Another trip to Schuylkill County

As promised, I went to Ashland, Pa on Friday and searched for my great grandfather's final resting place, which I thought would be St. Joseph's cemetery.  Once again, I came up empty.  But the good news is that at least this time I found the right cemetery.  Apparently the first time I went there with my sister we were actually in the wrong cemetery.  This time - after searching for a while - I actually had the sense to ask someone.  I recently heard a talk and the speaker was talking about searching cemeteries and how she found the grave she was looking for.  Checking at the office was not the answer - her secret was to look for the guy with the shovel.  In this case there was no office, and no guy with a shovel - so I had to rely on a lady walking her dog - and she pointed me in the right direction.  She told me "there are a lot of Catholics buried beyond those trees.  We drove over and found a cemetery.  Then I found an older man walking a dog (apparently cemeteries are like dog parks in PA), who said that there were two different cemeteries.  There was St Josephs, which was for the Irish Catholics and there was St Mauritius to the far west, which was for German Catholics.  There was no physical separation like a fence, just a dirt path.  He told me that back in the day, the churches were very ethnic, so you had German Catholics, Irish Catholics, Italian Catholics,etc... So after searching for a while and not finding what I was looking for, the man saw me again and told me to check with the Ashland Public Library, because they had some funeral home records.

Next stop, Ashland Public Library.  I checked in the library and found that they did not have the year I was looking for, but they suggested that I call Mt Carmel Public Library and the Schuylkill County Historical Society, whom I have called before for this and other reasons, without much success.  Just in case you're curious - here is James E Brady's death certificate from the PA Dept of Health

Even the folks who buried him were secretive, all it says for place of removal or burial is Ashland, PA.  I called Mt Carmel and Schuylkill County Historical Society for Funeral Home records, with no success, but Mt Carmel Library called me back and said that they will mail me a list of burials for Bradys and Bradleys in the time frame I am looking for.  They were very helpful and sent me a large manila envelope of burials in the Tri-County area, but so far I have been unable to locate James.

I know that I did a whole post on my Great Grandfather James E Brady with a wanted poster and everything, but I never included his death certificate.  If you read it, you can see that the informant is Mary G Brady of Scranton - his sister.  She is the one who let the secret birth place of her parents out of the bag - Swinford, Ireland.  It also says that he was 54 years, 9 months, and 19 days of age - YIKES - that's younger than me.  He died of Cardiac Failure and myocardial degeneration.  All the papers I have seen for him list his occupation as Fireman on the railroad, but this just says laborer.  Maybe that was just a generic term for railroad worker.

The thing that I always wondered about (and I know I have mentioned it before) is the name of the doctor who signed the death certificate: Thomas McCutcheon of Gordon, PA.  Not his brother William, who was a doctor in Scranton.  Now that I am thinking about it, and after driving from Gordon to Scranton last week it took me an hour and change.  So back in 1914 it must have been a long trip - even if you had a car.  So anyway I looked up Dr. McCutcheon in the 1910 census, and I couldn't find him - until I used a wildcard search in Ancestry.com.  I searched McCu* for a last name and found his name spelled McCutecheon, living on Biddle St in Gordon, he was 31 years old, born in Canada (Eng), single and came to the US in 1902, and was still a Canadian citizen at the time.  Funny thing is that the next family in the census is Guy Hubler, his occupation is listed as Druggist.  Just thought that was interesting - Birds of a Feather and all that.

So after my trip, I still don't know any more about the Bradys in Schuylkill County, but not because of a lack of trying or helpful librarians and historians.  I just think that they don't want to give up any secrets yet.
                                                                                                    

Thomas A. Brady - My Great Great Grandfather

Okay, it's time to return to the elusive Bradys in the tree.  So I figured I would write about the oldest Brady I have found information on - my great great grandfather: Thomas A. Brady.  No, I don't know what the "A" stands for, but I know he had a son named Andrew - so that's where my money is.  I know a few things about him, but his date of birth and/or age seems to change from record to record, and I can't seem to find him on any passenger ship manifests to tell me when he came here, where he landed, and who he came with.  His death certificate doesn't even tell his parents names and lists his place of birth as - you guessed it - Ireland.  No town, not even a county.  But the best part of it is that his son William is the doctor who filled out and signed the death certificate.  William does list a date of birth as 11 Apr 1832 and he died of pneumonia on 5 Oct 1904 and is buried in Cathedral Cemetery in Scranton, PA.  You would think that his son would be able to fill out a death certificate with a plethora of information - NOT.  So I was on my own to piece together as much as I could.

The earliest census record that I found with Thomas and his family was 1860.  The family was enumerated on 13 Jul 1860 in Butler Township, Schuylkill County. The census lists the Post Office as Gordon.  The record says that he is 30 years old and a laborer born in Ireland.  He is married to Bridget, age 28, and they have three sons: John age 6, Michael age 3 and James age 9/12 ( he is nine months old - and he is my great grandfather).  This enumeration took place a year before the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln would be elected President for his first term in four months.

 Thomas applied for and was granted citizenship in the Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas on 5 Sep 1864.  The application says that he is 32 years old or there abouts.  Yea right, Homeland Security would be all over him today.  I wonder who he voted for, when he was able to. 

1870 finds him still living in Butler Township, but the post office is Ashland, and we have added some children.  The first thing I notice is that there is a Patrick Brady, listed as 17 years old and born in Ireland, John is 16, Michael is 14, James is 11, William (the doctor) is 9, Mary is 4, and Bridget is 11/12, off to the right it says that she was born in June.  The funny part is that Thomas is listed as 45 years old, and Bridget, his wife, is 40.  Somehow in the ten years between federal censuses, he aged 15 years and she aged 12 years - go figure.

1880 finds him living in South Butler Township (it also says Village of Gordon).  The family listed right before him is that of his son John, who is married to Annie and two sons, Thomas and John Jr.  Our hero is listed in the next family as being 56 years old - man it must be a tough life in coal country - he has aged 26 years in 20 years.  Bridget is listed as 49, so the aging process is slowing for her.  We also have a new child - Andrew, who is 10, but was not listed in the census 10 years ago.  The interesting thing about this census is that there is a catagory that says:  if a person is sick or temporarily disabled and unable to attend to his/her business on the day of the enumerator's visit - what is the disease or disability.  Bridget (his wife) is listed as "decaying".  Quite honestly I don't want to know what is going on with her that day, but I thought it was interesting.

At some point he moves to Scranton - to the big city, where they are listed in the 1900 census.  John and his family have also moved to Scranton.  William (the doctor) is also married and living in Scranton, married to Hannah Casey.  Living with Thomas and Bridget are two of their children: Mary aged 24, and Andrew aged 22 (Andrew has just returned home from the Spanish-American War - where he fought in Porto Rico - that's how it is spelled in his service record), and their grandson, Thomas aged 8.  As you all know Thomas is my elusive grandfather, who continued in the family tradition of leaving behind very little evidence of his life.

Just to keep you on the edge of your seat (where I am sure you have been for the past three and a half weeks just waiting for my next post) I will tell you that tomorrow I am going to my sister and brother-in-law's house in Penn.  On my way, I am stopping in Ashland, Penn to look in St Joseph's cemetery to see if I can find my great grandfather James's final resting place.  (My sons will be beside themselves with excitement - it's not every day that you drive three hours to look for a grave that may or may not be marked - if he is even there.) James, as it turns out, is even more elusive than his son, leaving even less evidence of his existence.  So I will let you know how I make out.

Where in the World is George P Valleau?

Turns out this pond was just stocked, so I gonna do a little more fishing here.  Right after I published my last post about Arthur J Valleau, I figured I would check George P Valleau, his father, on Ancestry.com using a birth year of 1883 and birth place of Jersey City, NJ.  Where else?

Surprise, Surprise - I found a few items.  Probably should have done this a while ago, but I'm a busy man.  Here's what I found:

1)  1915 Westfield NJ city directory lists George P Valleau, plumber living at 537 North Ave E, listed next, at the same address, is Susie Valleau, wid. of Charles - this would be his mother.

2) 1920 Federal Census, George P Valleau and two lines below him is Tessie Valleau, both listed as married, he is 37 and she is 27.  They are both borders in the home of John Keenan 368 W 27th St in Manhattan, NY.  I think that Tessie is his wife - Bessie, they live in the same house, they are the only two Valleaus there, and they are listed as married - probably to each other.  Their son, Arthur, is living in Tenafly with George's brother, Charles and his wife Mary O'Dea Valleau.  Confusing ain't it?

But this could explain why their son is living in Tenafly with family.  His parents fell on hard times and did not want him living in a boarding house with them in Manhattan.  Arthur is listed in the 1920 census in Tenafly as Nephew to the head of house (as I am sure you remember from several posts back)  Yeah right.  Anyway it sounds right.

3) 1942? World War II Draft Registration for George Percy Valleau, DOB/ 24Jan1883 in Jersey City, NJ.  He is living at 3002 1/2 Washington Ave. Newport News, NJ with his wife Sally P Valleau.

So, I return to the title of this post - Where in the world is George P. Valleau?  Did he remarry and lived into the forties?  There are still some missing pieces to this puzzle.  I have to write to his son's daughter, whom I found in the obit for Arthur. To be continued...

A little more about Stewart VanVliet

In my last post, I told you about an ancestor on my wife's side.  Well, I couldn't just let it end there, I had to find more.  The man was intriguing to me.  So I went to the Monmouth County Library and looked for an obituary in the Asbury Park Press on microfilm.  Sure enough, I found one:

It's a little blurry, but microfilm is tough.  I believe his father was a newspaper man, wrote some kind of fishing column for a local paper, but the Asbury Park Press can't spell his name right.  The proper spelling is VanVliet.  The obituary was found among  several pages of obits, for local people killed in the same crash.  I can see that he was married to Dorothy Smith VanVliet and has two children, Stewart and Lida.  He remained involved with the Boy Scouts, which is how I came upon him in the first place, and was active in the YMCA.  I also see that he was a veteran of World War II, and a communicant of Christ Church in Shrewsbury.  I found these headstones in the church cemetery:

Top left is his headstone, middle left is his father, and the bottom is his mother.  The one on the right is the stone for the family plot.  His sister and her husband are both buried here too, but I don't see a stone for his wife.  She may be with him, but there is no stone for her.  The picture is an experiment of an app that my kids showed me.  I could never do this myself.  Interesting to note is that both his sister, Ortrude and her husband were WWII veterans - the whole family got into the act.  In case you are wondering the round disk in front of his headstone is a flag holder and the disk is from the Shrewsbury Volunteer Fire Department, I found that a lot of the VanVliets served on the Fire Department.  Pretty community minded group

Anyway, after entering the correct date of death in my database, I checked Ancestry.com for any final info.  I got the census records for 1930 and 1940 (before he married) but then I got another military form:

It is an application for a military headstone or marker.  His widow, her signature is at the bottom right, chose the upright marble headstone.  The application gives some good information: rank 1rst Lt, his unit and company, date of birth and date of death.  I found it interesting that the only address I found anywhere is Sycamore Ave, Shrewsbury - no house number.  Maybe it was the only house on the street back then, I don't know.  I do know that the family was very prominent in the Shrewsbury area.  My wife's 2nd great grandfather was a Major General in the Union Army (he was also Stewart VanVliet - I guess it wasn't just my family that recycled first names).  One day I went into the Shrewsbury Historical Society to see what they had there, and I was met by an older man who volunteered there.  I told him that I was doing a family tree and my wife's family was from Shrewsbury.  He asked what her maiden name was and when I told him VanVliet, I thought he was gonna die. He asked if she was related to the general and when I said yes, I reached some sort of celebrity status.  He showed me a book shelf dedicated to Gen. VanVliet, which included old ledgers and papers.  In a box there were assorted birth and marriage certificates, as well as, old letters.  He let me copy whatever I wanted and was extremely helpful.  So I have to be careful writing about my wife's VanVliet family, cause once I start - I'll have to quit my job and just blog to dedicate the time needed for all the info I can find quickly.  I'm gonna keep looking for a Brady Museum, but I just don't think it's in the cards.

Stewart VanVliet

Yes you read it right - can't complain about the Irish with this one.  Stewart is one of my wife's ancestors who lived in Shrewsbury, NJ and is my father-in-law's (second?) cousin.  I would have to start a whole blog to cover my wife's family - especially on her father's side.  They consist of numerous West Pointers, including at least two generals and three burials in Arlington National Cemetery that I know of.  But this was kind of a local story that I happened upon by accident the other day.  I thought it was interesting - so I'm throwing it into the mix.

On Wednesday, I was working in the Shrewsbury area, and needed to use a rest room.  So I went to the Shrewsbury municipal building to use the facility.  When I walked through the lobby, I noticed two or three plaques on the wall put up by the local Boy Scout Troop.  The plaque had names of Eagle Scouts in the local Troop.  On my way out, I was looking through the names and when I got to the first name on the first plaque, I was surprised to see Stewart VanVliet and the date Aug 16, 1935.  So apparently he was the first Eagle Scout in Troop 50:

It's tough to see, so I took another picture:

There - that's better.  Top left on the plaque.  So I called my wife to tell her about  my find.  She really doesn't get as excited about this kind of stuff as I do - but actually there are very few people that get as excited as I do about this stuff.

When I got home, I went on Ancestry to check and see how old he was, where he lived in Shrewsbury, and who his father was, etc... Turns out that he is a junior, his father is also Stewart. Our Eagle Scout was born in 1920 - so he was only 15 when he made Eagle Scout, which is impressive (I think) maybe it was different back then.  So I checked my family tree program and saw that he died in 1950, and I was actually saddened by that - thinking of the promising future  that he never had.  It was at this point that I vaguely remembered my father-in-law telling me about a relative who was killed in a train wreck.  So my wife gets interested and goes on her ipad and searches for fatal train wrecks in 1950.  The response she gets is a train wreck - which is actually the third worst wreck in the country in terms of lives lost and injuries - in Woodbridge in 1951.  The wreck occurred on 6 Feb 1951, I checked my database again, and I had that Stewart died on 6 Feb 1950.  So I said to her that maybe my info was off by one year, after all that is quite a coincidence.  So I go on my ipad - so now we have dueling ipads going, and I search for the same criteria and I get the same train wreck on a different website.  The website is GenDisasters.com and I find out about this horrific train wreck on 6 Feb 1951 which resulted in 82 deaths and 500 injuries.  I read through the story and at the end is a list of Casualties.  Among the dead is listed Stewart VanVliet, age 30, Sycamore Ave. Shrewsbury, NJ - Holy Cow that's him.  In 2001, New Jersey Transit placed at plaque at the Woodbridge Station:

This is a link to the website and story with some photos and casualty list:  http://www3.gendisasters.com/new-jersey/2163/woodbridge%2C-nj-commuter-train-plunges-trestle%2C-feb-1951

Now for my Paul Harvey imitation: "Now here's the rest of the story"  The day that I found all of this stuff was 6 Feb 2013 - exactly 62 years after his death.  I told the story to my sister, and she asked if I thought it was spooky.  So I told her "No, they call it genealogical serendipity" so she asked if that is really what I would call it.  I told her "No, I call it creepy - but that's what some genealogists would call it."

Arthur J Valleau

I' gonna go back to the Valleaus for this post, I recently got two comments from people searching for Valleaus, so I gonna cast in this pond one more time.

While doing research for my last two blog entries about the Valleaus in my family, I noticed that there was another occupant of the house in Tenafly in the 1920 Census.  Besides Charles and Mary, and their daughter Gertrude, was Charles’ mother Susie, and an Arthur J Valleau, whom I assumed to be their son.  Until I noticed that the entire family was born in New York and New Jersey, except for Arthur.  He was born in Omaha, Nebraska – wow, I didn’t see that coming.  It was then that I noticed his relationship to head of household – Nephew, and he is 10 years old.  In next census, he is listed as – Adopted Son.  So I assumed that he must be the son of a brother of Charles (because they have the same surname, and Arthur is listed as nephew).  But what happened to Arthur’s parents?  Hmmm, there has got to be a blog in here somewhere.  I am always searching for blog fodder, and lately the Valleaus have been a rich source.

A check of the 1900 census in Bayonne, reveals that Charles is living with his family, which includes a brother George P.  After obtaining his brother’s name, I checked the 1910 census for Omaha NE.  This census show George Valleau as 26 years old, employed as a plumber, married for one year to Bessie, age 18, from Iowa, and their five month old son, Arthur.  The census was taken on 28 Apr 1910, which means Arthur was probably born in November 1909.  I should probably mention that spelling counts when searching a census index.  The name was spelled "Vallean", but who ever read it thought the "u" was an "n", probably an easy mistake.  So when I searched ancestry.com I listed the last name as "Vall* "  The * is considered a wild card and the results will show names starting with Vall.  Just thought that may come in handy some time.

My next move was to check Omaha Nebraska newspapers for the time range of about 1908 to 1912, and see if there is any mention of George P. Valleau.  So I went on GenealogyBank and entered the search criteria.  I got back two results which referred to our man.  The first was a small article in the Omaha World Herald, dated 31 Jan 1909 and it listed people applying for marriage licenses in Omaha.  Listed there is George P. Valleau and Bess Hubbard, this is the right time frame, since Arthur is apparently born in November.

The second article was a small paragraph in the Omaha World Herald evening of 15 Aug 1911, saying that the United States Supply Company had attached the stock belonging to George P. Valleau, plumber who has left home suddenly last week and has not returned.  It goes on to say that he runs a plumbing establishment at Fortieth and Cumings Sts and has a wife and baby in Omaha.  It is only a small paragraph, but gives a lot of information.  That was the last that I found of George P. Valleau - so far.

Now is when Arthur shows up in New Jersey with his Uncle Charles and Aunt Mary, as well as, his cousin Gertrude (the subject of a previous blog).  So now, I find an entry in the Social Security Death Index, which says that Arthur was born 11 Nov 1909 (ten months after the marriage license) and died 20 Dec 1999 at age 90, in Flemington, NJ.

Then I found Arthur's obit in the Bergen Record 21 Dec 1999

This is obviously not the obit from the newspaper, but I found it on Genealogybank.  I had read something before about him being a tree expert, but I did not know that he was in the US Army Air Corps during WWII - just like my dad's two brothers.

Next move was to call Barrett Funeral home in Tenafly.  A very nice woman said that she would pull the file and call me back, which she did.  She had his parents listed as George P and Elizabeth Valleau, but she also had a wife listed in the file as Ruth Webb.  The last item that I got from her was that his daughter made the arrangements.  I have recently located a phone number and address for her, and I am debating how to contact her.  I also contacted the cemetery that the funeral home gave me as his place of burial - The Westwood Cemetery on Kenderkamack Rd in, you guessed it, Westwood, NJ in Bergen County.  I got a call back from them and apparently Arthur is buried with his wife in the Webb family plot - No George or Elizabeth Valleau.

The last thing is that I have also been in contact with the Bergen County Surrogates Office in reference to obtaining the adoption file - if there is one.  I would love to see what happened to his parents George and Bess, and how he came to live with Charles and Mary.  I wonder if there was a formal adoption or if Charles and Mary just cared for him as though he was their own son.  Since he is not really a blood relation, I am debating how much time to put into this.  Anyway, I thought it was a good story and I enjoyed investigating it.  That is - after all - the fun part, and there is more to this story to find out.

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?