Old Family Photos

A few years ago, I was talking with my mom about her family, and some of the pictures that we had found.  Apparently I was not listening very closely, because I have located pictures again and I now have no idea who these people are.  She once told me that her father served in the US Navy during WWI and that she had a picture of him in his Navy uniform.  She looked for it, but never did find the picture.  I never really pushed the issue either, figuring that we had plenty of time.  Wrong again.  When mom passed away, my brother and I cleaned out the house before we sold it.  If any of our other five siblings wanted anything, they could have it.  But I wound up with all of the pictures.  I looked all over for that picture of my grandfather in his WWI Navy uniform, but no dice.  I do have other pictures, and I finally got around to scanning some of them and I e-mailed them to my cousin Regina so she could show her mom, Aunt Florence.  I thought Florence could ID some of my mom's family.   Here are a few of the pictures that I sent::

Regina sent me an answer.  Florence was able to ID a few people in this one.  Florence says that she thinks this one was taken at a house at Coney Island.  From left on porch it's her (Florence's) dad Joe Markey  (he had a heart attack at midnight mass and died Christmas day 1956), her mom (Aunt Florence-but we called her Florrie - if that is how you spell it), the kids are Bill &Ed sitting on the rail, and Kate (my grandmother) behind them.  She didn't know anyone else.  I thought they looked like the Hatfields or the McCoys, and I am guessing this was taken in the late 20's.

This one was next and Florence says that this photo is of my mom, Florence and Florence's sister Joan Markey O'Keefe.  I don't know the order, but I think that I got them from left to right.  Next one was one of my favorites.  Mom had told me once that a soldier she had dated had asked her to marry him before he left for the war.  She said no (Whew!!!).  When she turned him down, he asked her not to tell anyone that he had asked.  I guess the statute of limitations has expired by now, so the secret is out.

I thought this was the man in this photo.  Wrong again.  This is my mother's cousin Arthur Riedinger.  Yes the same Arthur Riedinger that I wrote the post about a couple of months ago.  He married and was killed in a construction accident and was buried in Toms River, about a half hour from my house.

Now I have a couple for my dad, but there is no one to confirm any identity.  Mom found this one in dad's drawer after he passed away in 2006.  It is one of my favorites, but I have no idea who it is.  The original in a tintype, so this is a copy.

Looks like what I would imagine Billy the Kid to have looked like.  Young man with a colt hidden in his vest pocket.  He does put me in mind of my two sons (neither of them owns a Colt), but there is a family likeness.
If I had to guess, I would guess it is my grandfather, but the family wrote him off and I don't know if dad would have kept his picture - my mother never saw him.  He is a very well kept secret.  I do, however, have a picture of my dad's father.

My cousin Linda gave me this picture and she has written on the back of her picture who every one is.
In the front from left is Mary Tully (my godmother and my father's cousin) Marguerite Brady (dad's sister), Dottie Moore (another cousin), my grandfather Thomas James Brady holding my uncle Jim, then my grandmother, Marguerite O'Dea Brady (holdin a dog or cat, or whatever that is).  Next row left with her arm around Dottie Moore is Aunt Mae (Mary O'Dea, dad's aunt) behind her is her sister Gertrude (Mary Tully's mom and my dad's aunt) Mary and Gertrude are my grandmother's sisters.  The boy behind my grandfather is unidentified, but he is a cousin (one of the O'Dea sisters' son).  I am guessing that this was taken around 1919 which is before my dad was born in September 1920 (by the way, today is his birthday, he would have been 92).

Well, that was fun.  While writing this post, I came across another photo of a female on my mother's side that I am going to e mail to Regina for positive identification.  I'll let you know how that works out.

Veterans - Lost and Found

Sorry, I know it has been a few weeks since my last post, but I just got back from vacation.  Not a good excuse, but it's the best I can do.  Before I get started with the recent veterans that I picked from my family tree, I have to show you something that I found, and thought it was humorous.

I was in Glendola Cemetery in Wall, NJ on a Find-A-Grave mission. and I came across this military headstone in the cemetery:

There is nothing humerous about this man or his service to our country, and I mean no disrespect to him, however, look at this stone and read it fast.  It took me a minute, but at first I was unsure if his last name was Greenlaw or Cook.   But I then I realized when I saw 8 CAV that he was a cook in Troop E of the 8th Cavalry.  Then I saw the abbreviation for the war SP. AM. War and that's when I had to chuckle.  It looks like he was a cook in the SPAM War (not the Spanish American War).  Perhaps the men tired of the same menu of spam every day - maybe he started the war.

When I was in Pottsville and Minersville in my last post, I mentioned that I had been in the St Vincent de Paul Cemetery and could not find a headstone for James Bradley.  I was in that cemetery before and had seen a headstone for a James Bradley and I thought that there was a military marker with it, but I could not find it that day.  When I got home later, I entered James' date of death into my computer program and made sure that the on line tree was in sync.  Within a few minutes, I got a shaky leaf on James Bradley, when I checked the hint from Ancestry.com, it was an entry from a data base from the Pennsylvania Department of Military Affairs and was a Record of Burial Place of Veteran.  I opened the entry and found the following card:

Anyone want to hazard a guess as to where James is buried?  You got it - St Vincent's, Minersville, PA.  So he was a veteran of the World War (if you note the date on the card of 7-10-35, you notice it was before WWII).  The military wasn't very exact on dates either - date of birth 1876, date of death 1928, Homeland Security might not let him get buried today without proper ID.  I did a little bit of research on Co B 103 Reg. Engrs and found a book in Google Books about Pennsylvania in the World War and it says that the 103rd Engineers were formed in August 1917 as the Pioneer Engineer Regiment, it says that Co. B was formed in Philadelphia, and Co. C was formed in Pottsville, apparently he signed up before the recruitment in Pottsville.  Company B was also the first unit of the regiment to be mobilized for service in the World War, it became part of the 28th Division on 3 Sept 1917.  18 May 1918 the unit embarked on H.M.S. Metagama and crossed the Atlantic in a convoy of thirteen ships under guard of a battleship.  So he went on to see service in England and France.  It is an interesting story, but I don't think I could do it justice.  If you would like to read it, just google: An illustrated history of the Twenty-eighth Division, Volume 2 (Google eBook).

After this find, I decided to check the Pennsylvania State Archives for any more info, and I found a place to check file cards for Pennsylvania Militia Units in various conflicts.  I looked for James Bradley, but had no luck.  Then I saw a link for file cards for Pennsylvania veterans of the Spanish American War - yes the famous SPAM war.  I check through a list of cards alphabetically.  In case you didn't think of it Bradley and Brady are very close, so after striking out with Bradleys, I continued and checked the Bradys.  This is what I found:

I know that my great great grandparents Thomas and Bridget Brady had a son Andrew, and the first thing that caught my eye was the place of birth - Gordon PA - that's where they lived early on.  Then the current residence - Scranton PA - which also is where they lived in 1900.  I thought they lived on Riffle St in Scranton, so I checked the 1900 census and much to my surprise they were living at 641 Birch St, Scranton, PA. - the same address as the card.  Holy cow!!  I knew nothing of Andrew and now this.  He apparently served in Porto Rico - love the spelling -and was mustered out with his company and honorably discharged 24 Jan 1899.  He promptly went home and was counted in the 1900 census.  Andrew is not in the 1910 census.

I checked a little further and found that I have his father's obit from 5 Oct 1904 and it listed his survivors - his widow (no name, just widow Brady) and children - Andrew is not listed among the survivors.  So I put my detective skills  to the test - they are a little rusty - and surmised that he died sometime between 1900 and 1904.  A few years back I visited Thomas' place of burial in Cathedral Cemetery, Scranton, PA.  Also buried there are his widow Bridget - yes she had a name all her own - and daughter, Mary.  I remember the staff there telling me that there was another grave there and there was probably someone buried there, but they had no record of who it was.  Then I remembered - now I'm really scraping the rust off those old detective skills - at the grave was a VFW marker with a flag and I wondered who that was for.  I called the cemetery today and checked on Andrew.  The woman said that records prior to 1905 were spotty at best, but they had no record of Andrew.  Then I called the Scranton public library - which is where I found my Great Great Grandfather's death certificate - and asked if they had death certificates for the city between 1900 and 1904.  I was told that they do, but death certificates were not required prior to 1906, so if may not be there.  I then asked if they had info on local Spanish American War Vets and, after checking her list, she said he was not on it.  So at least I can check for a death certificate in the Scranton Public Library for him.

Before I started writing this post, I did some research on line on the Spanish American War and I found that the VFW was organized around 1899to 1900, after the war, as an organization for veterans of foreign wars.  So I am now going to check with the local VFWs in Scranton to see if he is listed on any of their roles - maybe they know where he is buried.  I think it is probably Cathedral Cemetery, which would explain the VFW marker.

Before I found any of this information, I knew of several veterans in the family.  Starting with my father in WWII, his two brothers Jim and Frank in WWII, his brother Paul in Korea, my mother's two brothers Ed and Bill in WWII, and my mother's father served in WWI.  I could go on about my wife's family's military history - which includes several West Pointers, a Civil War General, and various other Generals, Colonels, and Majors, and no less than three burials in Arlington, but I would need alot more time and room.  

So it was nice to uncover the service of these two veterans that I did not know I had.  The thing that I wonder about is why did they die so young?  Andrew died about five years after his return at about 30 years old and James died at 51 years of age, only 10 years after his return from the service.  Did they suffer wounds or the effects of stress, disease or mustard gas?  Clearly more research is need to answer these questions.  I will research them more and hopefully get some more information about their service. 

One more thing I noticed - right after my wife asked about it.  Katrina reads my posts while they are still drafts - mainly for spelling errors and to make sure it makes sense.  After reading this post, she asked "So how are they related?"  My first answer was "they're not", but after thinking for a moment I said "James' sister Madge/Maggie/Marcella married Andrew's brother James, so I guess they are brothers-in-law".  Sometimes when you write these stories, you just don't think about basic questions.   So after reading this if you have any questions - ask.  It also helps me to figure this all out.

Return to the Bradleys of Schuylkill County PA

I really was not intending to write about my Bradley peeps, but Katrina and I took our son Tom to camp in Pennsylvania last week and I drove back on Friday afternoon to pick him up.  Okay, so  he didn't need to be picked up until Saturday morning, and I drove out early to visit my sister.  Okay, so on my way to my sister's house I stopped in Pottsville at the county courthouse (it was only a couple of hours out of my way, but I consider that close).

If you have never been to Pottsville or the Courthouse, they have both been there for a couple of hundred years.  The Courthouse is an older brick structure built on a hill, but when you park in the back, you have to walk down these old concrete steps to get down to ground level (it's tougher going back up).  Across the street is a castle looking building, minus the moat, which is some type of detention facility (juvenile- I think)  It is all looks rather foreboding.  In front of the detention facility is a large historical placard which tells about the "Molly Maguire Executions".  Never heard of them?  The Molly Maguires were a secret society of Irish Mine Workers. There were several members who were convicted of various violent crimes against the coal industry - usually killing bosses, etc..  This placard reads that on June 21, 1877, six Molly Maguires were hanged here, four others were hanged at the county jail in Mauch Chunk on the same day.

The reason I bring this up, is that I was thinking that these "gangstas" were running around this area back when my ancestors were mining coal or working the rails to transport the mined coal.  So I guess things haven't change much over the years, we have the bloods and the crips, they had the Molly Maguires.  It gives you an idea of what your ancestors had to deal with when they were alive.  I don't know if any of my peeps were "Mollys", but it was a secret society so I may never know.  You also wonder if any of them were targeted by the Mollys - again I will probably never know for sure, but it does make you think.

My original reason for going to the courthouse was to check old property records and deeds, but when I got to the archives, it was getting late and deeds were on another floor in the building.  I figured that I was lucky to just get to where I was and told the woman that I was doing a family tree.  She suggested that I check the estates and wills.  I didn't locate anyone named Brady with a first name that sounded familiar, but I found some Bradleys.  The person I found was James J Bradley, who died 23 May 1928 in Minersville.  You may remember that I posted his obit and his mother's obit in a previous post.  I remember that his obit says that he died in the hospital. Well it looks like he wrote his will  on 28 Mar 1928, he probably knew the end was coming and wanted to have all of his affairs in order.  It is interesting to read, even though I did not take the time to read it at the archives. I am getting my first chance to read it while I am writing.  There is a copy of the will, in which he leaves everything to his brother Joe and his sister Mrs N Murtha (Sorry Colin, but it must be Murtha with no "Mc").  In the will he uses the phrase "share and share alike".  I kinda like that phrase - a last loving gesture to his siblings. 
James and Joseph lived in Minersville, probably close to each other, both were blacksmiths, and Mrs N Murtha is their sister, Mary, with whom their mother lives in Pottsville.  So maybe he is taking care of his mom and helping his brother.  I say that because later in the day I found a headstone in St Vincent de Paul cemetery for Joseph Bradley who died in 1930 - maybe he was sick also.  Joseph is also the Administrator of the estate.  There is an appraisal of James' wealth, which amounts to $1,535.81 cash in the First National Bank of Minersville - I am not certain, but it sounds like a tidy sum for that time period in that area.  He owned no real estate.  There is also a list of Administration Expenses: Funeral $450. 35, Tombstone $250.00 (I didn't find that one), St Vincent's Church $ 56.00, Milliken Hospital $36.50.  It was interesting to read. (Notice how the bill for St Vincent's is almost double that of the hospital).  I then went to the Library and tried to find an obit for his sister, Ellen Bradley in 1911 (that explains why she is not mentioned in the will), but they were closing so I didn't have time.

Then on to Minersville to St. Vincent De Paul to walk the cemetery looking for headstones.  I found one for Joseph Bradley and Jennie Bradley, he died in 1930, she died in 1951.  I think this is James' brother from Minersville and his wife.  Joseph's wife is listed in the 1930 census as Jane (she is also a witness in James' will listed as Jane), so maybe they called her Jennie as a nickname.  Right next to this headstone is an older one with the family name of  Pepper.  Pepper is Annie Bradley's  maiden name.  Annie is James and Joseph's mother and my great great grandmother.  The headstone is for Francis Pepper.  I recall seeing Annie Pepper in the 1850 census in Cass Twp with her parents, Patrick and Magdelina (Reilly) Pepper, on the same page listed before Patrick is a man named Francis Pepper.  I think that he is a relation to Patrick Pepper.  I am gonna have to write to St Michael the Archangel Church to get more info.

Francis Pepper

I suspect that there is much more to be learned from this trip to PA, and I will return there again to check further.

Nurse Cadet Corps

My mom was a Registered Nurse, but she never worked when we were kids.  I don't mean that she did not work at all, she was a housewife and mother of seven children - probably busier and harder worker than most.  She just never worked as a Registered Nurse - unless she was treating one of us or our friends for any number of ailments and/or injuries.  Although, after we were all in school, she did substitute for the local school nurse on occasion, and she always kept her nursing license up to date and active.

My mom had told us that she had been a member of the Nurse Cadet Corps during World War II, and I even have a picture that she signed to our dad, that I think is a picture of her in her "uniform".  The other day, I was listening to Genealogy Gems Podcast with Lisa Louise Cooke from May 19th of this year, and she mentioned that Ancestry.com had recently put records on line from the Nurse Cadet Corps from WWII.  I listened to the podcast on my ipod at work, so as soon as I got home, I went on the internet on Ancestry.com and found the database.  I put my mother's name in and oila! There was a document: Form 300A Federal Security Agency, U.S. Public Health Service, Division of Nurse Education Serial No. 60020, for a Cadet Nurse named Claire Alice Bergen (we just called her Mom).  It has the school that she attended: Medical Centre, Jersey City, NJ, the date of admission to School 26 Jun 1944, date of admission to the Corps 26 June 1944, the date that her registration card was issued 1 July 1944.  The card had two signatures: the Director of School of Nursing and the Cadet Nurse (Mom).

Mom's registration with US Cadet Nurse Corps

My understanding is that the United States Cadet Nurse Corps was initiated in 1943, because of a shortage of nurses during World War II.  The purpose of the Corps was to ensure that the US had sufficient numbers of trained nurses to care for the needs of its citizens, both at home and on the war front.  Nursing Schools were offered grants to train nurses for duty abroad and at home.  I am not quite certain, but I think you applied to the school and were trained, and in exchange you owed an amount of years of service as a repayment for the training. 

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense for my mom to sign up for this  training and join the "war effort".  Her parents were both deceased by this time, and both of her brothers were in the service.  Uncle Bill was a second Lieutenant in the Army and Uncle Ed was serving in the Pacific in the US Navy.  I don't really know that much about Uncle Bill's service, but I do know that Ed was on the USS Monssen, which was a Destroyer sunk at the Battle of Guadalcanal.  He survived the sinking and the war.  My Dad and two of his brothers were also serving overseas, but mom and dad did not meet until after the war.  Turns out that they had lived only blocks away from each other in Jersey City, but they had never met.  Matter of fact, my dad's brother and my mom's brother knew each other from school.   I was thinking that World War II should be a blog unto itself, but the more I think about it, it could be a book.

Finding this document on ancestry.com got me thinking more about my parents, both of them passed away
a few years ago, and how many questions I would love to ask them now.  I have my mom's cousin Florence who has already helped me more that Ancestry.com could ever help.  That's not to say that Ancestry.com's data bases aren't helpful, but Florence knows my mom's family and their history.  She can tell you personal things that you cannot find in a database anywhere else.  I can find names of neighbors in census records or church records, but Florence can tell me who these people are, and how they are related, which leads me to more family that I would never have known that I had. I have actually found info that confirms what she has told me, so not only do I enjoy talking to her, but she is right on the money.  I don't have a Florence on my Dad's side, so there is really no one to ask any questions about his family.  When they passed away, all of that family information went with them and I will probably never find out most of it.  My point is that you should talk to your older family members while you still can, you may get some information that could lead to an unknown cousin who may know even more about the family.  Hey it could happen.

Arthur Riedinger

I know it has been almost three weeks since my last post, in case you haven't noticed I try to post something every other Sunday, but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way.  Well, I am late again, but I have some new information.  A couple of posts ago, I told you about my mom's cousin, Arthur E Riedinger, who died in 1970 and I found him via a shaky leaf in Find A Grave.  On a side note, they might want to find a new name for that website, because every time I tell someone about Find A Grave, they look at me like I am some kind of vampire who is up all night waiting for the full moon. ( by the way, please don't look at the time that this was posted).

Headstone for Arthur and Mary Riedinger

 Well, I drove to St Joseph's Cemetery in Toms River and found his grave, as well as, the grave of his wife Mary.  I checked nearby graves for names that I might recognize, but saw none.  Then I wondered if he and his wife had children, that wondering lasted until I  saw a small shell on the base of the headstone that said Grandmother.  So now I know that they had children.  The next step for me is to call the Bergen - McConville authority Aunt Florence, but I found out that she is in Georgia, but I did talk to Regina.  Later in the week I spoke with Aunt Florence and asked about Arthur Riedinger.  She said that he died young in a accident.  He used to drive one of those big yellow trucks like a tractor  and had some kind of accident and was killed.  Well, the ghoul in me could not resist.  I recruited my sister Joan, who happens to be a best selling author, to accompany me to the Ocean County Library to look for any articles on the death of my cousin, Arthur Riedinger.

So Joan read in the library, while I checked the microfilm.  I found two articles in the Asbury Park Press from 25 Feb 1970 and the next day 26 Feb 1970.  There was also an article in the Ocean County Observer from 25 Feb 1970.  The Press article says that Arthur Ritchenger (bad spelling) of 129 Tennant Ave, Beachwood, NJ , age 48 was killed in a construction accident.  He worked for  Sambol Construction Co. and was crushed beneath a payloader, when the earth moving rig - about the size of a bulldozer - toppled at 3:40 PM.  He was taken to Pt Pleasant Hospital where he was pronounced dead.  The NJ State Police investigated.  I am not sure if Brick Township - where the accident happened -  had their own Police Department at the time.

Asbury Park Press 25 Feb 1970

The article in the next day's paper was better.  They spelled his name right this time, and it said that he died of a broken neck and that he was working to clear land for Greenbriar, a senior citizen's complex to be built.  My mom would move to Greenbriar Woodlands in 2006, which is another complex by the same owners.  The last part of the article  gives alot of genealogical information.  It says that he was born in Jersey City and lived in the Bayville area for 21 years.  He was a veteran of WWII,  and he attended St. Barnabas Roman Catholic Church in Bayville.  It goes on to list survivors:  his widow Mary Totomasi Riedinger, his mother, Mrs Edna Riedinger, three daughters: Mrs. Jo-Ann Armino, Bayville: Mary Edna and Rose Marie, both at home: two brothers, John and Edward, both of Jersey City: and a sister, Mrs Lenore Parrott, Hasbrouck Heights.  The Funeral Home is also listed as Anderson and Campbell, Toms River.  That's alot of information.

Asbury Park Press 26 Feb 1970

I did not find an obituary in the Press, and the information in the Observer was not very revealing.  A month ago, I could not have told you anything about this man, but after doing the Shaky Leaf Shuffle and locating him in Find A Grave, I know alot more.  He was a veteran of WWII, in the artillery, survived the war to return home and marry Mary Tortomasi, had three daughters, one of whom was married.  He apparently never got to see his grandchildren, and he worked for a construction company and died while trying to support his wife and children.  It appears that he was a good man who served his country and was working to raise his family and had his life cut short by a tragic accident

Jersey City, NJ

Just yesterday, I went to Jersey City with Katrina, to attend a walking tour of Bergen Square given by the Hudson County Genealogy Society.  The tour was to include a tour of the inside and outside of Old Bergen Church ( built around 1660) and St Aeden's Church, built around 1912 (they are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the church this year).  We also walked through Old Bergen Cemetery, and walked past Speer Cemetery, as well as a few other historical areas of Bergen Square.

St. Aeden's Roman Catholic Church

This interested me because just recently I found (and promptly lost) my mother's baptismal certificate.  It says that she was baptized at St Aeden's Church on 28 Mar 1926.  Her sponsors were Florence Markey (who was her mother's sister) and Harry Belton.  I have no clue who Harry Belton is, I have never heard the name before.  I did put in a call to my McConville-Bergen expert, Aunt Florence (who is actually Florence Markey's daughter) to find out who Mr. Belton is, but no one was home.

St. Aeden's was actually the last stop on the tour, and it was just huge.  The communion rail is about 96' across, and the large dome in the picture above is 108' from floor to ceiling and 60' in diameter.  Very impressive.  The floor and pillars inside are marble and the website says that it cost a million dollars to construct.  (Dad always said that the Catholic Church is the best run business in the world, apparently he was right again).

Although the corner stone says 1912 and after taking pictures inside of the Baptismal Font and where mom would have been baptized, I read on their website that the church was not built in 1912.  Apparently the Priest felt that they needed a school more than a church, so they built the school first and while they were building the church, they used the first floor of the school as the church until the church opened in 1931.  Ergo, my mother was not baptized in this cathedral, but in a temporary church on the first floor of St Aeden's School.

Before getting to St Aeden's, we walked around Bergen Square and came across Newkirk St.  I have a copy of my mother's birth certificate (I made several copies and have not lost it yet), and it says that she was born at 131 Newkirk St.  Well, half a block north of Bergen Ave I found three row houses, and the last one before coming to a large commercial building with a Bergen Ave address was number 129, then there is an alley before the commercial building.  Apparently I was too late to get a picture of her house, but I got a picture of the houses next door.  While on Newkirk St, I saw a sign for Dick St.  I remember seeing that name on a McConville death Certificate.  It was Edward McConville, born 7 Jan 1902 and died 24 Dec 1925, Merry Christmas... again.  But the death certificate said that they lived at 25 Dick St.  Dick St today is just an alley, and it doesn't appear to have any houses on it.  Going on this tour now tells me that the McConvilles lived only a few houses away from my mom.  Actually, he died only three months before my mom was born.  So my grandmother was six months pregnant when her brother died, that's gotta suck.

123 through 129 Newkirk St Jersey City

After the tour, Katrina and I decided to take a tour of our own, and we drove to the address where we lived in Jersey City when I was born: 422 Bergen Ave.  We took a picture of the current house, and I say that because I don't think it is the same building we lived in.  I seem to recall old pictures of a large house with a big front porch.

422 Bergen Ave Jersey City

Last,  but not least, we continued down Bergen Ave, mainly because I couldn't figure out where we were and how to get to the turnpike, and we came upon Armstrong Ave.  We hung a right and drove past 343 Armstrong Ave, the house where my mom lived for a while after her mother died.   There was a group of people on the porch so we decided not to take a picture.  So I guess this was actually alot about my mother's days in Jersey City.

When we got home, I remembered that on my Dad's discharge papers after WWII, his address was 159 Bergen Ave.  I have to go back and photo that one, as well as All Saints Church, where he was baptized and later married my mom.

Memorial Day 2012

     It really seems appropriate to post a blog about those who have gone before us, on Memorial Day.  The best part is that I have found a couple of things to write about.  I am really loving this Ancestry App on my ipod, and all of those shaking leaves.  Honestly, I never used them before, but I am now finding census records for distant relatives that I never really looked for before.  The best part is that those clue/hints (shaking leaves) do not represent only records found on Ancestry.com.  They will also find information of Family Search ( the Mormon Church site) and Find A Grave, just to name two.
     So last week, I have my new Ipad with the Ancestry App, and I am doing the shaky leaf shuffle on random ancestors.  So I go to Thomas F Keaveney, who was my great grandmother (Annie Bergen's) half brother, and there is a shaking leaf, when you touch it, it gives you about 6 hints for him.  Most are census records that I had found on my own, and WWI Draft Registration.  But at the bottom of the list, the last hint says Michigan Find A Grave Index 1805 - 2011, Birth 1877, Death 1936, Burial Lansing, Ingham County, Michigan, USA, with a picture of his headstone.  It also tells me that he is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Lansing, so I can call them and see if they can give me the date of burial.  The info was entered by a man in Lansing, MI who enters info from local cemeteries into this database.  I intend to e mail him to see if we are related or if he is just a good deed doer.  I almost spelled Deed as Dead, would have actually worked either way.  Here is his headstone:
 

While on this site, I decided to check on Thomas' wife: Martha Flaherty Keaveney, and I found her too.  Martha was buried in 1930, and there is a picture of her headstone also:
 

I had found their marriage record on Familysearch.org, which is the Mormon Church website.  That is when I realized that his mother was also my great grandmother (Annie Sullivan Bergen)'s mother.  Another thing that comes up with the Shaking Leaf is some City directory records.  These are like phone books before the invention of the telephone.  It was made up by a local business and listed residents of the city and their address and occupation.  The City directory list Thos F Keaveney (Martha F)(Capital City cigar and Tobacco Co) h 216 Marshall Ave.  Pretty good info.

Just about two days ago I was doing the shaky leaf shuffle with another of my mother's ancestors: Arthur E Riedinger, who is my mother's first cousin (makes him my first cousin one time removed).  I hit the shaky leaf on him and found two hints: Social Security Death Index, which says he died in February 1970 and New Jersey Find A Grave Index, 1664 - 2011 (I guess NJ was inhabited and burying people before Michigan).  He is buried in St Joseph's Catholic Cemetery in Toms River, NJ, which is probably about a thirty minute drive from me.  Lucky for you there is no picture of his deadstone, (oops, did it again).  There is a note with his memorial : Cpl Battery A, 478 AAA, AW WWII, I am assuming this was his unit in World War II.  So I have to call St Joseph's and take the drive to take a  picture.

The last thing I want to mention is a web site that my friend George found for me in a Genealogy Society of NJ Newsletter.  This is a database for searching burials at several cemeteries in the Archdiocese of Newark.  The database is not complete yet, but it does include burials at two Brady - Bergen favorites: Holy Name cemetery in Jersey City and Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington, as well as, Holy Sepulchre in East Orange.  ( this is the huge one on the Garden State Parkway at about exit 145)  There are other cemeteries included in the database, which can be searched by surname, forename and cemetery.  Below is  the website:
http://www.rcancem.org/deceased

I hope some of the info is helpful and helps you find those who came before you.