Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania

In my last post, I told you that I recently found an obit for my great grandmother, Mary Jane Reilly, and that I found out that she was born in Susquehanna, PA. Last week, I drove up to Scranton, PA and drug my sister, Pat, with me to Susquehanna County, to look for some Reilly relics and fossils in the county courthouse in Montrose.  It was only about a 40 minute drive from Pat’s house to Montrose.  The courthouse was almost empty, I guess everyone was doing some Christmas shopping – so was I. We were able to park right out in front where there was metered parking. I brought a fist full of quarters with me because I figured that’s what would happen. When I went to the parking meter I found that I could park for two hours for a quarter. This place is like Mayberry, at the Jersey Shore you need an app that’s connected to a credit card to use the parking meters; and it’ll cost you a little more than a quarter for two hours, hence the credit card.

Everyone there was very nice and helpful, but we really didn’t find anything. I was hoping to find property records for the farm that they lived on in Great Bend, but there were no deeds to be found. The last office that we visited was historical records, and the woman had nothing there either. She did tell us that we might want to visit the Susquehanna historical society, which was right across the street from the courthouse. We walked across the street, and on the way, I put another quarter in the meter just in case.

When we went into the historical society, very nice lady showed us the file card system for births, deaths, marriages, and ODDS – which was a little articles about various people in the area.  If you found something that you were interested in, you would tell the woman and she would get the article from the other room for you and make copies.

The first thing that I found was an obituary for Mary Jane’s father, Michael Reilly.  He died on 30 June 1903 at the home of his son, T. J. Reilly in Susquehanna Boro.  I know this is her father because she is listed as one of the survivors as Mrs. M. T. O’Day of Jersey City.  Here is the obit:

Since I was in the area, and my O’Dea ancestors lived across the river in Broome County New York, I thought I would look for any deaths under the O’Dea name.  I was looking for Catherine O’Dea, mother of  Michael O’Dea (who would marry Mary Jane).  Apparently spelling really doesn’t matter much with O’Dea / O’Day or Reilly / Riley, they are pretty much interchangeable, so you have to check both spellings. I came across this file card under O’Day:

My first thought was that there must be a mistake, Catherine had recently had a baby (Mike’s little brother, Daniel) I always thought that she must’ve died in childbirth, because Daniel was born in June 1853, wrong again. There was a long article about this railroad accident, downright gruesome in it’s detail. Suffice it to say, that five people were killed instantly, one of whom was our great great grandmother Catherine. The article says the train was leaving Susquehanna Depot on its way to Gulf Summit in New York when, apparently, the boiler exploded, killing five instantly and injuring many others.

Here is a snippet from article that I found in the paper:

Catherine had two small children at home, our great grandfather, Michael, who was two years old, and Daniel, who was two weeks old at most. Why was she out on the train by herself? Was she going to see a doctor maybe? I don’t know, but I’m glad she didn’t take the children with her - or I wouldn’t be here to tell you about it.

My Great Grandmother Mary Jane Reilly O’Dea

 I recently subscribed to genealogy bank.com.  I had a subscription before - mainly because one of the newspapers included is the Jersey Journal (from Jersey City).  I allowed it to lapse, mostly for cost savings.  But they emailed me with an offer I couldn’t refuse - two months free.  Okay, so I saved ten bucks.

At one point, I realized that I had never seen my great grandmother’s obituary, which probably would have been in the aforementioned Jersey Journal. I know this because my cousin Linda had told me she died in Jersey City, and I had gotten her death certificate from the NJ State Archives. 

I searched on genealogybank.com for her obit and found this:

Pretty good.  Now mind you, her death certificate gives her place of birth as Pennsylvania, but I never knew where.  Now I know she was born in Susquehanna, Pa.  I was aggravated that I didn’t think of Susquehanna in the first place.  After all, I knew that her future husband (and my great grandfather, Michael O’Dea) was born just across the river in Sandford, NY, but his father, mother, and step mother are all buried in Susquehanna Pa.  it makes perfect sense, but I never even thought of it.

Now that I know where she was born, I can check the 1860 census in Susquehanna County for Mary Jane and her family.  I found them in a town called Great Bend in Susquehanna County. Mary lives there with her parents, Michael and Bridget, and her seven siblings: James age 11, Daniel age 10, Michael age 8, Martin age 6, John age 5, Susan age 3, and Bridget age 1.  Her father is a farmer, so I guess they’ll have plenty of help on the farm.  I tried to locate the family in 1870, but no luck yet. 

The next time I find Mary Jane is the. 1880 census, but she is no longer in Susquehanna, has moved to the big city and changed her name.  She has married Michael O’Dea and they now live at 284 Bowery St. in Newark, NJ.  Yes, I was surprised too, I thought they went right to Jersey City from Pa - probably because that was where the train went.  By the way the census also says that they were married during the census year.

I think that’s enough for now.  I’ pretty sure we just witnessed the start of the great O’Dea migration to New Jersey, which will settle in Jersey City for for about 70 years before moving to the shore area.

The Whartons

You’re right, the name doesn’t sound familiar.  But I did mention them quite awhile ago when I was talking about my great grandmother, Hannah Sullivan McConville.  I had interviewed my mom’s cousin Florence (we called her Aunt Florence).  Florence told me that Hannah lived in London, and she and her sister were sent to America in the 1870’s to be nannies for the children of Willie and Annie Wharton, who were their cousins.  I think their parents had passed away and that was why they went across the pond.

Well, I went searching records to verify this story and I finally found an 1880 US Census record for Brooklyn, NY. and although her sister Mary Ann is not with her, Hannah is living with George and Ellen Wharton, and their two daughters:  Kate, who is 3 and Maggie, 1 year old. I found that instead of Willie and Annie,  their names are actually George and Ellen...Well, Aunt Florence was close.

That was all I could find, until started looking into George and Ellen.  George works in a segar store (cigar) and Ellen is keeping house.  After digging around, I found that George died in May 1903 and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn. I found a memorial in Find A Grave, but no photo of the headstone.  I decided to put in a photo request through Find A Grave in March of 2018, and that is where I was stuck until a week ago when I got an email from Find A Grave saying that my request had be fulfilled.

I check the website and found this photo:

Kinda dark and hard to see, so I lightened it up a bit and got this:

Still hard to see, but I can read most of it:

George Wharton

Also his wife

Ellen Wharton

& her sister

Bridget Sullivan

SULLIVAN!  That's it, that's the connection, Ellen is a Sullivan.  Then I searched Ellen Sullivan Wharton and found her marriage to George Wharton in the NY Index - 28 May 1876.  Using Family Search, I was able to get a marriage record and place of birth for her and George - Carlow, County Kerry, Ireland. 

After digging around and getting more info, I searched Ancestry again, this time I entered all of the information that I had, and found Ellen in another tree on Ancestry. Not only that, but this person is also a DNA match.  She is listed as 5th to 8th cousin of mine.  

My thought is that Ellen (and Bridget) are not cousins, but they are Hanna's aunts.  Sisters to her father, Michael.  The only problem with this theory is that the marriage record for Ellen lists her parents as Timothy and Margaret Lyons.  My tree lists them as Timothy and Margaret Devin.  My only source for Margaret's last name is a tree done by another of my mom's cousins before I started my research, and I don't know where she found Devin as the surname.  Actually they could both be somewhat accurate, she may have had a previous marriage in there somewhere, I don't know.

What I do know is that DNA doesn't lie, so I am on the right track

My Grandmother - Catherine Mary McConville Bergen 1896-1939

I have to start by saying that my wife, Katrina, has been gently prodding me to get back into my family tree stuff.  I don't know any friend of mine whose wife prods him to do things that he enjoys, but anyway, she has also been telling me to blog more.  Man, I have it pretty rough.  So she suggested that I write about my grandmother Catherine McConville Bergen.  Great idea! That is until I started looking in my files for her folder.  I have folders for second cousins twice removed, but I can't find one for my maternal grandmother.  I am at a loss to explain this lapse.  So I will try to make amends with a blog post.

Catherine was born 10 Dec 1896 in Jersey City, NJ to Edward McConville and Hannah Sullivan.  She was the third child born to Edward and Hannah.  She will have four brothers and three sisters.  I was able to find a baptism record on FamilySearch.org, which is the website for the Church of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church).  Actually I found the record for Florence McConville, Catherine's younger sister born in 1899.  I ordered the microfilm from the church and it came to the Family History Center in Eatontown.  When the center was open, you could go view the microfilm on readers at the center.  So I found the baptism for Florence on 26 Nov 1899 at St Patrick's Catholic Church in Jersey City, NJ and I decided to check to see if the ledger went back to 1896.  I found it!!  She was on the same reel of film as her sister two years earlier.  Catherine was baptized 3 Jan 1897, her sponsors/Godparents were William (I can't read it) and Mary Wharton.  Here are the two images:

If you can see right above her entry is written  "Married Edward Bergen Aug 27, 1919 by Rev Costello".  Two records for the price of one.  I think she was married at St Joseph's Church at 511 Pavonia Ave, Jersey City.

Catherine and Edward Bergen would have three children: my Uncle Bill in December 1919, Uncle Ed in January 1922 and my mom in March 1926.  They all lived on Armstrong Ave in Jersey City in the 1930 census.  Edward's father - William "Pop" Bergen lived with them.

On Christmas Eve 1925, while she was about 7 months pregnant with my mom, her younger brother, Edward S. McConville Jr. died of Mitral Regurgitation.  I didn't know what that was either, so I googled it.  It is a leaky heart valve.  His death certificate also says that a contributory (secondary) cause was "La Grippe", which I believe was the Flu.

The other great event to effect her occurred after my mom was born and that was the Great Depression in Oct 1929 and lasted until about 1939 or so with the outbreak of World War II.  I'm not really sure how much effect this had on her life, because the 1940 census says that her husband, Edward, was a proprietor in the Stock Yards in Jersey City. "Pop" Bergen worked there also during that time.

December 22, 1939 Catherine Mary McConville Bergen passed away. I think she died from malignant hypertension, (I have her death certificate, but I can't find it).  Mom said it was basically high blood pressure, which is very treatable today.  Back then family members were waked in their home, not a funeral home.  So she was in a casket in her own living room for a few days before the funeral mass and burial.  Not fun for her husband, not to mention the three children.

Unfortunately I didn't know that much about her, but after my mom passed away, I had the opportunity to talk to her cousin Florence about the family.  She told me that Catherine was a very pretty woman and the everyone called her Kate.  She also said that she was a very good piano player. 

I do have pictures of her.  This one is undated, but appears to be from 1926 to 1928:

I have another picture of her holding my mother when mom was a toddler, and she appears about the same age.  The second one is from 1939, the year she passed away, she would have be about 42 years old:

These pictures are the main reason that I suspect the depression did not effect her that much.  These look to be taken by a Professional Photographer.  I'm not sure that the average person could afford to have portraits taken during this time.

I'm sorry that I never got to meet her, I'm sure she would have been a fun grandmother.  She passed on her musical talent to her children. My Uncle Bill sang in a Barbershop Quartet and I can remember growing up with my mom singing and dancing around the house. Whether she was sweeping the floor or doing the dishes, she was usually singing and dancing her way around.  She told me that when her mom passed away, her dad was so distraught that he drank himself to death and died in 1943 at age 43.

More Bergins living in Borris- in-Ossary, Laois, Ireland

I started hunting around Borris in Ossary, County Laois in search of more ancestors.  I figured that the Irish are famous for producing children so the odds of my great great grandfather, Edward, having only one sibling, Dan, was a longshot.  I searched in Irish Catholic Parish Records and I think I found another brother of my great great grandfather, Edward Bergin.  This brother is Joseph, baptized in the same place as Edward and his younger brother, Dan.  He is listed in Ireland Catholic Parish Records, 1655 - 1915, baptized on 23 Feb 1858 in Borris-in Ossary, Laois, Ireland, to Tim Bergin and Margaret Kavanagh.  Sponsors are listed as Ned Kavanagh and Judith Hyland.  I am guessing that Ned is Margaret's brother, and I don't know how Judith Hyland fits into the picture, but the name Hyland was listed as a sponsor for one or two of Edward and Mary Malone's children.  

Not satisfied with that find, I continued looking through that same set of records.  Lo and behold, I found another son of Tim Bergin and Margaret Kavanagh.  This one is John Bergin, baptized 13 Feb 1852 in the same place as the rest in County Laois.  His sponsors are listed as John McEvoy and Mary Bergin.  I wonder if Mary Bergin is Tim's sister?

I started going a little crazy and checked census records in Jersey City for Dan, John, and Joseph.  I figured that they may have also emigrated to the US like their brother Edward (Ned).  Any idea how  many Bergins named Dan, John and Joe lived in Jersey City in the 1870 or 1880 census?  Lots.  So I tried burial records from the Archdiocese on Newark. Lots more.  I abandoned the US search for the time being, in an attempt to save my sanity.  I'm not so sure I'm succeeding.

Patrick Brady

I know it's been awhile, but this is worth the wait.  I have been tying to figure out what happened to Patrick Brady for the past 16 years or so; which is when I first found him in the 1870 Federal Census in Butler, PA.  OKay, so maybe I wasn't looking all that hard, I should say that I was wondering what happened to him, and how he was related.  In case you don't know, the 1870 census lists everyone in the household, age, race, marital status, place of birth, and a few other things.  What it doesn't tell you is each person's relationship to the head of the household.  In 1870, the census listed Thomas A Brady and his wife Bridget, next is Patrick age 17, then John 16, Michael 14, James 11, William 9, Mary 4, and Bridget 11 months, and a domestic servant.  It also says that Thomas, Bridget, and Patrick were born in Ireland, John in York State, and the rest in PA.  This is the only record that I had ever found for Patrick.  Although he was 7 hears old in 1860, he is not listed in the census of that year, but John, Michael, and James are listed.  Patrick is also not listed in the 1880 census; John is living nearby with his wife and two children.  1880 is also the year where ‘relationship to head of household’ becomes a category in the census.  Oh well, better late than never.  So, all of this made me wonder if Patrick was the son of Thomas and Bridget, or if he was an orphaned child of a cousin or nephew, whom they were caring for at the time.

This is where my search stalled until I got a message through Ancestry.com from a woman who said her maiden name was Brady and that she had been researching his father's family and could not find any information.  (Welcome Aboard)  She said that my name was the only Brady on her DNA match list and when she checked my tree, she noticed that my great grandfather, James, and her grandfather, William were boarding in the same house in Gordon PA in 1900.  I looked at her tree and saw that her grandfather was William and his parents were Patrick and Margaret Cushing.  William was born in 1881 in Perth Amboy, NJ.  I check the Pottsville Republican on Newspapers.com for William Brady from 1902 to 1908, figuring that if he lived in Gordon in that time, something may show up in the newspaper for him.  What I found was a lengthy obit for a young woman named Lizzie Brady.  The article says that her father, Patrick, died about 30 years ago, and she is survived by a brother William and her mother, who lives in New York.  The part that got my attention was that she died on Plane St. in Gordon at the home of her aunt, Mrs. Patrick Davis.  LIGHTBULB!!!  Mrs. Patrick Davis is Catherine Convey, sister of Bridge Convey Brady, my great great grandmother.  That is the the connection, Catherine is actually Lizzie's father's aunt.  BINGO.

I checked the 1880 census in Perth Amboy, NJ and found Patrick Brady, his wife Margaret, living at 223 Washington St, Perth Amboy with their daughter Elizabeth, who is a year old, (William is not born yet).  Patrick is a conductor on the railroad.  

Two more things and I will call it a night.  When looking at Lizzie's obit it says her father died "some thirty years ago".  Well that would have been about 1876, which is impossible because that is before both of his children are born.  Secondly, I also found her death certificate, and it lists her birth date as 23 Oct 1881, which is also impossible because she is listed in the 1880 census as being one year old.  Then I checked documents that I found for her brother, William (who happens to be the informant on her death certificate) and his birth date is 23 Oct 1881.  I think he was doing the paperwork for his sister and saw birth date, and automatically put his own.  

The moral of the story is don't believe everything that you read, just because it is on an official document doesn't make it true.