The Wandering Keaveneys Part II

So after locating the records for William Keaveney, and locating some blog fodder, I checked the shaky leafs next to his brother Richard F. Keaveney, 1923 to 1983.  The first records I saw were the 1930 and 1940 census records.  He was living with his parents in Jersey City, NJ in both of these records.

You gotta love findagrave.com, because the next thing I see is an entry in Find A Grave for Richard F (probably Francis – that seems like a popular middle name with this family), born 5 Mar 1923 and died 28 Jul 1983.  And he is buried where?  No, not Holy Cross or Holy Name- he is buried in Oleander Memorial Gardens in Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina – Really?  Find A Grave also lists in the memorial that he was born 5 March 1923 in Hudson County, NJ and is the son of Elizabeth Mayhew and Edward Keaveney.  I have never seen this type of info listed before – it may be common but not with my family.  It also gives a family link to his wife’s Find A Grave memorial – Eleanor Carmela Torre Keaveney (1923-1989).  I am going out on a limb and I will guess that the creator of his memorial is related.  There is a photo of the grave marker and there is no indication of any parental information.  So I clicked on the link to his wife, Eleanor and I see that this memorial has the same type of info.  It says that she was born 9 Feb 1923 in Masontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania and died 16 Dec 1989 in Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina.  It goes on to say that she is the daughter of Josephine Victoria DeMiere and Joseph Paul Torre, Sr.  So not only do I get her maiden name, but I get her mother’s maiden name.  I have sent a message to the creator of both memorials explaining that Richard is my first cousin 2X removed, and asking how the creator is related, but I have not received a response yet.

My next move was to search for Eleanor Torre with her birth date and parent’s names and I found that in 1940 she is living in Jersey City – go figure.  I didn’t think of this when I saw her maiden name, but in 1940 she has several siblings, including a brother Joseph and a brother Frank.  Now, if you are not a baseball fan, this may mean nothing to you.  But if you are a baseball fan and a NY Yankee fan, your heart – like mine – may have skipped a beat.  Yankee manager Joe Torre and his brother Frank, both played major league ball – with Joe managing the NY Yankees.  I immediately searched on line for Joe Torre, and found that he was older than this Joe Torre and lived in Brooklyn, not Jersey City.  Oh well, there goes my brush with fame.

So, how did they meet?  Did they live near each other in Jersey City? After all it is the 2nd most populous city in the state.  Back to the 1940 census, and here is what I found.  The Keaveneys lived at 171 (I think, it is hard to read) Summit Ave, and the Torres lived at 157 (again difficult to read) Summit Ave.  How close is that?  You gotta love Google Earth.  Check this out.  You can do alot with Google Earth, including labeling old homes and locations.

 They lived on the same block, they were the same age, probably went to the same public school in the same grade.  So maybe they met in the neighborhood, or went to the same school.  Either way, they met and married.  Funny thing is that when looking at the 1940 Census Richard has completed 1 year of high school, but so has his brother, Leonard - but Leonard is two years younger.  So you would think that Richard is working at 17 years old - but there is no employment info and it says that he went to school during the year.  As for Eleanor the census says that she attended school since 1 Mar 1940, but it does not list a last grade completed - nor does it give any employment info.  It does say that her father was born in Italy and is a barber by trade (as are two of her older brothers).  Maybe if they were born in Ireland they would all be cops.

At some point they moved to 2534 Birchtree Dr. Memphis, TN 38138-5704, because I found a record on Ancestry.com , which comes under US Public Records - I think it is usually telephone books that are the source.  And then on to Wilmington, NC, where they will spend eternity in Oleander Memorial Gardens, 306 Bradley Dr, Wilmington, NC.  By the way, do you know what famous person is buried in this cemetery? Major League Baseball Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Pirate, Willie Stargell, 1940 to 2001.  Just in case anybody ever asks. 

One more thing I noticed right before publishing this today.  I upgraded my Ancestry App on my Ipad, and it is very good.  It tells your ancestors facts as more of a story and adds historical facts about things going on in the world during their lifetime.  Like a timeline - I like it.

The Wandering Keaveneys - Part I

Okay, get a cup of coffee before you start reading this, ‘cause it may get confusing.  I am going to write about a cousin or two that I had never heard of on my mom’s side:  William and Richard Keaveney.  They are both sons of Edward L. Keaveney, who is the half brother of my great grandmother, Johanna Sullivan Bergin.  You may remember from a post last year (yeah right) that Johanna’s mother was Bridget Cremmins, who married Dennis Sullivan.  After Johanna was born, Dennis died, and Bridget remarried to Thomas Keaveney.  That is the Keaveney Connection.

So just the other day, I went on my Ancestry App and was looking through some names.  I came across William Keaveney and he had a few shaky leafs next to his name.  This means that the app has searched through Ancestry.com and found records that fit the information entered for your ancestor pretty closely.  Sometimes the records refers to your ancestor, sometimes it doesn’t.  You have to check it out.  So I clicked on the shaky leaf and saw a few records, one of which was the 1940 Census.

I checked the census record and found William age 35 and his wife Helen living with their two daughters, Joan and Patricia (sound familiar?).  I checked the address, but it did not sound like an area of Jersey City, so I scrolled to the top to see if they were in Bayonne or Hoboken or something.  When I got to the top of the page, I got a surprise – they lived in Chicago, Ill at 500 East 102 St, he is a foreman in retail window shades.  How did that happen?  Do I have the right guy?  So I checked the 1930 Census and found William and his wife Helen living on Summit Ave in Jersey City with his parents and siblings.  He is a foreman in a paper mill.  So they must have moved, but why?  As I looked at the dates 1930 to 1940, it dawned on me – the Great Depression was in full swing.  Maybe, like so many others during this time, he moved to find work.

So now I continue the Shaky Leaf Shuffle and find a listing in the Social Security Death Index which give his date of birth as 1 Feb 1905 and death as Apr 1985 in Oswego, New York.  I start to question again if this is my Keaveney, and I found a City Directory listing for William and one for Helen in Oswego, NY.  I guess that answers that.

While I was still in Chicago, I checked for marriage records with Cook County IL to see if Joan or Patricia were married there.  It just so happens that Ancestry.com has an index of Cook County Illinois marriages between 1930 and 1960 - Lucky me.  I checked the index and this is what I found:

Patricia S. Keaveney married Edward W. Hedstrom on 17 Mar 1954.  Now I don't know if this is my Keaveney, and I will not know for sure, unless I order a copy from the Cook County Clerk, but I think it is a good possibility.  It would make her 21 years old.  But we will have to check and see what exorbitant fee Cook County wants for a 60 year old marriage license before I order it.

I was going to write about two brothers in this post, but I think I will save Richard F Keaveney for next time.

Where is William Brady Buried

I am certain that this burning question has been the topic of many heated debates, much like the Lincoln - Douglas debates of 1860, and Kennedy - Nixon of 1960.  Okay, so maybe I'm the only person on the planet who actually cares where he is buried.  It is a piece of the puzzle that I don't have yet, so I am compelled to find it.

With this in mind, I traveled to Scranton, Pa to investigate further, and visit living family members while I am at it.  This past Friday I drove to my sister and brother-in-laws home, and enjoyed their company for the night.  In the morning, I was off to the Scranton Public Library to research obituaries on microfilm.  I was able to find the one I was looking for:  John Casey.  WHO??  Yes, John Casey is the father of Hannah Casey Brady, wife of William F Brady.  If you remember, I had said that I thought that if I could find John Casey, I would find Hannah (his wife) and Hannah (his daughter) and her husband, William.  I have heard this called Sidestep Genealogy.  If you can't find someone, look for the people close to him/her and you may find him.

So here is the Obit that I found in the Scranton Times 7 Jan 1935:

Pretty cool, gives you alot of information: where he was born, when he emigrated to the USA, what he did for a living, where he lived, political affiliation, and the part that I was looking for: Where he is buried.  By the way, my sister Pat guessed that he would be buried in Dunmore and she was right.  It says that he is buried in St Mary's cemetery in Dunmore, PA (I think it may actually be a part of Scranton).  So I drove to St Mary's, and I found a Priest at the church, but he could not help me because he had a wedding party there.  Come on now, I can't believe he thought they were more important than a guy who has been buried for almost a hundred years.  Anyway, I walked through the cemetery for a while, but could not locate a headstone.  The Priest said if I called the church on Monday, his secretary may be able to help me.

Monday morning I called the church.  The woman I spoke with was very nice and took the information and my name and phone number, promising to call me back when she found the info.  Five minutes later she called me back with good news.  John Casey is buried there, he is listed as the owner of the plot.  The last person buried there was Hannah Casey Brady.  Hold onto your hat, she died 14 Sept 1958 at the age of 90.  Holy cow, that is some longevity in them genes.  Her father died at 92, and her daughter, Hannah, will die at age 94.  Unfortunately none of those genes crossed paths with me and my crew.  As I sit here thinking about, if Hannah died at 90 in 1958, that means she was born in about 1868.  That means she was born during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War, and died when I was two years old.  That's alot of livin'.

So it sounds like my next visit to Scranton will involve a visit to the library for Hannah's obit, and a very large cup of coffee to take for a walk through St. Mary's cemetery in search of William Brady.  Didn't find him this time, but I am  getting closer.  I am almost certain he is there, I just hope the grave is marked - 'cause as usual the cemetery records from that time are spotty at best.

International Correspondence School

Sorry it has been so long, almost a month and a half.  But I have been busy -  okay not that busy, but busy enough to keep me from doing much research and blogging.  If you remember back, I had talked about my great grand uncle Dr. William F Brady.  Well I forgot to mention one little detail that I had heard from my sister Pat and my cousin Linda.  Supposedly Dr Brady was one of the founders of the International School of Correspondence (ISC) in Scranton, Pa.  He allegedly wrote a textbook for the school on Electro Therapeutics.  No I don't know what that is, but apparently the good Doctor did.  It doesn't sound as interesting as my blog though.

So anyway I was looking up the school on google and it still exists and has been renamed Penn Foster Career School, but it still operates as ICS in the UK and Canada (according to wikipedia).  I called the University of Scranton Library because their website says that they have a collection of documents from the school.  I was told by a woman there that she would check through the collection and let me know if she finds anything about Dr. Brady.

Within a week, I received an email from one of the research librarians advising that there is no record of Dr. Brady being affiliated with the ICS, however, he was listed as a guest at the Fifteenth Anniversary of the ICS.  She also extended an invitation to make an appointment to examine a folder titled "The History of the ICS", and any other documents pertaining to the school.  I might take them up on it, because I have a copy of a document listing him at the Dean of the School of Electro Therapeutics.  So maybe no documents referring to him are still around, after all they are a hundred years old.  Just so you know there is a family connection to the ICS, William has an older brother John (who was the father of 11 children with his wife Anna, who all lived to adulthood).  In the 1930 Census, John is listed as 75 years old (as is Anna) and they were both 20 years old when they married.  That means that they were married 55 years at this point.  Sorry I went off on a tangent, John's occupation is listed as Repairman and his employer is listed as ICS.  I had heard that several family members were employed by the school.

My next email will be directed to Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA.  This is the Medical School that he graduated from in 1884.  I am really looking to locate a picture of him.  It would also be nice to find out anything else that I can about him.

Why I Blog

 Let me tell you how blogging has really helped me improve my research skills.  First, I have to pick a topic - a person or family group, or a cemetery, courthouse or archive.  Okay, you get the picture.  Next, I have to  check all of the stuff I have for the topic - this is the learning part.

When I check all of the documents that I have collected, I find that half of the time, I will find a name or a date that fits in with something else that I have been trying to figure out. I suddenly have a revelation or an "AHA!! moment".  It is usually something that I have been trying to figure out for awhile - and I had the answer all along, I just didn't know it.

I bring this up now because I have been working on Dr. William Brady - as you know, if you read my last post.  I said that he was the most documented Brady of that era.  While writing about him, I realized that I do know a few things about him - thanks to a lengthy article in the Scranton Times on the day of his death.  But there is one thing that I did not realize until I began to write this post.  I don't know if you remember, but when my great grandmother (Madge Bradley) died in Sep 1892, I wrote that my grandfather (Thomas) may have lived with his uncle William and his wife and children.  Now that I am writing this and looking at dates, I know that William did not marry Hannah Casey until 1 May 1893 and had no children until 1894 - he may not even have been back in the USA yet from his studies abroad.  So that "Family Lore" has been debunked- as they say on "Myth Busters".  Now that I think of it, that sounds like a good description of my family research - Myth Busters.  I have had his marriage license application and his will since November 2006.  So I have had this information for about 6 1/2 years and I never made the connection until I started blogging about William.

So as I said, William marries Hannah M. Casey, daughter of John Casey and Hannah Gorman, in May of 1893.  The Caseys are a prominent family in Scranton, John is a grocer in Scranton, and the newlyweds live with her parents at 613 Adams St in Scranton. William practiced medicine on Wyoming Ave, and he and his wife had three children:  Hannah Brady on 20 March 1894, Regina on 20 Sept 1895, and John on 18 Oct 1897.  Like I said, the family lives with John and Hannah Casey at 613 Adams Ave, apparently it is more lucrative to be a grocer that a Doctor in the early 1900s.  According to the 1920 Federal Census, Hannah and Regina both become school teachers in Scranton and John is in school for Civil engineering.  I believe that both Hannah and Regina go on to become principals in the Scranton School District.  Neither of them marries and both retire to Miami, Florida where both die, Hannah on 3 May 1990 (at age 94!!!) and Regina on 14 Dec 1971.  John marries Irene O'Hara and they have at least two children: Noreen and John Casey Brady.  John is widowed in 1963 when Irene dies, and he dies in Scranton in 1967.  According to the 1940 Census, Hannah, Regina, John and his family all reside with their mother, Hannah Brady at 613 Adams St, in Scranton.  John's education says that he is a high school graduate, and is employed as an insurance adjuster.  Apparently the whole college thing did not work out.  But you never know -  we all know it took me much longer than that to graduate college.

A lot of  this information I picked up as I prepared for this blog post.  The last thing I found was by accident.  I started with my Ancestry App, and started looking up stuff about William's children: Hannah, Regina, and John.  The one thing I did find was Hannah, on 'Find A Grave'.  She is buried in St. Catherine's Cemetery in Moscow PA (thank God it's in PA, cause I would have had the big one if it was Russia)  As if turns out, all three of them are buried in a plot there, as well as John's wife Irene, children and some of his grandchildren.  I never expected to find them all in Moscow, PA, After all Hannah and Regina died in Miami, so they had to be transported from sunny Florida back to Lackawanna County PA to spend eternity.

I know that William died of a heart attack 18 Sep 1917 in Scranton, but I don't know where he is buried.  I can't find his wife Hannah or her parents either. I thought they would be in St. Catherine's in Moscow or in Cathedral in Scranton - but so far, no luck.   I think if I find one of them, I will  find them all.  That's the other thing that I learned by looking through my stuff.  The long article I found in the Scranton Times about Dr Brady and I thought was an obit, is not.  It looks like a long article about him on the day of his death (still no picture), and I will have to return to the paper to find the obit, that should tell me about his burial place.

Here is a photo of the grave marker from 'Find A Grave' for the Brady's in St Catherine's Cemetery in Moscow, PA:

Dr. William F. Brady M.D.

This is my Great Grand Uncle, brother of my Great Grandfather - James Brady.  William is one of my better documented Brady family members from this era.  I actually have a date of birth from a Passport Application and a physical description - but no photograph.  These Bradys were very good at avoiding cameras - come to think of it my father never liked having his picture taken either - maybe there is something in the DNA.  Anyway, William was born 6 Sep 1862 in Gordon, Pa.  I know all you Civil War buffs out there are saying "Wow that's eleven days before the Battle of Antietam"  That's right, the bloodiest single day of the Civil War and happened in Sharpsburg, MD, about 600 miles away.  In another ten months (July 1863), the Civil War will be knocking on their back door at the Battle of Gettysburg- only 80 miles away.  Good thing Billy Yank turned them away or I'd be eating corn pone and hominy grits today - actually I kinda like grits sometimes.  With the war that close, you would think that I would find a Brady fighting in the war somewhere.  Actually I think I can hear my great great grandmother saying something sweet to my great great grandfather - "where the hell do you think you're going?  You want a war, I'll give you your bloodiest day if you try to leave me here alone with these kids."  (Okay, that conversation is fictional, but I never realized how close the war came to their home until now).

Sorry, I digress.  Let's get back to the story.  William was the fifth of the eight children born to Thomas and Bridget Brady in Gordon.  According to a biography in an old book I found on line (and never bookmarked - so I can't find it) he attended school in Gordon and Ashland, graduating from high school in Ashland at age fifteen (showoff).  He received a B.A. from LaSalle College in Philadelphia in 1882 (BIG showoff).  Then he took a course in Villenova Seminary, stayed for a year and decided, at that time, to study medicine - I guess a year in the seminary will do that to a guy.  So then he entered Jefferson Medical College in 1882 and two years later, he graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.  Unless my math is off - which happens with guys like me who don't like showoffs and take 27 years to graduate from college - he became a Doctor at age 22.  I told my brother-in-law, who is a doctor, about this accomplishment and his reply was that there was not as much to learn then. Excellent point.

So, now he is a doctor.  He spends a year working at the State Miners Hospital at Fountain Springs near Ashland, Schuylkill County.  When he finished his time there, he traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to continue to study abroad (no, I don't know her name - HA, just kidding).  First he goes to Dublin, Ireland and graduates from the Maternity Hospital.  I guess if you want to learn about maternity, Ireland is the place to go.  Then it is on to Paris, France for two and a half years, and Berlin, Germany, and Vienna, Austria for a year each.  He spent five years studying abroad and meeting the leading medical men of "the old country",   while becoming fluent in French and German during his visit. Germany is where this document comes from (okay so it was on Ancestry.com):

This is one of my favorite finds, it gives dates, a physical description, and his signature.  So this document says that he is in Berlin 25 Jul 1888, applying for a passport  for Identification purposes - probably so he could go back home.  It gives his date of birth as 6 Sep 1862, and that he left the US on 7 Sep 1888 (it also disputes the biography I found that says he went to Ireland for a year first - oops).  But it gives a physical description saying that he is 25 years 10 months old, 5' 8" tall, high forehead, grey eyes and a medium nose. (what is a medium nose?)  He has an oval face, fair complexion, brown hair, and a beard and moustache.
Well, I think that is enough for now.  Stay tuned for part two.

By the way, I just realized that the biographical sketch that I found is actually all in his obituary in the Scranton Times 18 Sep 1917.

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.