Black Friday 2014 = Fun at the State Archives

Whoever wrote this must be a real exiting guy. This is one happenin' dude.  The easy answer is that I was off and they were not, and I am not big on real crowded malls - or empty malls for that matter.  So off I went to the archives, under the guise of getting my own birth certificate at the nearby Dept. Of Vital Statistics, not the archives, thank you very much.  However, after trying to park near vital statistics, I decided to do it on line, and stay at the archives.

My goal at the archives was to find a death certificate for Daniel O'Dea, brother of my great grandfather Michael O'Dea.  I know he was in Jersey City in the 1900 census, and I found him in city directories in 1901, 1902, and 1903.  In the 1910 census, his wife Mary is listed as a widow.  So I was able to quickly ind his death certificate on the second roll of microfilm that I checked.  Turns out he died on 26 Feb 1905, at his home at 244 Suydam Ave, Jersey City.  Cause of death - cancer of the neck, perhaps it is throat cancer and he was a smoker? Or chewed tobacco? I don't know, but it says he was sick for two years.  Doesn't sound like a fun two years though.  You will never guess where he is buried - Holy Name Cemetery, Jersey City, another shocker.  The other thing that I wanted to see is his mother's name, and it is listed as Catherine O'Dea (not Honora) but did not give her maiden name, DANG.  But now I know that Michael and Daniel had the same mother, Catherine and the rest of the siblings were born to Honora McGuan O'Dea.

Here is the death certificate that I found:

The one thing I didn't mention was how I found the death certificate so easily.  I checked the spelling O'Day first, it's pretty much a crap shoot on how they spelled it.  The microfilm has them in alphabetical order, so I just checked O'Day first before scrolling to O'Dea - saves me some time.  Next I tried Jersey City newspapers for an obit, but I came up empty.  The I tried to see if there was a will - again no dice. So my goal was reached, so it was time to leave.  But I just couldn't do it.

So I decided to look for wills from other ancestors, namely the Sterlings.  I couldn't remember looking up their names in the card file.  No Sterlings, and I then I thought a moment and remembered Margaret Sterling, she had married Thomas Keogh, had a baby girl, Helen, and soon thereafter she died.  I found Helen living with her grandparents, John and Mary Sterling, but I could never find Margaret's husband Thomas Keogh again.  So I checked for Thomas A. Keogh, and I found a will.  In the Will, he bequeaths $250.00 to his daughter Helen, BINGO!!!

The executrix is his wife Annie Keogh, and the will was signed on 8 Mar 1935.  After finding the will, I checked for a death certificate.  I found it, Thomas died 5 April 1935, less than a month after making his will.  The death certificate says that he lived at 299 Halliday Ave, Jersey City, and was married to the former Annie Kennedy - another Kennedy branch in the family.  He was born in Jersey City on on 22 Feb 1875 to John Keogh and Kate Glynn.  These are the same parents that appear on his marriage return from his marriage to Margaret Sterling.  This confirms that I have found the elusive Thomas Keogh, who is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington.  He died of a carcinoma of the liver, so I guess he knew he was dying when he wrote out his will.  One last detail is occupation - he was a retired Jersey City Fireman at the time of his death.  If you remember, Mary Sterling married Michael Sheehan, a Jersey City Policeman.  That whole public service thing must be in the blood, it seems to have reached my brothers and I, and now my brother's son just got hired as a Policeman.

That's why I like finding cops and firemen in my research, it makes me feel more connected to them.

Cathedral Cemetery, Scranton, PA

   I know that I just told you about Calvary and Mt. Olivet Cemeteries in New York, so now the plan is to tell you about my Bradys, who are buried in the other big city - Scranton, PA, and my Bradley's from Schuylkill County.  Last weekend was Halloween, and I decided to get out of Dodge, and travel to Scranton via Pottsville (the county seat for Schuylkill County) and check for property records for my Bradley ancestors.  Turns out they must not have owned property, cause I could not find any.  

I did, however, find a will for my Great grandmother (Madge Bradley's) brother James.  The executor was his brother Joseph.  The estate consisted of money deposited in the bank and no property.  I thought he had a tidy sum put away, but by the time the bills were paid, the funeral was paid for, and the headstone, there was only a couple of hundred dollars left.  

Then I drove to Ashland to check out St. Joseph's cemetery where I think my Great grandfather James is buried.  But I found nothing of interest.  So I drove to the Ashland Area Historical Society, but it was closed.  There was a sign in the window that said they are open by appointment only, with a phone number.  I called the number, but no one answered.  So much for Ashland.

Then I was off to my sister's house for the night, and a gourmet meal prepared by my brother-in-law.  On my way out in the morning, my sister offered to go to Cathedral Cemetery in Scranton to look up two Brady plots that I recently found thanks to the Pennsylvania Death Certificates database on ancestry.com.  That's all I needed.  We called and a man was in the office and said he would be there until we got there.  When we got there, he gave us a map ,and direction to two plots.  He even copied the file card for us that lists who is buried there and the dates.  I have to say that the folks at Cathedral Cemetery have been consistently the most helpful people - as cemeteries go.

Anyway, we found this headstone first:

                              

This is for James Brady and his wife, Alberta Wenis, with DATES!!  Also buried here are Jacob and Elizabeth Wenis, parents of Alberta.  Alberta and James also had a son, Joseph, who died at 7 years old.  His death certificate says he is buried at Cathedral, but the cemetery has no record of him.  I bet he is also buried here with his parents.

The next plot we located had this headstone:

                               

How do you like this?  Names and dates, looks like these Bradys didn't get the memo either - you know, the one about secrecy and not giving up information so easily.  This is the grave of John Brady (my great grandfather James' brother) and his wife Annie Butler.  I posted their obits not too long ago.  Also here are their daughter Agnes Brady and her husband Edward Sipple.  If you look closely, there are two more names etched on the base beneath the headstone.  On the right is Mary Goetz, (daughter of Edward and Agnes) and on the left is her husband Darrel J. Goetz.  

I actually met Mary when I started this venture in about 2005.  I had written a letter to every Brady I could find in the Scranton phone book.  One day, I got a call from a woman named Peggy Brady, who lived in Scranton and had gotten my letter.  She said to me "I haven't figured out quite how, but I think we're cousins".  We arranged to meet in Long Branch, that August because she and her cousin Mary were going on a retreat with the church, and it was in Long Branch - about 15 minutes from my house.  We met and talked family, and took a picture.  They were both very nice and I have spoken to Peggy since then, but not too recently.  I did not know that Mary had passed away.  I enjoyed meeting my newly found cousins, and will talk with Peggy again.

So it turned into a productive trip, thanks to some relatives who were willing to break the code of silence and list names and dates on headstones - not to mention very helpful employees at Cathedral Cemetery.

Brooklyn & Queens Cemeteries

  So today I took a trip that I have been looking forward to for over two years.  Let me back up to a blog I posted in June of 2013.  I had information that I had not followed up on.  That a family tree written by my mom's cousin says that a good number of my mom's family is buried in Brooklyn/Queens.  Specifically Calvary Cemetery and Mt. Olivet Cemetery.  In other words, this is a trip I've been dying to make.

Today is Election Day and I am off from work, and a couple of days ago I suggested to my wife that we take a ride and get some lunch, then come home.  We could make a day of it. She readily agreed -and it was a beautiful, sunny day with temperatures in the high 60's. I prepared for the trip by making phone calls to the cemeteries to make sure I knew where the plots were located.  That done, with my iPad for pictures and iPhone for Siri and directions, we were off.

First stop - Calvary Cemetery and the grave of my Great great grandparents, Peter and Catherine McConville as well as their son, Peter.

According to Wikipedia:

Calvary Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery in Queens,New York City, New York, United States. With about 3 million burials,^[1] it has the largest number of interments of any cemetery in the United States; it is also one of the oldest cemeteries in the United States.^[2] It is owned by theRoman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and managed by the Trustees of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

The first Calvary Cemetery burial in occurred on July 31, 1848. The name of the deceased was Esther Ennis, having reportedly “died of a broken heart.” By 1852 there were 50 burials a day, half of them poor Irish under seven years of age.

So here amongst the three million burials lie my McConville ancestors, and I found their headstone with relative ease: 

                                            

Yup, right there in section 4B, Range 30, Plot D, Grave 6.  Now Peter and Catherine had four children: Edward (my great grandfather), John, Peter (who was buried here in 1948), and Mary Emma.  According to a 1900 census record, Catherine had 11 children and only these 4 survived to adulthood.  Mary Emma married a man named Robert Milford and had several children.  The Milford's final resting place was Part II of today's trip.  

Next stop: Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Maspeth, Queens, NY.

In order to find my McConville ancestors, I had gotten a map of the cemetery two years ago showing where the section that they are buried in is located.  For Mt. Olivet, I received an email message telling me where to find the headstone.  I was able to find it in about 10 minutes!!!

Mt. Olivet was established in 1850, and covers 71 acres.  I did not find any Wikipedia entry for it, but I can tell you this.  We were driving through city streets on Grand Ave, when I saw a traffic light and on the left side of the street was a clump of trees.  When you get to the light, and turn left through the gates, and enter the cemetery, you almost immediately forget that you are in New York City.  This is 71 acres of prime real estate, with no buildings.  It is actually like walking in a park, very scenic.  Although we found the headstone quickly, we walked around for another half hour just looking at unique headstones.  This headstone was located in Lot 4161, Section F:

                                             

Here lies Mary Emma McConville Milford and her Husband Robert J Milford and some of their children: Mary Emma Barth and her husband Frederick W. Barth;  Olive Milford Shields, and her daughter Elaine Marie Shields ; and Elizabeth Dawson and her husband William J Dawson.  It appears that the last burial here is their son William M Dawson, who was buried 14 Feb 1981.  So I may find some living cousins from this trip.  I also think there is a story with Olive Shields and her daughter Elaine.  I notice that there is no husband buried here, and I found Elaine listed in an index of deaths in New York.  She was born in 1929, so she was only five years old when she died - less than a year after her mother, who was only 30 years old herself.  I am gonna have to call Aunt Florence again.

Catherine McParlan 1837 to 1913

I remember that I mentioned in a previous post, that my great great grandmother was named Catherine McPartland and she married Peter McConville in England.  While doing this recent research, I was looking for census records for Catherine McPartland in Manchester, Lancashire, England and I could not find any - even though the 1861 census says that both Peter and Catherine were born in Lancashire.

See?  It says that they were both born Hulme, Lancashire.  So the next thing I did was to search for a marriage record for them.  I located an index of marriages from 1857:

Yeah, I know, it's hard to read, but she is listed towards the bottom of the page as Catherine McParlan, registration district is Manchester, then it lists the index volume and page as Volume 8d, page 561 and it is for the fourth quarter of 1857.  This means that it lists marriages for Oct, Nov, and Dec 1857.  There is a separate entry for Peter McConville with the same volume and page listed, but I did not show it here.  So I know they were married in Manchester in October 1857.  But the best part is that I now know that her last name is spelled McParlan, not the McPartland that I had been searching under.  Just so you know, I got the McPartland spelling from a family tree my mom's cousin did, quite awhile ago.  (Probably back before I cared).  But the point is that she gave me  a starting point - and a real close one - for my great great grandmother's maiden name.  If not for her effort, I wouldn't have had a "McClue".

So with the proper spelling of her last name, I now found a census listing in 1851 - before they were married.  The 1851 census lists the McParlan family living in Manchester:

The family consists of Edward McParlan, age 58, born in Ireland, and I think his occupation is "confectioner", which I think is a candy maker. His wife, Mary Ann is 40 years, born in Ireland, and is at home, then we have the children:  Ann is 14 and is employed in Waterproofing - she was born in Manchester, as were the rest of the children, Catherine is 11 and works as a bread maker, it looks like Catherine has a twin sister Mary, who is also a bread maker, Margaret is 5, and Emma is 9 months old.  So Edward is the only male in the household - he has a wife and 5 daughters.  So this looks like the second set of twins that I have found - one on Peter's side and one on Catherine's side.  Now that I think about it, my mom always said that twins ran in the family and she always wanted to have a set of twins in our bunch.  Now I know where the twins came in.  But in all my research, these two sets of twins are the only ones, so I guess twins did not run very far - just in that generation.  Interesting.

The other thing I find interesting is the occupations - a confectioner? Really? and his daughter at age 14 is in waterproofing.  Somehow that just sounds backwards - he should be in waterproofing and she should be the candy maker.  But the twin daughters are both bread makers (or bakers I guess).  Even on the McConville side  of this marriage you had weavers,  dyers, and packers of cotton.  I guess the area where the McConvilles llived may have been more rural and the confectioners, waterproofers, and bread makers may have lived in a more urban area.  This, of course, is all speculation on my part but I am thinking that employment opportunities depended on the area that you lived. in.  

The other thing that I noticed is that Peter's parents - Edward and Alice - were both born in England, but Catherine's parents - Edward and Mary Ann - were both born in Ireland.  So the McParlans are can be traced back to the old sod easier than the McConvilles.  I think I have some more research to do, but I'm not doin' bad so far.

The McConvilles of Manchester England

Yeah, you read it right - England.  Mom always said that the McConvilles came from England - Manchester to be more precise - but, she said that they had moved there from Ireland because there was no work on the Emerald Isle.  So I figured that one generation back I would find them in Ireland, but apparently that is not the case.  I am pretty sure that I located the family in Manchester England back in about 1800.  So it looks like my mom's peeps (on her mother's side anyway) were limeys.

So I found the 1861 census for Manchester England on Ancestry.com, and there at the bottom of the page is Peter McConville - Boat Maker, age 25,and it says that he was born in Manchester:

Below him is his wife Catherine, age 24, weaver, also born in Manchester.  Last, but not least, is my great grandfather, Edward S. McConville, age 1, and born in Manchester - like he had a choice!  I was kinda surprised to see that Peter McConville was born in Manchester, I really thought he was my connection back to the old sod, but apparently not.

So next, I looked up Peter McConville to see where he lived before this, and I found another census from Manchester, England, this one from 1851:

So once again at the bottom of the page we see the McConvilles, starting with James, age 52 and his wife Alice, age 54.  James is a Lodge Porter, and looking to the right it says that he also was born in Manchester, as was his wife Alice.  So if this is the 1851 census - I am no math wizard, but - that means that both of them were born in Manchester somewhere around 1800.  I'm almost scared to go back any farther, I may have a relative who fought against the colonies in the American Revolution.  Any way it looks like Peter had a sister Elizabeth, age 20 in this census, who was a cotton spinner, and a brother Richard, age 17, who worked as a packer (of cotton - I guess), and then there is Peter, age 15, employed as a dyer (also of cotton - I guess).

Then I figured that I would push my luck and shoot for 1841, and Presto:

So ten years earlier, there are older children - at least four of them.  In 1841, James is working as a weaver, so it looks like the family works in the textile industry.  So, here is the rundown on the 1841 census:

We have James age 40, working as a weaver, and his wife Alice age 40, then we start with the children:  John is 20 and working as a  weaver, next in line appears to be fifteen year old twins - Mary and Alexander.  Mary has no occupation listed and Alexander is a weaver, next is James age 13, employed as a packer, then we get to the children listed in 1851 (only younger) Elizabeth is 10, Richard is 8, and Peter is 5.

So I'm really on the move now, but I don't want to get crazy here.  I'm not absolutely certain that these are my ancestors - but it sure looks like them.  The ages fit and even the names are  basically the same a few generations later.  You have Peter, James, John, Mary and even Alice.  But some of them are different too like Elizabeth, Richard, and Alexander.  I really believe that these are my McConvilles and I'm gonna work on proving it.

Next post is going to be some more English records that I found about Peter McConville's wife Catherine (McPartland).   So until then, Ta Ta.

The Davis family in Schuylkill County

Okay, so it's been awhile since my last post.  I have actually done a lot of research in the past month, some on mom's side and some on dad's side.  So I have been trying to figure out which one to write about.  So Dad won the  coin toss.  I recently drove up to my sister's house in Scranton, so on the way I had to detour through Schuylkill County - Pottsville to be exact.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but when my Bradys lived in Gordon, there was a family named Davis who lived right near them.  The Davis family was always listed right near the Brady family on each federal census.  In 1900 and 1910, my great grandfather James Brady is listed as a boarder living with the family - this is after the rest of the family moved to Scranton.  I also noticed that one of the witnesses at my Great Grandfather's wedding was a Davis, and I think one of my Grandfather's Godparents was a Davis. This got me to thinking that the Davis' are related somehow.

When the database of Pennsylvania Death Certificates became available on Ancestry.com, I located a death certificate for Patrick J Davis of Gordon.  He died on 14 May 1916 of apoplexy.  The Doctor was signed the death certificate is Thomas McCutcheon - the same doctor who signed my great grandfather's death certificate,.  The funeral home was Burke Brothers - also the same - and place of burial or removal is listed as Ashland - also the same as Great Grandpa.  The informant of the death certificate was listed as Mary Davis - not his wife, but probably a daughter.  This added to my curiosity.  So I went to Pottsville to look for the obituary for a dead neighbor of my dead ancestor.  Man I think I got it  bad now.  I checked for the obit and could not find one, so this is another similarity.

My next move was to go to the Courthouse and check for a will.  Again, I hit a dead end - please pardon the pun.  But then I thought "what about his wife Catherine? maybe she had a will"   Mind you, I never found a death certificate for her in Pennsylvania, but I figure it couldn't hurt to check - I even had time left on the parking meter.  There were three Catherine Davis' listed and I quickly ruled out two of them, and the third one was for a Catherine Davis who died in New York, but had property in Gordon.  This is when the bells started ringing, then I saw the executrix - Mary Davis.  This had to be her.  So I open the envelope, and the first line made me certain.  It said "I, Catherine Davis, widow of Patrick Davis".  So now I know why I couldn't find her in the Pennsylvania database - because she died in New York City - didn't see that coming.

She listed her three daughters: Mary Davis, Delia Davis and Rose Davis of the City of New York as the executerixes, as well as, Nellie Holleran of the Borough of Ashland, County of Schuylkill and State of Pennsylvania.  No I don't know who Nellie Holleran is.  Anyway it says that she leaves property in Gordon to be sold and the proceeds divided among her three daughters. One of the last lines in the will states "decedant died October 15, 1922, which is actually 92 years ago tomorrow, but the will was not probated until August 1930 - makes you wonder what the delay was.  I wonder if the daughters just came across the will one day and did not even realize that the property was in their mother's name.  One more thing before I move on, she signed will was "her mark", which was an "X", so she could not write

Next stop is the Recorder of Deeds, right here in the same building - but two floors up. I found the deed to Lot 12 in Gordon issued on 1 Jan 1869, describing the sale of the lot by David McKnight and his wife Elizabeth of the City of Reading, County of Berks, State of Pennsylvania, andJames McKnight of the same place, party of the first part, and Patrick Davis of the Town of Gordon, County of Schuylkill,party of the second part - no mention of his wife - for the sum of $125.00.  I may have mentioned this in a previous post about the Bradys, but in case I haven't, I previously found the deed for property in Gordon between Thomas A Brady and the same McKnights for Lot 11.  The kicker is that the sale took place on 1 Jan 1869.  Don't have to hit me with a brick, these two families bought lots next to each other on the same day and from the same people.  There has got to be a connection between these families - but what.  Looks like I opened a whole new can of worms and now I have some fishin' to do.

Dr. William F and Hannah Casey Brady, Scranton PA

So, remember a few posts back - okay maybe a few more than a few posts back - I was looking for the final resting place of William F Brady.  As I am sure you remember, Dr. Brady died 18 Sep 1917 at his home in Scranton PA.

You my also remember that ancestry.com now has a database of Pennsylvania Death Certificates from 1906 through 1944.  Well 1917 is in that time frame, so guess what I found:

Yes, this is him, died at at 55.  Did you notice the informant's signature?  Mrs. W.F.Brady, nice handwriting.  He died of 'Angina Pectoris' (I think that's a heart attack or a reasonable facsimile thereof), it also says the duration was "a few  hours", so at least he didn't suffer too long.  Anyway, the best part is place of burial or removal: St. Mary's Cemetery.  That's the one in Dunmore, where Hannah's father is buried.  It is also the cemetery that I walked through, but could not find any Caseys or Bradys.

I didn't find Hannah's death certificate - she actually died in 1958 (fourty years later).  It almost scares me to say this, but that means that she died after I was born - YIKES.  However, I knew her death date, so I was able to locate her obituary in the Scranton Times:

This was published in 1958, so at least they print her first name, but her husband - who has been dead for 41 years - still makes the headline and the entire second paragraph.  It even gives his exact date of death.  He must have been a pretty famous and well liked guy.  But it does tell you alot about her, born in the Bellvue section of Scranton, attended St Cecelia's Academy and Mount St. Vincent's School, New York City, where she specialized in vocal and instrumental music.  Pretty talented.  I think I read somewhere else that both of her daughters attended St. Vincent's on the Hudson also and became teachers.

The last thing I noticed is that all three of their children are still living at home in 1958.  They are all into their fifties.  John is married with three children, Regina and Hannah never married.  I don't know how big their house was, but it certainly sounds crowded.  But you know, it sound crowded in a nice kind of way - crowded with family. 

 I am from a big family, I have three brothers and three sisters.  Now my wife and I have five children, so I am used to having a lot of family under one roof - and I always liked it that way, still do.  So if nothing else, it was probably very interesting.