Patrick Bergen and family

I wrote this post about a week ago, and when I read it before posting it, I almost fell asleep. I kind of figured that wasn’t a good sign.  Then I realized that I was trying to do it chronologically, going through each census, and it was very boring.  So we’re gonna try this again, and hopefully you won’t fall asleep before you get to the end.

Patrick was born in July 1859 in Borris-in-Ossary, County Laois, Ireland to Edward Bergen and Mary Malone.  He was the first born of five children, and the family emigrated to the US at some point in the 1870’s.  They were counted in the 1880 US census in Jersey City, NJ, where they would all marry and spend the rest of their lives.

Patrick would marry Mary Fitzgerald on 4 Feb 1886, and their daughter, Mary, was born 10 Aug 1888.  Patrick would work at several jobs in livestock during his lifetime, in 1900 he was a horse dealer, and moved on to cattleman, and eventually, a buyer in the slaughter house.  I was a little surprised because this is Jersey City, NJ, not out west in someplace like Kansas. But I suppose Jersey City may have been (the eastern equivalent of Chicago at that time.

This is what I found to be the interesting part of the story.  In 1900 the census lists, Patrick is working, his wife, Mary is keeping house, and young Mary is 11 years old at school.  I am unable to locate the family in the 1910 census, but in 1920 and 1930 they can be found on Eighth Street.

 In 1920 young Mary‘s relationship to Patrick and Mary says sister and she’s only 25 years old.   In 1930, Mary is back to daughter status, and her age is listed as 30 years old. That initially sounded kind of odd to me, but it all depends on who gave the census taker the information. So,  you never know if maybe a neighbor or the super of the building gave the information and it just never came out right.

On August 12, 1933 Patrick passes away at the age of 74.  At that point, he is a weighmaster at the Jersey City stockyards. He leaves his wife and daughter to survive him.  In the 1940s census we see that Mary and Mary are living in the same place and Mary, who is listed as 70 years old and widowed, is listed as giving the information.  Neither one of the two residents is working, and if you look at one of the columns in the census, it tells you that they are unable to work.

26 December 1943: Mary Fitzgerald Bergen dies of colon cancer. The informant on the death certificate is not her daughter Mary, but it is a woman named Margaret Henzey.  I have not come across Margaret Hanzey in any of the information that I’ve gathered and I am wondering who she is. My guess is that she is the daughter of one of Mary’s sisters.   

I cannot find Mary Bergen in the 1950 census, but I was looking on genealogybank.com and I found a notice in the Jersey Journal:

                                                             

There she is again, Margaret Henzey.  This time it is shortly before Mary Bergen, (the daughter) dies in 1957.  I actually went the the New Jersey State Archives to see her will, but they have no record of a will there.  Her death certificate states she died on 10 Dec 1957 at the Hudson County Hospital for Mental Diseases, in Secaucus, NJ.  She had been a patient at the hospital for 14 years, 4 months and 28 days.  That time frame bring us back to about 8 months after her mother passed away.  So I would assume that maybe Mary had Special Needs like autism or as they called it back in those days, mental retardation.  Maybe no one in the family knew how to care for her so she was placed in that hospital, which was understandable.

So, in the end, I’m still confused about something.  Margaret Henzey is either related to the family somehow, or she is a very close family friend.  She is the informant on the death certificate for both Mary Bergens, as well as the executrix and trustee for the estate of young Mary in 1957.  The main thing that I don’t understand is this: How can she put a notice in the paper in June 1957 about probating the estate, but Mary does not die until December of 1957?

The Dawsons

I’m back, and I dug up another story to tell.  Actually, I think I told part of it before, but I can’t find the post. So sit back and enjoy, I’ll try to be brief, but no guarantees.

You may remember that my mom’s paternal side are named McConville, and one of the McConville girls married a man named Milford.  The Dawson line stems from their daughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth Milford marries a man named William J Dawson and they have four children of their own: William M in 1913, James F in 1914, Robert Girard in 1922, and Olive E in 1923.  

The family lived on E 53rd St in Brooklyn before moving to 124 Union Ave in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.  On 28 Jul 1920, their youngest son, 5 year old James, was crossing Union Ave at Driggs Ave, when he ran into the street when he was struck by a hearse automobile.  He was taken to St. Catherine's Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.  He was later buried in Holy Cross Cemetery on Tilden Ave in Brooklyn. Here is the newspaper article from the Brooklyn Citizen:

You may think that this is the end of a sad story, just like I did.  But I was on ancestry.com and I was looking at James F Dawson when I saw a shaky leaf.  I was not expecting that, so I clicked on the hint from NY Wills and Probate.  I REALLY wasn't expecting that, after all he was only five years old when he was killed.  I  don't think there are many five year old children with a will.  I have two pages to show you:

The probate is for limited letters of administration for the goods, chattels, and credits of James F Dawson, deceased.  His mother, father and older brother, William, who was only seven years old are listed as next of kin. The papers also list the three men who are associated with ownership and operation of the hearse involved in the accident.  If you look at the news article, it also lists the driver and owner of the hearse, two of the same names listed in the probate papers.  I assume that this is to be sure that any proceeds from the lawsuit will go to the family for the funeral and burial expenses, etc..

So as we close out this chapter, this is still a sad story with a twist at the end that I was never expecting.