Susan Metzger Baldwin

In my last post, I told about how I went to the Ocean County Library to look for an obituary for Charles Metzger, who died in Lakewood, NJ.  I did not find one.  While speaking with one of the librarians, I mentioned that I thought that he had lived in Trenton area originally and was a college professor out there.  The Librarian says that they had access to the Historic Trenton Time Newspaper, but it only has access to about 1993, and he died in 1996.  But if you search for his name, you may find other articles.  The Librarian set me up on a computer and I entered Metzger in the search box.  The first search item was this:

Holy mackerel, this is Susan Metzger and in a flash I now know her married name, that she died on 4 Feb 1992, at the age of 54, and where.  Did I say where?  Garland, Maine.  Talk about a shocker, and this is a Trenton newspaper.  I never dreamed that she lived in Maine, and I never would have looked for her obit in the Trenton Times.  I had never met her, but after reading the obit, I wish I had.  Past Secretary of the Maine Trappers Association and 1987 Trapper of the Year.  Sounds like her mother, active in the Garland Recreation Program, mainly Swimming.  It then goes on to say that she is the mother of the late Joseph R Baldwin, Jr.  When I started doing the family tree, my cousin Linda gave me some file cards from an aunt of ours.  On the cards she had written notes about each family group, one card for each brother or sister and their family.  On Susan Metzger's card there was a note that said that she had a son who had committed suicide.  Now I know his name.

After printing the obit, I returned to the search results and my second result was this one:

 Another surprise.  A death in Maine listed in the Trenton Times.  I obviously never knew Joseph Jr., but after reading this he certainly sounds like the All-American Kid.  Born in Princeton, NJ, sophomore at Dexter Regional High School, on the Cross Country Team, the High School Band and Newspaper.  Not only that but he was community minded and served on the Garland Volunteer Junior Fire Department.  Sounds like a college resume, but who knows what was troubling him.  He died 25 Oct 1978, he was 15 years old.  He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Garland, ME.

I went to Find A Grave, to search for Evergreen Cemetery and found that Susan Metzger Baldwin, her husband Joseph Robbins Baldwin, Sr. and his parents: Joseph and Myrtle Baldwin are all listed there, but not Joey.  I called the cemetery and found that Joey is buried with the family, but is not listed in Find A Grave.  I tell people about Find A Grave and they look at me like I'm crazy.  I was explaining to the woman at the Evergreen Cemetery that some of the family is listed on Find A Grave, and she sounded shocked that this web site exists.  I just figured that she would have heard of it.  Anyway, Find A Grave says that Joseph R Baldwin Sr, died 13 Oct 2011 at age 74.  I googled the name and found an obituary in the Bangor Daily News. and the same obit on a website called MarineChat.com

This is from the MarineChat.com website, I liked it because it had two pictures of him.  It also says that he remarried after Susan died.  He was also a lifelong trapper, which may be how Susan became involved with trapping.  He had a brother Billy, who had passed away before him and a brother David, who is a Doctor.  I realize that I am not really related to this man, he would officially be the "husband of my second cousin", but I find it interesting to be able to learn this much about a man who I never knew.  I found out more about him in a two to four week period, than I have about some closer relations over the past eight years.

I also heard from the man who had posted the family tree that started these last two blogs.  He actually met my cousin Gertrude Valleau Metzger.  He said that "Gerty" or Aunt Gert was a very proper lady as he remembered and reminded him of Betty Davis.   He also added a few comments about Susan's family: Susan died of Lupus, young Joey committed suicide with a shotgun, and Joe Sr. was a registered Maine Guide and cut grass a cemeteries in the summer.  I have not gotten back to him yet, but will tonight.

There was also more about Charlie Metzger; Charlie Metzger was his great Uncle, and was Vice President of Trenton State at one point.  He also had an older brother George, who was killed in WWI.  One more thing about Charlie Metzger:  I was at work today, and I use Google Earth alot at work.  While on Google Earth, I "flew" to The College of New Jersey, the new name for Trenton State, and while looking down at the campus below, I  saw a street that circled the campus.  The name of the street caught my eye: Metzger Drive.  I wonder if it was named after him.

You can see it at the bottom right, it kind of parallels inside of Route 31.  Pretty cool huh?

Who is Gertrude Valleau?

Allow me to explain.  Gertrude is the daughter of Mary O'Dea -Valleau and Charles Valleau.  Mary O'Dea is a sister of Marguerite O'Dea - Brady, my paternal grandmother.  Therefore, Gertrude Valleau is my first cousin one time removed.  More easily said - she is my father's first cousin.

Gertrude was born in Jersey City somewhere around 1907 or 1908.  In the 1920 and 1930 censuses, the family lives in Tenafly, NJ.  In 1930, Gertrude still lives in Tenafly with the family and her occupation is listed as Physical Training Teacher.  By the 1940 Census she is married to Charles Metzger with two children: Charles and Susan (who is the subject of my next blog).  They live in Ewing Twp and Charles' occupation is college professor, and both Charles and Gertrude's education status is C5, meaning that they completed more than four years of college.

Let me break here to add that I don't know how I started to check into this line, but when I entered Charles Metzger into Ancestry.com, I found that someone else has a family tree on line that has both Charles and Gertrude in the tree.  I have e mailed the tree owner, but have not received a response yet.  Anyway, on that family tree, I found a photo with a caption of Charles and Gertrude Metzger:

What do you think? Wedding picture maybe?  I sent the picture to my cousin Linda - who is my O'Dea expert - but she could not be sure if this was Gertrude.  The other thing I found was a social security death index entry for Charles Metzger.  He died in Lakewood, NJ 23Aug1996.  I tried to find an obit in the Ocean  County Library newspapers on microfilm - but no luck.  But my trip paid off big time for my next post.

So then I checked Gertrude Valleau on Ancestry.com and found the census records that I already had, but then I found school yearbook entries.  No not High School - a College yearbook!!  There were three entries:

Well, that answers the question of who is in the first picture:

Group shot and I have no idea yet which one is Gertrude, but her name is listed so she must be in the picture, and last but not least:

This was a snippet from a class prophecy type page, I don't know if they eloped or not but this is the 1929 Yearbook and in 1930 she is living at home with mom and dad in Tenafly teaching.

So Gertrude and Charles do get married (or elope) and they have two children of their own: Charles and Susan.  I found that Charles lives in Arizona and Susan married and winds up living most of her adult life in Maine, but that is the subject of my next post.

This is my favorite picture.  It is from the Trenton Sunday Times from 29 May 1927 and the caption which I could not easily scan says:  Prospective Teachers enjoy baseball.  Among the most popular sports at the Trenton Normal School are the bi-weekly baseball contests.

Above is Gertrude Valleau about to pitch a wicked curve.

There were other articles that I found along the way.  One from January 1955 says that Gertrude and her mother Mrs Mary Valleau (who had been widowed in 1946) went on a vacation to Mt Dora Florida. The next month in February 1955, there was a second article stating that Gertrude and her mother Mrs Mary Valleau had returned home from a vacation in Mt Dora, Florida.  The next article was Mary's O'Dea Valleau's obituary in the 17 May 1955 Trenton Times.  So at least they had a nice vacation together before Mary died.

I can't end a story about Gertrude without this last piece:

This is my kind of story - lots of pictures.  So Gertrude and Charles end up moving to Lakehurst, NJ - right down the road from me, and on to Lakewood, where Gertrude dies.  This obit is from the Trenton Times 7May1989, and Charles dies seven years later - his is the obit that I went to the library to find, but never did.

One more thing, I remember when I was younger, that Charlie and Gertrude Metzger had a family reunion in Lakehurst and my family went.  I did not go, and I don't remember why - I was either away at college or I had left school and was a cop at the time and had to work, or I just had much better things to do at Kelly's Tavern.   It is amazing what you think is important in your youth.   Either way, when I found all of this stuff and realized that I had a chance to meet them and missed it.  Well let's just say that I am kicking myself.

So in the end, the answer to the question "Who is Gertrude Valleau?" is pretty complex.  She was a daughter, sister, wife, and mother.  She was also a college graduate at a time when most women did not attend college, she was an athlete who taught physical training, and was an American Red Cross Life Examiner - maybe a lifeguard or EMT of her time, on the college hockey team, swim team, and basketball team.  Sounds like she was ahead of her time, and I am sorry that I missed the chance to meet her.

More About the Bergens

I recently took a couple of trips to the NJ State Archives, with a trip to Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington in between.  The results of these road trips is alot of new information on my mom's family - the Bergens.

While at the Archives, I started by checking old wills, where I had found Pop Bergen, and I found a will for a Thomas J Bergen.  I knew "Pop" Bergen had a brother Thomas, but there was no info in the will to make a family connection and it was dated as probated in 1933.  So I checked for a death certificate in 1933 but couldn't find one, but I did find a death certificate for Patrick Bergen in 1933 and I know he was their brother (mainly because the same parents are listed on the death certificates).  The other thing about the will was that the person listed on the inventory (it was actually more of an inventory than a will) was Catherine Cavanaugh and I had no clue who she was.  I thought she was a lawyer or so official who inventoried his belongings.  I got a few more items at the Archives and called it a day.

The following week, I went on a great website: rcan.org/deceased,which is a database of people buried in cemeteries run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark.  I mentioned this once before, but you can search by name (Last name only if you like) and you will find the cemetery, plot number, and date of burial.  When I entered Thomas Bergen, and Patrick Bergen, I found that they were buried with their wives (Margaret and Mary) in Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington.  ROAD TRIP

On Sunday, my son Tom and I drove to North Arlington armed with the location of the grave (and others which will be a later post).  After a while, we found the section and finally the headstone in the old section of the cemetery.  Here is the headstone:

Who is Mary V Cannon?  We'll get to that later.  So now I know that Thomas died in 1931 and Margaret in 1930.  I also know that Patrick and Mary Bergen are in there somewhere too.  I also know that Patrick and Mary had a daughter Mary, so I am guessing that she married someone named Cannon and this is her buried with her parents.  So much for the cemetery.

Back to the Archives.  I returned to the Archives to search for Thomas and Margaret's death certificates.  I already had Mary's from a previous trip.  I came across it while looking for someone else.  So here is Thomas's death certificate:

If you can read it, it says parents are Edward Bergen and Mary Malone and his wife is Margaret Carroll, but the thing that caught my attention was his occupation: Deputy Fire Chief - never knew that.  I also noted that at the top of the certificate above his name I think it says Jersey City Coroner, which tells me that his death was sudden and/or suspicious and maybe there was a coroner's inquest.  Next I checked the Jersey Journal on microfilm at the archives for obits, and I found them:

Turns out that Thomas was a Deputy Fire Chief at Laurel Hill AKA Snake Hill, this is where the asylum, hospital, potter's field, etc... was located and it was a county facility.  But the obit gives more info on family, it names brothers William and Patrick, and sisters Catherine Cavanaugh and Mary Kennedy.  So now I know Catherine Cavanaugh from his will is his sister, and I am certain that it is his will.  I checked some more on Catherine Cavanaugh and it turns out that she was married and widowed by the time of the 1910 census.  She lives with her children Charles, Edward, and Mary, and her brother Thomas - but not Margaret.  I am guessing that Margaret was sick and maybe spent alot of time in a hospital or nursing facility - maybe Snake Hill.  Other census records indicated that Edward is a Jersey City Police Officer.  I always like finding ancestors who were Police Officers and Firemen it tends to make me feel even more connected to them.

This two weeks with trips to the archives and cemetery really gave me alot of clues to follow up on.  So the archives, and especially the obit from the Jersey Journal really helped put everything together.   Now I have to check on Mary Kennedy and see what I can find about her and her husband and children.  I may find some live cousins who may know more or even have photos.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

"Aunt" Ruth

Did you ever have a very special person who you were not really related to, but was a big part of the family anyway?  So much so that this person earned the honorary title of "Aunt" or "Uncle".  Well, we only had a couple of them.  One was was dad's friend and co-worker, Bill Jones - somehow he earned the title "Uncle Jones".  But none were as special as "Aunt" Ruth.

"Aunt" Ruth Moss

Ruth Moss was our Aunt Alice's (Eeehee) (don't ask), room mate, and I can't believe that this is the only picture I could find.  It was taken at my brother's wedding.  They both worked in Jersey City for Baldwin Paints and Oils in the office.  I remember going to the office one time and you could see the Statue of Liberty from their window.  Anyway, they worked together and lived together in Jersey City, and they visited us almost every weekend "down the shore".  They lived in an apartment building on Fowler Ave until the night that it exploded while my brother Paul was visiting.  Paul got interviewed on the NY News Channel by Gabe Pressman.  This was in the early 60's, I think Paul said he was about 12 years old when it happened, and several people were killed in the explosion. Well so much for that apartment. Next they lived in Saint John's Apartments on Saint Paul's Ave - no I'm not kidding.  Maybe they thought the names would keep them from exploding, I don't know.  I think Saints are a Catholic thing, and Ruth was Jewish so I don't know about that.

Like I said they visited almost every weekend, birthday and holiday.  They always brought us stuff, like candy and toys.  Sometimes Ruth would drive both of them down, but if only Alice came, she would take the train or the bus (the Red and Tan Lines from Journal Square to Asbury Park).  Whenever they visited it was always fun.

I was thinking about Ruth the other day and how little I really know about her.  I know she died in 1979 in her car (that Alice later gave to me), and she had two brothers, but that was just about it.  I remember my mom saying that Ruth did not even know when her birthday was.  My sister told me recently that her brother Herman found her birth certificate shortly before she died and it turned out that she was actually about 9 or 10 years younger than she thought.  I also remember Mom telling me that Ruth had changed her surname at one point to Moss, Mom thought that it was originally Moskowitz.

You don't have to hit me with a brick - I started checking.  First I googled Ruth Moss and found her in the Social Security Death Index.  It gives her birth date as 28 Oct 1900, and her death in New Jersey in Oct 1979.  I went to the Monmouth County Library to check for an obituary in the Asbury Park Press, but could not find one.  That's when I remembered that when Jews die,  their religion requires that they must be buried before the following sunset (Great idea), so  maybe there was not time for an obit.  Then I went on the NJ State Archives website and they have a searchable database for legal name changes.  So I entered the "New Name" as Ruth Moss and BINGO.  Ruth Moskowitz changed her name to Ruth Moss on 7 Apr 1942 in Essex County NJ.  I was off to the Archives and I was able to obtain a copy of the Court Order from the Essex County Court of Common Pleas.  Not only Ruth changed her name, her two brothers: Herman and George, their wives: Celia and Pearl and Herman's daughter Marlene, and George's children: Rita and Malcolm.  Everyone lived at 140 Lehigh Ave in Newark, except Ruth who lived at 21 Borroughs Way, Maplewood.  Not a whole lot of info, but it did remind me of her family.  I remember her talking about all of them as soon as I read the names it came back to me.

When I got home, I ran Ruth Moskowitz through Ancestry.com to check census records and the only one that I found was 1930.  They are living at 155 Lehigh Av, Newark NJ and they are listed as Moskowitz, George age 21 (Head of house), Moskowitz, Herman age 19, and Moskowitz, Ruth age 24.  On the page the last name is listed first and is kind of faded (it is 82 years old) and then the three first names from top to bottom read George Herman Ruth - that is a famous name.  For you non baseball fans that is the name of the immortal Babe - BABE RUTH.  So I guess Ruth was destined to be a Yankee fan.  As a matter of fact, one of her nephews would later be a part owner of the team - I have an old Yankee Yearbook that has his name listed and a photo of him.  The best part of the census record is that is says  that they were all born in New Jersey.  We all know what that means by now "ROAD TRIP" to the archives for birth certificates.  Well that's enough for now, but I'll be back to "Aunt" Ruth when I find more info.

Holy Crap, Look What I Found

It usually takes a while for any advice to me to sink in.  Whether it is good or bad advice does not seem to have any bearing on my ability to listen to it.  I prove it all the time, and I have done it again.

In every genealogy podcast, lecture, class, etc..., almost every instructor will tell you to read every document that you find very carefully, because you never know what you may miss.  For instance, I just got done writing a blog about Family Search, the Family History Center, and the recent information that I found about the baptism of my grandmother, Catherine Mary McConville and her sister, Florence.  After writing the blog, I was looking at the entry for my grandmother's baptism in the ledger book of St Patrick's Catholic Church at 492 Bramhall Ave, Jersey City, when I saw another entry to the ledger written in.  Above my grandmother's name, I saw the name Edward Bergen written.  My first thought was that there was a Bergen baptized on the same day in the church, which would be odd because my grandmother would marry Edward Bergen in 1919.  Then I looked closer and this is what I saw:

My grandmother's name is on the bottom line, and written in above it says "Married Edward Bergen" then it says something I can't read.  Then I looked at the corresponding lines on the right hand page:

The line above my grandmother's godparents says: "J.C. (not THE J. C., it means Jersey City) Aug 27, 1919 by Rev. W. Costello.  Now you may not remember me telling the story about finding out when they married - but I discovered that Grandma was probably pregnant with my uncle at the time of the wedding.  Anyway, I have the marriage certificate from the State of NJ, signed by Rev. Costello with an address of 511 Pavonia Ave (Not St. Patricks Church)  511 Pavonia Ave is the address of St Joseph's Church.  I wonder if the change in Parishes had anything to do with the premature arrival of my Uncle Bill.  Or maybe they had simply moved and changed parishes.  Whatever the reason, the notation was entered in St Patrick's ledger book - I am pretty sure that this is supposed to happen.  BUT, if this is supposed to happen - how come there is no notation of Florence's marriage to Joseph Markey in the ledger by her baptism?  Maybe the notation was made somewhere else because the ledger books would be getting too tough to read.  Whatever the reason, I thought that this was an amazing find.

So the moral of the story, if there is one, is to read everything very carefully - you never know what you may come across.

Family Search and the Family History Center

I'm a big fan of the Mormon Church and their website: familysearch.org.  Here's how it works:  You go to the website:  https://www.familysearch.org and enter the name of the person you are searching for.  (The best part of this is that you can do all of this in the comfort of your home, dressed comfortably with a snack and/or a drink)  You can add extra info, such as date of birth, parents, place that they lived, etc...   Click on search and away we go.  You can get a variety of results from federal census records, state census records, NJ State Death  and Burial records,  and some Catholic Church Baptismal and Marriage records.  Along with the results, sometimes there is a digital image to view and/or save to your computer, and with each result you can get the microfilm roll number from the family history library in Salt Lake City, but you don't have to go to Salt Lake City to view the record.  You can order the microfilm from a local Family History Center near you (mine is in Eatontown)  It costs $5.50 to have the microfilm roll shipped to the FHC.   When the reel comes in, you can used their microfilm readers to view it.

So, having said all of that, I have previously had some good luck with Catholic Church Records from Jersey City, NJ. that I located on this site.  I found a bunch of records for my dad's O'Dea family baptisms and marriages.  The marriage records give you maiden names for the bride, and the parents of both the bride and groom - very helpful.  The baptism records give you birth dates and baptism dates, parents names (including the mother's maiden name) and Sponsors names - who usually turn out to be relatives.

All right, he is finally getting to the point.  I went  to the family search site and looked up Florence McConville.  I entered her parents names: Edward McConville and Hannah Sullivan, and BINGO.  One of the results is a baptismal record from 26 Nov 1899.  The entry says that she was baptized 26 Nov 1899 in Saint Patricks Catholic Church in Jersey City. It gives her parents names and a birth date of 11 Nov 1899.  When you click on her name, it gives you basically the same info in another format, which includes the microfilm number of 1403369 titled "New Jersey Births and Christenings 1660 - 1980".  As it turns out, when I called the FHC in Eatontown, they already have the film there.  So  I finally getting around to get driving up there to view the film.  The film is a group of ledger books of church records.  The first thing on the reel is an index.  In the index, I find a McConville - but not Florence - it is Catherine.  That is my grandmother's name (Florence is her sister).  I had run her through familysearch.org and did not get this result, she was born 10 Dec 1896 and baptized 3 Jan 1897 and her sponsors are listed as William (unreadable) and Mary Wharton.  Mary Wharton is probably the daughter of Willie and Annie Wharton who brought Hannah and Mary Ann Sullivan in the US after their father died, as nannies for their children.  The next index contains Florence McConville and the ledger lists her sponsors as Joseph A Findally (?) and Elizabeth Milford - another cousin.  Elizabeth is the daughter of Poppa Mac's sister Mary Emma McConville Milford.

More confirmation that Aunt Florence's recollections of family relations is right on the money once again.  Each baptism has a sponsor who is a cousin whom I never would have known about were it not for Aunt Florence.  So I had a good day at the Family History Center, only 15 minutes from my house - and that is important with the price of gas these days.  I got the record for Florence McConville Markey that I came for, plus I got a bonus and found my grandmother's baptism to boot.  Not too shabby. 

Granddpa Brady

I know it has been a while, but this time I have a great excuse -  Hurricane Sandy.  On Monday October 29, 2012 (just two days after my last post) the Jersey Shore was hit by a hurricane - actually it was not classified as a hurricane when it hit, but it did incredible damage.  My family and I were spared any permanent damage, just some trees down and no electrical power.  We lost power on October 29 and got it restored on November 10, twelve days without electricity.  It wasn't that bad because the day before the storm hit, I got a generator - so we could use lights and refrigeration - so it wasn't that bad.  But I did not have cable, computer, or internet - so no blogging.  Now that I have power, I have been trying to think of what I can write about.  I thought about Hurricane Donna which hit the Jersey Shore in 1960 when I was a kid, but that seemed kind of lame for a genealogy topic.  I have been thinking about writing about my grandfather, Thomas James Brady.  I had created a timeline in Excel for him to help me keep track of where he was in each event in his life, but now I can't find it.  So I will just tell all of the places and dates that I know about.

Thomas James Brady was born 27 Aug 1891 in Gordon, PA to James Edward Brady and Madge Bradley He was baptized in St Joseph's Catholic Church in Ashland PA on 30 Aug 1891 and his sponsors were listed in a letter from the church as Joannis Davis and Lilly Bradley.  I checked on line and it seems that Joannis is Latin for John, and I think that Lilly is misspelled.  I know from census records that Madge had a sister Lizzie who is probably the sponsor.  1891 is also the year that Carnegie Hall, then known as Music Hall,  opens its doors in New York with its first public performance under guest conductor, Tchaikovsky.
Benjamin Harrison is the 23rd President of the United States and alternating current is transmitted for the first time by the Ames Power Plant near Telluride, Colorado.

Thomas still lives in Gordon when his mother Madge or Maggie dies in September 1892, the year of the opening of Ellis Island.  The next time I find him is in the 1900 census, living with his grandparents (Brady) in Scranton, PA (his father still lives in Gordon and works on the Railroad).  In 1910, he lives with his grandmother - Bridget Brady - in Scranton and is working for the railroad as a clerk.  During his time in Scranton, President William McKinley is assassinated in Buffalo, NY and Theodore Roosevelt becomes the 26th President of the US.

Next stop is Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey.  He marries my grandmother - Marguerite O'Dea on 18 Nov 1914.  He was living at 359 Whiton St, Jersey City, and she lived at 361 Pacific Ave, Jersey City.  The witnesses were Marguerite's brother William O'Dea and her sister Mary Valleau.  1914 sees basic wages raised at the Ford Motor Company.  Workers now would receive $5 per day for eight hours of work versus $2.40 per day for nine hours previously, Babe Ruth makes his major league debut, and the big news: President Woodrow Wilson announces that the United States will stay officially neutral in the European conflict that would become World War I.  World War I hostilities had begun on June 28 when the Archduke of Austria and his wife, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were killed by Serb nationalists in Sarajevo.  Hostilities would begin on July 28 when Austro-Hungary declared war on Serbia for failing to meet conditions set after the assassinations.

He lives at 9 1/2 Grant Ave Jersey City when their first child (my uncle Jim) is born 18 Sep 1915, and he still lives here on 5 Jun 1917, when he registers for the Draft for World War I.   (the same conflict that President Wilson announced the US would not enter) He listed his occupation as Brakeman for the Central Railroad of NJ.  I do not think that he served in WWI.  During 1915, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson conduct the first telephone conversation between New York and San Francisco.

Next up is the 1920 US Census and he is listed at 9 1/2 Grant Ave.  He lives here with his wife, son James, daughter Marguerite (my Aunt Margie), his mother-in-law Mary O'Dea, his sister-in-law Gertrude Tully and his niece Mary Tully (my Godmother).  Now this is just an observation - but I am guessing that 9 1/2 Grant Ave is an apartment because there are at least four other families living at this address.  So he is living with his wife, two children, widowed mother-in-law, widowed sister-in-law and niece.  That's seven people in an apartment, sounds pretty crowded.  Thomas is still a brakeman on the railroad and his sister-in-law is the only other person in the apartment employed.  She is a Floor Lady in an electrical shop.  I know that Gertrude will remarry a man named William Rickert, so she and Mary Tully will move out to live with him.  But his mother-in-law's widowed brother will move in and is listed in the 1930 census.  Just sounds to me like he is a pretty good sport.

1920 is a big year in US History.On August 18 women are given the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to the United States constitution grants universal women's suffrage. The next presidential election was in 1922 and Warren G Harding became the 29th president.  Makes you wonder who your ancestors voted for, the women especially.  It also makes you wonder who ran against Harding.  It is also in 1920 that for the first time, the 1920 census indicated a population in the United States over 100 million people.  The other big events of the 1920's were the start of Prohibition on January 17, 1920 and the 1929 Stock Market crash happened on October 29, 1929  . The Great Depression begins.

The 1930 Census takes us to 1859 19th Avenue, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, NY where we find Thomas and Marguerite, living with five children (including my dad), his mother-in-law, Mary O'Dea, and her brother James.  This residence seems to be a single family dwelling and Thomas is employed as a restaurant manager, and he is now the only one employed.  My sister Pat seems to think that the restaurant was the Automat - but we don't know for sure.

Somewhere in the 30's, he leaves the family (supposedly with another woman).  He has become an alcoholic and will come and go occasionally.  I have seen newspaper articles when my dad and his two brothers came home from the War, and he is described as the "late" Thomas Brady. I have also seen where Marguerite was widowed in 1932.  I guess that is when he left for good.

The next record that I find for him is his application for a Social Security Number.  His application is dated 21 Jul 1937, and gives his address as 350 W. 85th St. New York City, NY.  He is employed by Silvers Standard Corp. 1 Willoughby St, Brooklyn, NY and his is issued Social Security # 119-12-2933.  The Social Security Act was passed by Congress as part of the New Deal legislation and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 14, 1935.  It would begin payouts to retirees within two years.  Workers began contributing into the system during the same year, at a rate of 2% of the first $3,000 in earnings, half paid by the employee and half paid by the employer.  Prohibition is also repealed on December 5, 1933 with the passage of the 21rst Amendment.

I have not yet found him in the 1940 US Census, but he does register for the Draft for World War II on 27 Apr 1942.  He is 50 years old and resides at 242 Pacific Ave. Jersey City, NJ.  The form asks for the name and address of a person who will always know your address.  He writes Frank Nappie - Same Address.  Really sounds kind of sad that he comes from such a big family and the person who will always know his address is Frank Nappie.  I don't know who this man is, but I guess that Thomas is a boarder in his home (maybe a friend from work).  Okay we're winding down now.

Next address is 173 Boulevard Ave, Throop PA, which is a suburb of Scranton, then on to the Carbondale Nursing Home where he dies on 21 Aug 1974.  No one claims his body and he is buried in an unmarked grave in Mother of Sorrows Cemetery Finch Hill, Greenfield Township in Lackawanna County PA. 

The year of his death includes some noteworthy events:
7 Feb  - "Blazing Saddles" opens in theaters
27 Feb - "People" magazine begins sales
4 Apr - Hank Aaron ties Babe Ruth's Home Run record of 714 career home runs
8 Aug - Richard Nixon resigns the Presidency in the midst of the Watergate Scandal and Gerald Ford is sworn in as the 38th President of the US
Also in August 1974 a monsoon flood ravages Bangladesh killing 2,500 people
The last major event was my graduation from high school and in September I would start my 27 year quest for my college degree.  Pretty historic.