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.