be him, all I have to do is sent $15.00 to the NYC Municipal Archives with the certificate # 453 on it, and wait a couple of months for them to mail it.  Great! - except for that whole waiting a couple of months.  I could also drive up there and get it.  So I planned to drive up there and drag my wonderful wife with me.  Then I decided to try familysearch.org and see if I could find a baptism record for this birth.  I have had luck in the past with Catholic Church records on familysearch.org.  When I did that, I got the same NYC Municipal Death record, but this gave more information.  It listed the parents as Thomas Brady and (wait for it) Marguerite O'Dey (wrong spelling, but who cares), born 1 Dec 1926, place of burial: Calvary Cemetery. ( I was almost disappointed that it wasn't Hart's Island)  But this has to be him.

So I called the cemetery and found out that he is buried in 4th Calvary, Sec 67, Plot 36, Grave 19.  He is listed as John C. Brady, and the grave is owned by Thomas J Brady.  So now I ordered the microfilm from familysearch.org and within a couple of weeks I had this little beauty:

It says he died on Diarrhea and Enteritis, which (according to wikipedia) is an inflammation in the small intestine caused by food or drink contaminated with pathogenic microbes.  This is usually accompanied by diarhea, stomach cramps, dehydration and fever.  So it sound like his short life involved very little fun, and lots of discomfort.

So in the end, Aunt Margie was right - except for the Potter's Field - but she was only ten years old at the time.  Mystery solved. Or is it?  When does the middle initial "C" that the cemetery told me, stand for?  Is there is marker on the grave?  And I am sure a few more questions will pop up, because as I have learned No Mystery Is Ever Completely Solved.

Update on my Great Great Grandmother Bridget Crimmins-Sullivan-Keaveney

I recently found some new information about my Great Great Grandmother, Bridget Crimmins Sullivan Keaveney.  One of my first posts was written about her, if you don't remember, I'll give you the Reader's Digest version:  She was born in Ireland, in about 1846, and came to the US, during the US Civil War.  On 5 Oct 1865 she married a fellow Irish immigrant in Jersey City, his name is Dennis Sullivan.  In about 1867 she gives birth to my great grandmother, Annie Sullivan (who will marry my great grandfather, William Bergen in 1887).  Dennis dies 8 Oct 1867, just two years after their wedding.  He is buried in Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City.

Sometime between October 1867 and 1871, Bridget marries a man named Thomas Keaveney, another Irish immigrant.  They will have seven children, four of them will live to adulthood, two will die within days of being born, and one, Catherine Bridget, will die at age 11 in 1884.  1884 is a bad year for Thomas Keaveney, he will bury two children and his wife that year.  Bridget gives birth to a son George and Bridget dies from an infection within a few days. George is baptized and dies within another week of his mother.

How do you move on after that.  It is amazing how resilient these folks were.  Thomas lives almost 20 years longer, and is buried 18 Feb 1903 in Holy Name Cemetery, in Jersey City.

Although I think this is all interesting, it is not the reason for this new post.  Their daughter Jane is the reason for the post.  I was recently on familysearch.org and I entered Bridget Crimmins in the search field.  This is what I found:

Yup, another child born to Bridget and Thomas Keaveney on 27 Jun 1879, in Jersey City.  They named her Jane, and she was baptized on 13 Jul 1879 in St Michael's Church.  This is the only record that I find of her,  and I am assuming that she dies shortly after her birth.  She does not appear in the 1880 census.  I will have to check the NJ State Archives for her death next time I go.  But I think it is safe to assume that she met the same fate that half of the Keaveney children.

I do however, see why I never found her before.  The last name of Keaveney is butchered once again. This time, we see it spelled as Keareney.  They turned the "v"into an "r", probably a common error, when written in longhand.