Frank E Brady 1889 - 1961

I recently found that Newspapers.com has added a few new newspapers to their database.  The best part is the location:  Pottsville PA.  That's right! Right in the middle of the Brady spawning grounds in Schuylkill County PA.  As you may well imagine, I have been a researching fool lately, finding births, weddings, and obituaries of ancestors.  Or, as we like to call it, hatch, match and dispatch - always like to add a little genealogy humor.

I will get to the Pottsville Republican later, because it will come in handy while researching Frank Edward Brady, born in Gordon, Schuylkill County Pa in 1889 to John Brady and his wife, Annie Butler Brady.  Within a few years the family moved to Scranton, PA.  I had previously found the announcement of Frank's marriage to Mary Regan in Scranton on 15 Sep 1914.  Sometime in 1915, Mary gave birth to a daughter, Helen.  Tragedy struck in April of 1917 when an obituary for Mrs. Frank Brady (Mary) appeared in the Scranton paper.  It says that Mrs Frank died following a few weeks' illness, she was just 26 years old.  It goes on to mention her husband is Frank Brady, a well known insurance man.  After the death of his wife, Frank and Helen live on Ripple St with his parents, and in 1918 Frank registers for the draft for WWI, as do three of his brothers, Raymond, Paul, and Thomas.

On 27 Oct 1921,  31 year old Frank marries 17 year old Agnes Goff in Scranton, PA.  They will have two more children, William is born 4 Dec 1922 and Jean is born in May 1926.  This brings me to the Pottsville Republican.  I found an article saying that Frank is named Asst. Superintendent of the Pottsville office of the Prudential Insurance Co.  So, between children, they move back to Schuylkill County.  Shortly after the move, his brother, Raymond, becomes a widower when his wife dies.  Frank and Agnes have his daughter live with them in Minersville, and an interesting article appears  in the Pottsville Republican 8 Oct 1929 (weeks before the stock market crash).  The article is about a birthday party for Mary and it lists the decorations and guests, and says that Mary is visiting from Scranton.  I like the guest list, it may mention aunts, uncles, and cousins, and Mary's father is not among the listed guests. 

It's funny what they printed in the newspaper back then.  The newspapers published a list of local residents admitted to area hospitals.  This was slightly before HIPPA regulations.

I cannot locate Frank, Agnes, or his daughter, Helen, in the 1940 census, but I did find William and Jeanne (this is the spelling in the census record) living in Scranton with Agnes' parents on Stafford Ave.  According to the census, they both lived at this address in 1935 also.  On 4 Dec 1940 (his 18th birthday) William enlists in the US Navy.  He will be stationed at Pearl Harbor the following December, and survives the Japanese attack, and continues to serve through March of 1946.  William died 1 Dec 2005 in Ormond Beach, FL. The 1940 census is the last record that I can locate for Jean and I don't know what happened to her. 

Unfortunately, the next thing I found was Agnes getting married 17 Sep 1941 in Delaware.  The certificate of marriage says that she is divorced.  It also gives her residence as Scranton, PA.   My first thought was that the age difference may have been too much, but then you check and see what is going on the world at this time.  The Great Depression!  I wonder if work was not steady, or a paycheck was not steady.  There is no way of telling at this point, but it just seems sad.  Our ancestors lived through some tough times.  This is the last record that I can locate for Agnes also, so I don't know what happened to her either.

On 28 Apr 1945, Helen Brady, aged 29, dies of tuberculosis in Ransom Township, at the Lackawanna County TB Hospital  She had been employed as a stenographer for the Scranton School District and lived on Ripple St.  She is buried in Cathedral Cemetery in Scranton and Frank was the informant on her death certificate.  He was also living at the Brady compound at 522 Ripple St, Scranton.

Frank was living in Philadelphia, where he dies on 31 Jan 1961 at the age of 71.  His sister Agnes Sipple is the informant on the death certificate.  He is buried in Cathedral Cemetery.  That's the other thing that sticks out, is that no matter what happens, they always turn to family for help.  If you are widowed, family helps out with the children, if you are out of work, or just fall on hard times, there is usually a family member who will take you in and help you out for as long as it takes.  That's the good part about any sad times that I come across.

Fortunately, my cousin Peggy from Scranton gave me a photo of Frank, which I will end with: