The Bergins in Ireland

Well, I'm done resting on my laurels after finding "Baby Jack", so it's back to work.  A few weeks ago I got a newsletter from ancestry.com and they usually tell you about new databases they have.  This being the March newsletter, they had new databases from Ireland, you know, St. Patrick's Day and all that.  The Database they had a link to was: Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1655-1915.  So I decided to try it out.

First I searched for Bradys in Swinford, County Mayo - no luck.  Then I entered my mom's grandfather, William "Pop" Bergen, and it was like the little Dutch Boy taking his finger out of the dike.  I found baptism records for William, Thomas, Patrick, Mary and Kate Bergin.  I found a baptism record for their father, Edward "Ned" Bergin, and a marriage record for Ned Bergin and Mary Malone.

In order to keep you awake while reading this, I have refrained from hammering you with dates, and sponsors for everyone.  But I did create an excel spread sheet and took a screen shot of it to make it a photo that I can post here:

You're welcome.  These records were all hand written into ledger books between 1840 and 1868, so some of them are tough to read, that's why there are question marks in the spread sheet, because some I just could not read.  Some of them, however, were in beautiful handwriting which has survived over 150 years.  "Pop" Bergin was one of them, I had no trouble finding him in the ledger.

There were alot of interesting things that I found in all of these records.  For example sometimes Edward Bergin is listed as "Ned".  I didn't know that Ned was a nickname for Edward.  Some of the baptism dates are before birth dates that I had gotten from other documents - but I should be used to that.  Some of the sponsors' names sound familiar, beside all of the Bergins and Malones.  You can see that "Pop" Bergin's Godmother is Ann Phelan.  Well I found another baptism for a Mary Malone, and her mother's name is Mary Phelan, and they are from Camross, Laois, Ireland which is very close to Borris-in-Ossary.  So I am thinking that this is my Mary Malone, but I am still working on it.

I'm not sure if I have it right, but I think that Borris-in-Ossary is a town, but the Bergins actually lived in Clonagooden, which is an Election District of Borris-in-Ossary.  I think that Camross is another Election District of Borris-in-Ossary in a county I never heard of.

I did this research for two reasons.  First, because ancestry.com had the available database, and second to prepare for a trip back to "the old sod".  My wife and I, and some of my children will be crossing the pond this year.  Now I will have Churches, graveyards and research centers to visit.  The kids will be thrilled.  They thought we were going for the Irish pubs.

I am publishing this at about 9:00 PM DST, so it is actually St. Patrick's Day in Ireland. Eire go Bràgh, which means Ireland Forever.

Solving the Mystery of Baby Jack

There was an old family story, that I actually heard from my dad on more than one occasion.  He told us that when he was young, he had a little brother who had died as an infant.  The boy's name was Jack. For my dad to say much at all about when he was a kid was a big deal.  He talked about his childhood, and how he and his brothers and his sister Margie (who they all called "sis") all got along and took care of each other.  He spoke of his mother quite a bit, but seldom talked about his father.  When he did speak of his father, he said that he was an alcoholic, and that he (my dad) had to help his father in the house a few times because he was so drunk.

I learned years later from cousins, that his father left the family during the Great Depression. Leaving my grandmother to raise five children by herself.  Dad only spoke of the good qualities that he saw in his family and his life.  He served in WWII, being overseas for several years, but didn't really talk about it much, except for some of the guys he served with.  Didn't really tell many "War Stories".

So for dad to mention something bad happening in his childhood was unusual.

Years later, when I started the family tree, my cousin, Linda, said that her mom talked about "Baby Jack".  Her mom (who would be my aunt Margie) would tell Linda every year on December 1, to "say a prayer for Baby Jack, because it is his birthday".  Linda relayed most of what I knew of Baby Jack, by telling me things her mom had said as Linda was growing up.

She said that Jack was born on December 1 during the years between the birth of my Uncle Frank in May of 1924 my Uncle Paul in June of 1929.  If that is the case, that there are only two years that he could have been born:  December 1, 1926 and December 1, 1927.  When Jack was born the family lived in a "cold water flat".  This was a small apartment that had no running hot water, and usually, no central heating.  If you wanted to bathe, you had to heat pots of water on the stove to fill the tub.  
Aunt Margie also told Linda that when Jack was born there was ice on the floor in the apartment.  So it was a cold winter with no heat or hot water.  The last tidbit that Aunt Margie told Linda, was that the had no money to bury Jack, and he was buried in a Potter's Field.

Linda did not know where this occurred, but we figured it had to be either Jersey City, NJ or New York City - because we knew they lived in Brooklyn for a time, and dad said they had lived in "Hell's Kitchen" in Manhattan for a short time.

So with this information in mind, I searched for twelve years.  I checked ancestry.com, and I called every cemetery in Jersey City.  Then I checked the NJ State Archives for birth and death records for a John Brady.  I was very consistent, I came up empty every time.  Then I heard about the potters field in Secaucus at Snake Hill.  When the NJ Highway Authority was building Exit 15 X, they began digging up bodies and discovered it was the old cemetery from Snake Hill.  They wound up exhuming many bodies which had been buried in the potter's field and re interring them in Bergen County.  I went through every list I could find, not Baby Jack.  I heard of another potter's field in New York called Hart's Island.  This is a burial ground which is tended by NYC Department of Correction inmates from Riker's Island.  I checked every data base I could find for that facility with no luck.

Ancestry.com has a new database, which is an index of New York City Deaths 1862 - 1948, Baby Jack fit in that time frame, so I tried it. I found a John Brady who died 4 Jan 1927, with an age listed as 1/12, which would be one month.  Wow, this could be him, all I have to do is sent $15.00 to the NYC Municipal Archives with the certificate # 453 on it, and wait a couple of months for them to mail it.  Great! - except for that whole waiting a couple of months.  I could also drive up there and get it.  So I planned to drive up there and drag my wonderful wife with me.  Then I decided to try familysearch.org and see if I could find a baptism record for this birth.  I have had luck in the past with Catholic Church records on familysearch.org.  When I did that, I got the same NYC Municipal Death record, but this gave more information.  It listed the parents as Thomas Brady and (wait for it) Marguerite O'Dey (wrong spelling, but who cares), born 1 Dec 1926, place of burial: Calvary Cemetery. ( I was almost disappointed that it wasn't Hart's Island)  But this has to be him.

So I called the cemetery and found out that he is buried in 4th Calvary, Sec 67, Plot 36, Grave 19.  He is listed as John C. Brady, and the grave is owned by Thomas J Brady.  So now I ordered the microfilm from familysearch.org and within a couple of weeks I had this little beauty:

It says he died on Diarrhea and Enteritis, which (according to wikipedia) is an inflammation in the small intestine caused by food or drink contaminated with pathogenic microbes.  This is usually accompanied by diarhea, stomach cramps, dehydration and fever.  So it sound like his short life involved very little fun, and lots of discomfort.

So in the end, Aunt Margie was right - except for the Potter's Field - but she was only ten years old at the time.  Mystery solved. Or is it?  When does the middle initial "C" that the cemetery told me, stand for?  Is there is marker on the grave?  And I am sure a few more questions will pop up, because as I have learned No Mystery Is Ever Completely Solved.

Update on my Great Great Grandmother Bridget Crimmins-Sullivan-Keaveney

I recently found some new information about my Great Great Grandmother, Bridget Crimmins Sullivan Keaveney.  One of my first posts was written about her, if you don't remember, I'll give you the Reader's Digest version:  She was born in Ireland, in about 1846, and came to the US, during the US Civil War.  On 5 Oct 1865 she married a fellow Irish immigrant in Jersey City, his name is Dennis Sullivan.  In about 1867 she gives birth to my great grandmother, Annie Sullivan (who will marry my great grandfather, William Bergen in 1887).  Dennis dies 8 Oct 1867, just two years after their wedding.  He is buried in Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City.

Sometime between October 1867 and 1871, Bridget marries a man named Thomas Keaveney, another Irish immigrant.  They will have seven children, four of them will live to adulthood, two will die within days of being born, and one, Catherine Bridget, will die at age 11 in 1884.  1884 is a bad year for Thomas Keaveney, he will bury two children and his wife that year.  Bridget gives birth to a son George and Bridget dies from an infection within a few days. George is baptized and dies within another week of his mother.

How do you move on after that.  It is amazing how resilient these folks were.  Thomas lives almost 20 years longer, and is buried 18 Feb 1903 in Holy Name Cemetery, in Jersey City.

Although I think this is all interesting, it is not the reason for this new post.  Their daughter Jane is the reason for the post.  I was recently on familysearch.org and I entered Bridget Crimmins in the search field.  This is what I found:

Yup, another child born to Bridget and Thomas Keaveney on 27 Jun 1879, in Jersey City.  They named her Jane, and she was baptized on 13 Jul 1879 in St Michael's Church.  This is the only record that I find of her,  and I am assuming that she dies shortly after her birth.  She does not appear in the 1880 census.  I will have to check the NJ State Archives for her death next time I go.  But I think it is safe to assume that she met the same fate that half of the Keaveney children.

I do however, see why I never found her before.  The last name of Keaveney is butchered once again. This time, we see it spelled as Keareney.  They turned the "v"into an "r", probably a common error, when written in longhand.

Wow, that wasn’t so tough

Last time we met, I was trying to find my uncle John's uncle John in census records. Turns out, all I had to do was start the search with Catherine McConville, his daughter, and I quickly saw the problem.  John's wife, Anna Dorothy, is listed by her nickname: "Dora", and I was searching for Dorothy Ann.  I guess the record would have shown up at some point, but searching through hundreds of thousands of records (literally) would be somewhat time consuming.

When I did that, I found them in the 1930 US Census, living at 1937 Greene Avenue, in Queens, NY. John is listed as 59 years old, a real estate broker, born in England, arrived in the US in 1878 (which is not correct, because he is listed in the 1870 Census record in Brooklyn, with his parents), and he is a naturalized citizen.  His wife, Dora, is listed at 42 years old, born in New York, her father was born in New York and her mother was born in Germany.  Catherine is listed as 12 years old, and Grace is listed as 4 10/12 (4 yrs 10 months), both born in New York.

Now that I have the ages of the girls, Catherine and Grace, I can figure out about when they were born.  Catherine is 12, so she was born around 1918, while Grace in almost 5, so she was probably born around 1925.  There is also a question in the census, which asks for the parent's age at first marriage.  This says that John was 35, and Dora was 29.  So based on their current age in the census, that would mean that they were married in about 1916, but they do not appear in the marriage index for NYC.

When I search Ancestry.com for Catherine McConville born 1918 in New York, I found a lot of info, including this little beauty:

Wow, A picture.  This is from a the 1936 Jamaica High School yearbook, I assume this is her senior picture, she would be about 18 here.

Through a variety of databases on ancestry.com, I was able to piece together a portion of Catherine's life.  I know that she was born in Ridgewood Queens, NY on 16 Nov 1917 (I was close), and she married a man named William J. Mahon, who was a WWII veteran.  As best as I can tell, they had no children.  Her husband died 25 Feb 1961 in Alameda, CA and was buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, CA.  Catherine lived in California until her death 7 Oct 1991, and was buried next to her husband.

I was able to do the same thing for Grace Marie, but I got alot of help from her obituary.  It says that she died 10 Oct 2006 in Ranson, W. Va, born 7 Jun 1925 in Ridgewood, Queens, NY.  She was a secretary for Coca Cola.  She was apparently a dog trainer, as it mentions memberships in dog training clubs in Maine and W. Va.  She was survived by her husband of 57 years, William Peter Pankow, Sr, two sons: William Peter Jr, and Kenneth John Pankow, as well as a daughter, Kathy Ann Miller and seven grandchildren.

Then it says she was preceded in death by two sisters, Doris McConville and Catherine Mahon. WHAT?? Who is Doris McConville?  Where did that come from?  Well a quick check of the NYC death index reveals that Doris McConville was born in NYC in 1921, and died at the age of 3, on 12 May 1924.  She is buried in St. John's Cemetery in Queens.

A check with St. Johns Cemetery confirms that John J McConville, Doris McConville and Dorothy McConville, who died in 1963 are all buried in a plot there.  By the way, somebody owes about $8,000.00 for perpetual care before any more family can be buried there.  I told the woman on the phone at the cemetery that I was doing research for a friend.

My Uncle John's Uncle John

Confusing, ain't it?  My Uncle John is actually my great uncle John J McConville.  I have blogged about him before.  He is my grandmother's brother, served in the US Navy in WWI, died in 1963.  He is the uncle who is buried in Jersey City Cemetery with his wife's family.  I believe that this is because Aunt Gertie was Methodist, and the Catholic Church would not allow him to be buried in a Catholic Cemetery - all because he crossed the line and married a Methodist.

Turns out that Uncle John's father, (my great grandfather) Edward McConville also had a brother named John - who would be the aforementioned John's Uncle John.  The Uncle John that I am going to talk about tonight is my Great Grand Uncle.  He was born in Manchester, England in 1861. The family came to America in about 1869, and his younger brother Peter was born in Brooklyn.

I was hunting around the New York, New York Death Index, 1862 - 1948 database, for deceased family members.  I was searching on FamilySearch, because I found that you get more information on Familysearch.org than ancestry.com.  So I searched for the surname, McConville when I saw a John McConville died in 1936.  I clicked on the entry and saw that he had the same parents as my great grandfather and his siblings.  That is when I realized that he was related.  Quite honestly, I had him listed in my family tree, but I forgot all about him.  The entry said that he was born 6 Mar 1861 in England and died 4 Mar 1936, he was 74 years old at the time of his death.  It says that he lived at 84-26 Charlecote Ridge Rd, Queens, NY and his spouse's name was Anna D. McConville, and he was employed in Real Estate.  He was buried in St. John's Cemetery in Queens, NY. on 7 Mar 1936, the day after his 75th birthday.

With this information, I decided to check another website that I recently found.  The Brooklyn Public has Brooklyn Newspapers on line through their website.  You can sign up for a free account, search Brooklyn Newspapers and clip articles on line and save them.  When I did this, I found an obituary for John McConville from the Brooklyn Eagle 5 Mar 1936, Page 15.

BUT, there was another entry in the newspaper, a few days later on 18 Mar 1936, and this one floored me.

This is during the Great Depression!!  He has been able to put away a nice bit of money.  The article also mentions my great grandfather, Edward S. and his brother Peter (their sister, Mary Emma died in 1924).  It goes on to mention other family: his wife Anna D and two daughters, Catherine and Grace, who are apparently under the age of 25.  If you look at the obit, his wife is listed as Anna Dorothy.  I don't know if Dorothy is her middle name or her Maiden name.

Now here is the strange part, I cannot find John McConville and his wife Anna with daughters Grace and Catherine anywhere in the census records. In 1900 John is listed at 20 Devoe St, Brooklyn as the head of house, employed as a foreman at a cooper works.  He is living with his brother, Peter who is single, also a foreman at the cooper works, and his mother, Catherine, who is widowed.  The funny thing is that John is listed as Married for 5 years, but his wife is no where to be found.

So where is Anna Dorothy and his daughters: Catherine and Grace.  Well, now I have a new project.  It seems that every time I solve a mystery, another one is waiting around the corner.

Social Security Claims and Application Index 1936 - 2007

This is a great database available on ancestry.com and it has led to some great discoveries in my research lately.  For example, this is how I found Helen Keogh and her family after her marriage.  It is really good for finding married names of female ancestors.  Before this was available, you had the Social Security Death Index, which told you when your ancestor died - sometimes it just gave the month and year, sometimes it also gave the day. But with this new index, you usually get the date of death and names of parents - including the mother's maiden name, which was always tough to find.  If your ancestor is female, it will usually give her maiden name, married name, and the date that they got around to changing the last name.

So I was looking through my family tree app for shaking leaves (hints) and I came across my Grandmother, Marguerite (O'Dea) Brady's brother: Leo O'Dea and his wife Veronica Walsh.  Leo is the man who changed the spelling of the last name to O'Day (although most of the O'Deas switched back and forth apparently)  Leo married Veronica Walsh and they had three children: Gertrude, William and Veronica.  The only one that I was somewhat familiar with was Veronica.  She became a Catholic nun and her name became Sister Eleanor Gertrude.  She was a member of the Sisters of Charity.

But Leo's wife Veronica is the one with the shaky leaf.  When I clicked on it, the Social Security Claims and Applications Index database came up and this was the result:

Even Social Security spelled the last name both ways (Odea and Oday).  But the thing that caught my eye was place of birth.  Gordon, PA!!!  Does that sound familiar??  Well, it certainly did for me. Gordon, PA is the small town in Schuylkill County, PA where my grandfather was born.  According to Wikipedia, the population of Gordon, PA in the 2000 Census was 781.  So you can imagine how many people lived there 100+ years earlier. My Grandfather Thomas James Brady was born 27 Aug 1891, and Veronica Walsh was born in the same small town a year later.  Then she marries my grandfather's brother-in-law, go figure.

A little more digging into this line, is about to yield a couple of 2nd cousins, who live within a couple of miles of me.  I'll have to let you know how that works out.

The Olsens of Buffalo

Last time we met, we were in the midst of the Great Lakes Storm of 1913.  Somehow the Olsens survived this brutal storm, apparently they were not on the Great Lakes at the time.  Actually, during this same time frame in 1975 - November 10, 1975 to be exact, was the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  I guess those Great Lakes storms can be pretty bad.  Now I'll be singing that song while writing - oh well.

John then served overseas during WWI, there is no draft registration card, so I assume that he enlisted, but I could be wrong.  This is his service abstract from ancestry.com:

Unimpressed by the storm, and after the War,  the Olsens remained in Buffalo, living at 59 Zittle St in 1920.  Alfred supported his family by working as a motorman for a railway company, and John was a clerk for the railroad.  Then, as we saw in our last episode, Alfred dies on 18 Mar 1926, as he is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in the Lackawanna section of Buffalo (Sec DD, Lot 45 if you're keeping score).

About two years before the death of his father, John is hired as a Policeman in the City of Buffalo, NY, a job he will keep for 32 years.  In the 1930 and 1940, John and his mother still live at 59 Zittle St, and John polices the streets of Buffalo until 1956.  There is one change in the 1930 census - Catherine's brother William H. O'Dea, now lives with them, where he is also counted in the 1940 census.  But 1941 brings some sad changes.  William O'Dea dies on 31 Aug 1941 at the age of 82.  His body is returned to Susquahanna, PA for burial with his parents and brother, James.  James had died forty years earlier in 1900.  Apparently the attorney for William's will set a record of sorts authenticating a signature on William's will.  And the event made the local paper:

I thought this was interesting, and I just had to add it.  This came to me courtesy of my on line researching friend, Denise.  Thanks.

So then on 18 Nov 1941, (three weeks before Pearl Harbor) Catherine passed away.  She was 80 years old and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery with her husband:

So it appears that John lives in the house and retires from the Buffalo Police Department in 1956.  He lives there until he entered the North Town Nursing Home in North Tonawanda, NY where he passed away at the age of 69 on 9 Aug 1962.  I found this obit for John, sorry about that nasty stripe down the middle:

It takes a little work, but it is still readable.  So he spent 32 years as a Patrolman in Buffalo.  I found a website for Buffalo Police Now and Then, and I never knew how big the city was.  I have one more picture before I go.

This is 59 Zittle St in Buffalo NY, which I got from Google Earth. Yup this is where it all happened for over 40 years the Olsens owned and resided in this house.  It was still standing in 2015 when the Google Earth car drove by and captured this image.  It probably looked a little different back in the day, no air conditioners in the windows I would imagine.  I wouldn't think you would need A/C in Buffalo - but what do I know.  I do know that my ancestors spent most of their lives in this house, in this city, and it's still there.