Verifying What is Written in Stone Part XI - Richard Barry

 

Here we are at the eleventh and final part in this series where I have been verifying the information on the Coughlin headstone at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, NY.

The final death recorded on this headstone was Richard Barry, the second youngest son of William Barry and Winifred Coughlin. The headstone only has Richard's years of birth and death, but I was able to find documentation and/or clues to both full dates.

An entry in the NYC municipal births index for a male Barry child, with parents of the right names and a date of birth of January 14, 1880 matched not only the year on the headstone, but also Richard's entry in the Baptism register at Immaculate Conception church in Manhattan where he was baptized on February 15, 1880. Although my genealogy budget will not allow for the purchase of all of the certificates for Donald's collateral ancestors, I do plan to get this one. I am curious to see what the original says. Richard's year of birth on the marriage index is also a match to the headstone.

I have found a few clues for documents that may verify Richard's date of death, but I'll have to keep digging for something better. For now, it appears that he died on 15 July 1969 and he was living at what was then a bungalow in the Bay Park neighborhood of East Rockaway on Long Island.

While Richard's is the last burial recorded on this stone, we know of at least one more. Anna Barry, Annie and Richard's only child, is also buried in this plot. Anna or Cousin Anne as I have always heard her called, never married and lived in that home in East Rockaway until her death and then left it to the family member who helped her through her last days, Donald's mother.

Unfortunately, the original structure was severely damaged after taking about four feet of water during Superstorm Sandy. Luckily, the family was able to rebuild and a new home, raised about four feet, sits on the site today.

Although this is my last post in this series I do plan another post or two to share some of the resources that I found useful in this research and what I plan to do next in researching Donald's family.