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.

August Brady 1884-1907

A few years ago, I wrote a post about Raymond Brady, son of John Brady and Ann Butler.  While I was writing and checking Newspapers.com for more information, I came across an article about August Brady dying in Buffalo, NY.  So I quickly looked for him in my tree, and found that he would have been 23 years old.  I thought it was odd that a young man would die of heart failure and so far from home.  It also said he left behind a wife and two children.  The last record I had for him was the 1900 census, and he was 16, living at home with his family.  That would mean that in seven years he moved to Buffalo, NY, married, and had two children.  That's a busy seven years for a young guy.  Here's what I found out in the last two days during my Covid19 self quarentine.

I was searching August Brady on Ancestry.com and came across a family tree published by someone else that had my August Brady and his new family.  This is what I pieced together.

August Brady was born in Gordon, Pa in 1884, fourth child born to John Brady and Ann Butler.  I'm not exactly sure of the entire story, but I am guessing that he worked in the steel mill in Scranton, and when it closed and moved to Buffalo, Augustus followed to work in the mill.

Apparently, a young lady from Scranton, Margaret Finnegan also moved to the Buffalo area with her family (Father, Mother, and five siblings).  Augustus and Margaret marry on 20 Feb 1902 in W Seneca, NY and on 24 Jun 1903, Margaret gives birth to a son, Allen.  Gus, Margaret and Allen are listed in the 1905 NY State Census at 229 First St, W. Seneca, NY with Margaret's family on 1 June 1905.  Eight days later, Margaret gives birth to a little girl, Eleanor Margaret, on 9 Jun 1905.

On Saturday August 10,1907, tragedy strikes.  August goes to work at the Lackawanna Steel Plant and dies of heart failure.  He leaves behind his wife and two small children, but there is more.  Margaret is pregnant and eleven days later, she delivers a son, Augustine C Brady, Jr.

Margaret marries a second time in 1911, to a man named Gustave Lawrence Stoehr and together they have six more children.

As for August's three children, here is what happened to them:

Augustine C. Brady, Jr married Adele Schmatz on 13 Apr 1937 in Boston, NY and worked at the Bethlehem Steel Plant in Lackawanna, NY.  In 1945 he moved to Trenton, NJ and became a restaurant manager.  On 1 Dec 1945, he had a heart attack and died at age 38.

Eleanor Margaret Brady married William Murphy on 8 Dec 1923 in Buffalo, NY.  William is a salesman of medical supplies, and as far as I can tell, they had three children, Thomas, William, and Judith. Eleanor dies on 3 Dec 1940, and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Lackawanna, NY.  She was 35 years old.

Last, but certainly not least, Allen Brady.  As best as I can tell, Allen did not marry and have children.  He did join the US Navy, and according to his obituary, he died in Vladivostok, Siberia on 4 Jun 1922.  He and seven other sailors  disappeared when their boat capsized, and a two day search of Amoor Bay failed to uncover any trace of the men.  The seven men were in a motor launch from the gunboat USS New Orleans, and it is believed that the boat capsized in a sudden squall.  He was 19 years old.

Pretty depressing story, first August dies at age 23 of a heart attack, and his three children all die before their mother.

So maybe this pandemic isn't so bad, look at what I found out with the extra time on my hands.

McConville-Sullivan

When I first started this venture in about 2004, my mom gave me a family tree that her cousin, Lenore had given her.  She had titled it "The Sullivan's and McConville's Ancestral Chart - Five Generations".  It was more of a spread sheet than a tree, but it was actually very clever.  She had different columns, titled Name, Relationship. Date of Birth, Date of Death, Age at Death, Birth Place, and Final Resting Place.  All on one sheet of legal size paper, very informative and compact.  It took me a computer program and a few banker boxes full of censuses, death and marriage certificates, etc... to get to the same info that she has listed on one page.  But because of her, I had a head start.

So I've had this sheet for about 15-16 years, you would think that I would have gone over it with a fine tooth comb, but I didn't.  For example, I learned from her chart that my great grandmother, Johanna Sullivan, was born in London, 6 Sep 1866 to Michael Sullivan and Mary Dunn.  But I never knew that she had a sister Mary Ann and two brothers Timothy and Michael Jr.  Then for some reason I think I heard that the boys came to the US and lived in the midwest.  Her chart lists Timothy dying at age 39 in London, where he is buried, and Michael Jr also died in London, but I don't know when.  Her sister, Mary Ann, apparently came to the US, but died in 1894 at age 26, and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY.  But while she was here, she married (poorly - according to another of my mom's cousins), so I cannot verify where she is buried because I don't know her married name. (Another difficulty encountered when researching female ancestors.)

One more recent discovery and I won't bore you further.  I think I mentioned that I had found an 1871 Census record from England which lists Michael age 30, Mary age 30, (both listed occupation at Tailor and both born in Ireland) Johannah age 4, Mary age 3, and Timothy age 1.  The children were all born in Lambeth.  Now for the interesting part: their place of residence.

The census says that they live in the Parish of Lambeth, Ward of Princes, Parlimentary Borough of Lambeth, and handwritten in the top right corner is "St Peters Vauxhall". In the box titles Ecclesiastical District St Marys is crossed out.  Here is the good part.  in the column for Road, Street and number or Name of House are ditto marks.  So you have to scroll back about five pages to the the info. It says 1 Vauxhall Row and as you move through the pages it gives a model house number.  The last number I see is Model House 3.

So, with this in mind I was talking a a person at work who is doing her tree and she has people still in England.  Within about five minutes she emailed me this photo:

She texted her friend in England and within a few minutes I had this picture.  When you read all of the small print, the photo is from 1876, five years after the census.  It also says that this was constructed for the Duchy of Cornwall.  The current Duchy of Cornwall is Charles, Prince of Wales (widower of Princess Diana).  This also leads me to believe that family lore may be correct.  Family lore has that Michael Sullivan was a tailor to the Ladies of the Court.  My co-worker's friend said that Buckingham Palace is a 30 minute walk from these houses.   

It also says that there were shops on the first floor and residences above, so maybe they had a tailor shop on the first floor and lived up stairs with the rest of "the help".  Just a theory, but it makes sense.

I Just Found another Ancestor on the Old Sod

I have been sitting at home for the past couple of weeks recovering from a surgical procedure and getting a little stir crazy.  So I decided to start going through all of my old papers and either file them or throw them out (God forbid). I was already sitting, and I started reading through boxes of birth, death, marriage and census records trying to figure out how to organize them.  Organization is the bane of my existence.  As always happens, I started reading papers and came across ancestors that I had put aside before, and starting thinking about other ways to find more about them.  This is why I can never get organized.

I was looking at a record for Edward Bergin and his wife Mary Malone.  They are my great great grandparents, born in County Laois, Ireland.  There they had five children, 3 boys and 2 girls.  The thing that I focused on was Edward's parents: Timothy Bergin and Margaret Kavanagh.  So I decided to search Timothy Bergin on ancestry.com and I used a birth year of about 1820.  Well, lo and behold, I found a baptismal record for Dan Bergin, dated 9 Jan 1846.  The record lists his parents as Tim Bergin and Margaret Kavanagh, it also lists sponsors (Godparents) as Pierce Dowling and Mary Costello.  It appears that the place is Clonlahy (I think).

This record is 173 years old, handwritten in a ledger book and you can read it like it was written yesterday.  The place of baptism is listed as Borris-in-Ossory, Laois, Ireland and the Diocese is Ossory.  This is the same place that I found the record for the baptism of Edward, as well as, his marriage to Margaret Kavanagh.  I also found baptismal records for all five of their children in the same place.  So, I am confident that Dan is the younger brother of Edward (my 2X great grandfather).  If I'm wrong, I can always blame it on lingering effects of anesthesia, so this is a win-win.

The Peppers

As you may or may not remember, my great great grandmother was Anne Pepper.  According to her Death Certificate, she was born on 15 Nov 1848 to Patrick Pepper and Marcella in New York City, NY.  Ann aged quickly, in the 1850 Federal Census she is listed as 10 years old, living in South Cass Twp, Schuylkill County, Pa with her parents and at least 5 siblings.  This makes more sense because her eldest daughter, Susan, is born in 1863.  But that doesn't really matter for our purposes today, because today I am going to talk about her family a little bit.

So I was looking on ancestry.com and checking on my DNA matches, when I saw a new match.  It is for John E Pepper, (there is a second match further down my list of 4th - 6th cousins with the name T. P., both are managed by the same person.  I am guessing that T. P.'s surname is also Pepper (I was a detective for awhile you know).  This match also says that there is a common ancestor - Patrick Pepper and Marcella M Reilly (Anne Pepper's parents).

I started hunting around on ancestry.com and Newspapers.com (which has several titles from Pottsville, including the Pottsville Republican). I learned from this that Anne Pepper was not an only child - not by a long shot. She had nine siblings - eight brothers and one sister.  The best I can figure is that she had brothers named Francis, Thomas, Michael, John, James, William, Charles and Ainges.  She also had a sister named Mary, who married a man named Hugh Tye, and they had seven children: six boys and one girl, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Apparently the Peppers were a pretty prominent family in Schuylkill County, Thomas Pepper was a businessman, a distiller in Ashland.  Thomas also held the office of County Treasurer, a post he held from 1891 to 1894.  He also was a member of the Ashland town Council for two terms and a director of the Citizens National Bank.  He was married to Elizabeth McDonald and had five children: one daughter, Hannah and fours sons: Frank, John, George and Thomas.

I found an ad for the distillery on Google:

I kinda remember reading that the business was originally a soda bottling company and changed over to a distillery later.  This ad may be after he turned over the business to his sons.  I thought this ad was a great find.

Before I stop for the night, I wanted to mention one other sibling of Anne's, and that is her brother Ainges.  I have never heard that name before and I assume it is Irish, but I have no idea.  The other thing about him is that in 1922 he lived in Scranton, PA.  I know this from a newspaper article that says he was struck by a car, and suffered a compound fracture of the left leg and other minor injuries, according to the article.  The article also says he was an aged man, more specifically 62 (younger than me and I'm not aged) and he lived on North Hyde Park Ave. The worst part is that he was struck by the car on 28 Mar 1922, and I found his death certificate indicating that he died 3 Apr 1922 and the cause is listed as a fracture of left tibia (automobile accident).

When I find some more about her family, I will let you know.  But I do plan on doing this more often.

James Bradley, MInersville, PA

I have been researching on Newspapers.com and I think I mentioned in my last post (I don't remember, it was quite awhile ago) that they now have Pottsville newspapers, including the Miners Journal, the Pottsville Republican and the Republican and Herald.  They cover from about 1884 to present, so I have found quite a bit about my family in that area.  

Tonight I am going to concentrate on my Great great grandfather James Bradley and a few of the articles that I found about him.  I really don't know much about him, just that he was born in Ireland in about 1835, married Annie Pepper and had eight children (six girls and two boys - one of whom is my great grandmother). I am guessing he married Annie somewhere around the start of the Civil War in 1861 (no pun intended).  He died sometime around the turn of the century in about 1900 or so. You may recall that I once posted a picture of his grave marker, and I'll show you again.

It just says;  J BRADLEY, nothing fancy, no dates, not even a death date, I like it.  This is a church graveyard and the parish used to be St. Vincent de Paul, but Catholic churches have been merging all over the country and the new parish is St. Michael the Archangel, just in case you want to look it up.

Anyway, it appears that J Bradley was just a working man taking care of his family.  I could not even find any newspaper articles about his death, but I did find a couple of articles that were interesting.

The first one was in the Pottsville Republican, on the front page, on 20 Apr 1887.  It talks about a Hungarian  man living in a warehouse at the south end of the Palo Alto Bridge (I have no idea where that is, but it must be important) He had apparently rented a house in Minersville and hired a teamster to haul his household effects to that town, where he had gotten a job at the Marion furnace.  He paid the teamster $1.50 to do the work (slightly less than the $15.00 / hour minimum wage they are working on passing today).  The Huns ( that is what the newspaper called the Hungarian and his family) were upset when the teamster demanded an additonal $.50, and and argument and brawl ensued, with the teamster dumping the goods and keeping the money. The "Hun" went to the Squire to have the teamster arrested.  In the second article, the next day, we find out that the teamster was none other that James Bradley.  The newspaper describes Mr Bradley as an honest, hard working, upright citizen, and apparently the "Huns" were having some "adult beverages" at the time, and they were found at fault.  The best part is that James Bradley is described as be about five feet high with a light complexion.

The last article is also from the Pottsville Republican  from 3 Jun 1893 on page 4.  This article describes how during the night someone entered the stable of James Bradley at the Delaware, near Minersville, and stole his horse.  James was suspicious of a group of gypsies who had been "plying their trade" near Doudentown.  James went off to find the gypsies and get his horse. He found their encampment near Pinegrove.  The horse was surrendered and the case was dismissed.

Pretty good stuff, he sounds like a decent man trying to make a living and take care of his family.  He was only five feet high, but apparently was not about to let anyone take advantage of him.  Took care of the situation on his own.  You gotta admire that in a man.