Meet Pearl Brady

Towards the end of my last post, I told you that the informant on Allen Brady's death certificate in 1950 was listed as Pearl Brady.  Then I wondered who Pearl Brady was, because I had never heard of her before and she had not come up in my research until very recently.  Here is the answer.

Pearl was born (according to the 1900 US Census) in April 1888, in Canada to Peter Gariepy and Sarah Morrison.  The family moved to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan prior to 1900 and were enumerated in that census at 109 Leroy St.  She was the fifth of six children and her father was a stone cutter.

I could not find the family in 1910, but I found Pearl being married in the same city on 1 Apr 1918 to Frank St. Germain, an iron worker, also born in Canada.  They remained in Sault Ste. Marie.  By 1930, they are living in Hobart Township in East Gary, Indiana where Frank is an iron worker in the steel mill.   By this time, they have a son, Donald.  By 1940, the family has moved to Calumet, a section of Gary, Indiana and Frank is now a steel construction contractor.

In October 1946, tragedy strikes.  I found a death certificate for Frank St. Germain, and it appears that he is killed in some type of construction accident.  Now Pearl is widowed, as well as, Allen Brady, who was widowed in 1943.  Perhaps they knew each other previously through church or through friends, but the next item I found is this:

You got it, Allen and Pearl marry on 26 Feb 1949 in Lake County Indiana.  Shortly thereafter on 23 Sep 1950, only a year and a half after being married, Allen dies in Gary, Indiana, and the informant on his death certificate is his wife, Pearl Brady.

Just to complete the story, Pearl dies 31 Jan 1968, in Ross Twp, Indiana of a cerebral hemorrhage and hypertension.  The informant on her death certificate is her son, Donald, who became a steel worker just like his dad.