Verifying What is Written in Stone III - William Barry (1883-1884)

 

This is part three of my series to see if the information on this headstone can be verified by the records.

The third burial in this plot was William Barry (1883-1884). William was the son of William Barry (abt. 1833-1902) and Winifred Coughlin, and the brother of Mary Ann from Part I. The headstone says that William died on August 24, 1884 at the age of 1 year, 4 months.

William's birth is recorded in the baptismal register from Immaculate Conception church as March 4, 1883, just three days before he was baptized. This is the only birth record I have found for William.  Searches of the NYC birth records have come up empty using so many search combinations, I thought I would fill a notebook. In fact, I have only found certificate information for two of William and Winifred's five children.

A municipal death record does exist, but lists William's date of death as July 24, 1880; one month off from the headstone. A parish burial record may exist, but as of now, according to the website for the Archdiocese of New York Archives and Records Management, burial and cemetery records are still maintained by the individual parishes or cemeteries. I take this to mean that they are not part of the records being digitized by Find My Past, at least not for now.

So, by these accounts, William's death date and age are slightly off on the headstone. At some point I will order at least some of the birth records for Donald's indirect ancestors and contact individual parishes for assistance with burial records, but I would like to have as complete a list as possible of all the records I am seeking before I make contact.

In the meantime, it appears that the information on the stone is slightly off again. Just another reminder that written in stone only makes the information permanent, not correct!

Verifying What is Written in Stone II - Edward (Eddie) Tucker

This is part two of verifying the information on this fabulous headstone from Donald's family. Chronologically, the second burial in this plot, as recorded on the stone is Edward (Eddie) Tucker, the son of John Tucker and Annie Coughlin.

Eddie's death date is recorded on the stone as July 25, 1882 and says also that he was 5 months, 7 days old. The death index entry found on FamilySearch (certificate to be ordered in the future) matches, it says that Eddie died on July 25th and was buried at Calvary Cemetery the following day.

Using the date calculator linked on FamilySearch, because calculations done in my head are not reliable, tells us that Edward would have been born on February 18, 1882 if he were 5 months and 7 days old at the time of his death. Unfortunately, the baptismal record found in Find My Past's catholic church records collection, does not match. The entry in the register says that he was baptized on March 22, 1882 and born on March 18th. Four days old seems a bit early to me for a baptism, but that could be my own experience clouding my judgement. Most of my families waited about three months, but they lived completely different lives. It is also possible that Eddie was sick from birth, motivating his parents to have him baptized as quickly as possible.

So which is correct? At this time I cannot say. Searches of multiple sites did not produce a civil birth record. and even this record was produced close to the event, it could still be wrong. I will add this to the list of things to keep checking for periodically, but for a baby who died in New York City in 1882, we do have a lot of information that we would not have been able to find not that long ago. It isn't vital to know if Eddie was 5 or 4 months old when he passed, just that he was obviously loved and missed and that he will be remembered here, buried with his parents and other family.

Verifying What is Written in Stone I - Mary Ann Barry

I mentioned in my last post that I am trying to verify the information found in this headstone from Donald's family.  I decided to go in chronological order of deaths and the first death on this stone is that of Mary Ann Barry, the daughter of William Barry and Winifred Coughlin, Donald's 2nd great-grandparents. Mary Ann's death is recorded on the stone as March 24, 1880 and her age as 4 years and 2 months.

I started with the 1880 census because I knew I had it and Mary Ann is listed there with her family. It took me a while, but I eventually realized that if the information on the stone were correct, she should not be listed. The 1880 census should only have captured people who were alive as of June 1, 1880.

The stone says it was erected in memory of John Coughlin, Mary Ann's uncle, by Winifred and her sister Ann which should mean it was done in 1884, well after Mary Ann's death as recorded on the stone, not immediately after her burial. We also know that there are other errors on the stone, such as the spelling of Winifred's name, so the information here is just not that reliable. It was time to dive into vital and church records.

New York City research is notorious for its challenges, but I have found records and index entries before with less information, so I was pretty shocked that I came up empty time and time again. I searched FamilySearch for births and deaths using broad date ranges and different combinations of known information, as well as Find My Past for baptisms and Ancestry for basically anything where I repeated those searches. I even looked page by page through the baptismal register from the church where a sibling was baptized. Still nothing. 

I considered contacting Calvary Cemetery for a list of interments, but the fees were prohibitive. I will probably do this at some point, but not right now.

Finally, I decided to turn to the New York City Genealogy Facebook group, not so much to have other people research, but to ask for suggestions for other places to look. Well, shortly after I posted there, I took my car in for an inspection and tires and by the time I got home, a few members had left some suggestions and one had found her baptism (they knew I have a FMP subscription) and her entry in the death records index. Amazing and humbling! I'll have to work on my search parameters, clearly.

According to her baptismal record (in Latin!), Mary Ann was born on December 23, 1876 and baptized as Anna Maria on January 7, 1877. The death index entry says that Marry (sic) Barry died on 14 Mar 1881 and was buried the following day at Calvary Cemetery. The spelling of her first name was incorrect and no parents were listed but there was an address and it was a match.

So how accurate was Mary's information on the headstone? She was about 4 years and 2 months old when she died, but it was not in 1880 nor on March 24th. I feel pretty confident in the records I have found, but I do hope that some day I can back up the church records with civil records and vice-versa.

The next burial, according to the headstone was Mary Ann's cousin, Eddie Tucker. It will be interesting to see if his details will be confirmed or corrected by the records.

Tombstone Tuesday - Donald's Barry and Coughlin Lines

Calvary Cemetery, Queens, NY, 1 July 2019

This headstone is located at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, NY which has the largest number of interments of any cemetery in the United States according to Wikipedia. I'm 99% sure that I could lead you straight to any headstone in my family that I have personally visited but I am also 100% sure that I could not find this stone again without help. The size of this cemetery is breathtaking.

I don't remember exactly when I first saw a photo of this stone, but I do remember seeing it in person two years ago and being flabbergasted at the size of it. I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised, I mean how would you get all of that information on a "standard" headstone? That said, I'm sharing this particular photo with Donald standing next the stone so that you can get a good idea of its' size; Donald is 5'9".

This is one of my favorite headstones. It records 11 burials, three surnames, some family relationships, the purchasers of the stone, a home parish across the ocean, civil war service, the heartbreaking loss of young children, and it contains some great headstone symbols. It also reminds us never to assume that something "written in stone" is correct since Donald's 2nd great-grandmother's name is recorded three times with two different spellings.

The draped urn at the top of the stone is fairly common, representing the death of the flesh and the veil between the living and the dead. Interestingly, there are many interpretations of the IHS monogram and there is no way to know which motivated Winifred and Ann's choice. A blog post on this symbol can be found here. Between the two columns of names on the stone is a stem of ivy, which symbolizes long lasting connections, very appropriate for this plot. I assume the flourishes were just decorative and haven't found anything to tell me otherwise, but if do, I'll try to remember to update this post.

One of the goals of my current research on this part of Donald's family is to match the information found here to other records. Hopefully, I'll be able to share that soon.

Getting my Genealogy Groove Back

Linea Vulgaris, better known as Butter and Eggs. Prince Edward Island, Canada

I was giving my blog a little makeover last week and realized it had been almost a year since my last post. I'm not sure if it is good or bad that it doesn't seem close to that, but it is what it is.

I dipped my toe back into research a couple of months ago, starting with Donald's Irish ancestors in NYC and subscribing again to Find My Past. Nothing like some great parish records and confusing census records (are they sons??? are they nephews???) to get the juices flowing again. Next it was a membership to the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society (NYG&B) and a ticket to their virtual New York State Family History Conference.

Researching Donald's family after so much time away from any research made me realize that my process needs some tweaking. I've been doing a little work in Evernote and downloaded Clooz, which I am trying out in a free two week trial, and in a case of perfect timing, watching a series of Lisa Louise Cooke's weekly live videos (Thursday's at noon, Eastern) on how she avoids BSO rabbit holes, how she uses Evernote and her research process.

I also joined WikiTree last week, and lastly, I just registered for the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa's conference (Irish Lines and Female Finds) which starts in a few days. It's a great deal at just $45 Canadian which today was just over $37 US.

WikiTree has been doing some fun stuff lately, working on the brick walls of some well-known genealogists and making great finds. Definitely worth checking out.

Well, I am off to watch that Lisa Louise Cooke video, but if anyone reading this has tried or currently uses Clooz, I would love to hear your experiences with it. Hope to post again soon!

A Birks Memorial Bar and the Perth Regiment Facebook Group

I have written a few posts about my great uncle, Lawrence Nimmo Dean, who was killed in action in Nijmegen, Holland, 2nd April, 1945.

Two years ago, my mother gave me his service medals from the war; six medals, all unmounted and in their original boxes. I still had not decided what to do with them when she gave me this last year. Neither of us had any idea what it was, my mother's guess was that it was to be attached to a plaque.

Recently, I found a Facebook group for Uncle Lawrence's regiment, the Perth Regiment and a couple of days ago I posted some photos and asked for help. By the end of the day, I had my answer.

This is a Birks Memorial Bar. They were produced by Canadian Jeweler, Birks, and presented to families of the fallen starting in 1941.

According to the person who helped me, they were to be sewn to the fronts of the ribbons on the service member's medals once they were court mounted. Court mounting is the process of mounting the service medals and ribbons on a sturdy background, like these medals of my grandfather's.

The gentleman who helped me on Facebook was also able to provide the name of the place where he had his own medals mounted and it happens to be conveniently located in Gatineau, Quebec, just the other side of the river from Ottawa where I have cousins. In fact, I was in Ottawa and Gatineau just last May, visiting those cousins and doing some research and hope to go back as soon as it is possible and safe.

Now that I knew the name of this bar, I did a little more digging and was able to find more information on the Veterans Affairs Canada website.  There I learned that the bars can also be displayed in a shadow box or frame with the medals and any other mementos or in any way the family may deem appropriate.

Since it won't be done right away, I think I'm going to take this time to reach out to my cousins for their thoughts although I know I would like to have the medals and the bar mounted together. It's really a matter of what we do with them after that. A shadowbox sounds like a nice tribute, but light damage is a concern, even if we invested in museum quality glass. I hate the idea of keeping the medals stored in a closet forever, though.

Whatever we decide, it is nice to have the mystery solved and to know that there is no one "right" way to honor Uncle Lawrence in their display.

Project Download - City Directories

Johnson siblings

As a beginner in genealogical research, I had no idea that the records I attached to people in my online trees could disappear and also did not imagine that there would be any reason that I might discontinue my Ancestry subscription or even just take a break. Now I know better.

Once I learned that collections can disappear from websites, I started to download new documentation as I found it, but what about all those records I had attached to people in my trees before I knew better?

A few years ago I started a Go-over/Do-over tree. The goal was to document this tree from the beginning using all of the knowledge that I had gained since I began in genealogy, and also to make sure that I downloaded all of the documentation that I found on subscription sites.

Last week, I was working on my paternal grandmother's father and the city directories from Manchester, CT where he lived from the time he settled in the US in 1888 almost until his death in 1956. That's a lot of city directories!  So, I opened the folder on my desktop computer to see what I had and although I didn't expect to find perfection, I was shocked to see files like this.

What I found in my Manchester city directory file

Opening the files didn't improve things as there was no indication on the printed pages as to what year's directory they were from.  I had to start over.  Ancestry has many of the Manchester directories from 1888-1956, so this will be a big job and not one I want to botch again. Knowing now that these directories can contain a wealth of information well beyond my ancestors' addresses, I want to make sure I download everything that could help me in my knowledge and research.

A few years of the Manchester city directory are available on the historical society website, in PDF format, in their entirety, and so I downloaded them that way. The directories on Ancestry, however, have to be downloaded one or two pages at a time, so I would have to know what information I would want to save.

I knew that I wanted

• Listings of my great-grandparents and everyone with their surname
• Listings of other family (like the Johnsons, above) and everyone with their surname
• Listings of their FAN club and everyone with their surname
• List of abbreviations used in the listings, usually printed just at the top of the first page of alphabetical listings
• Town maps - when available
• Town history and statistics
• List of churches
• List of newspapers

But was I missing anything?

With a quick search on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars site I found a few webinars on this topic. I must admit that I didn't listen to any of them in full but I read the syllabi and discovered that I had forgotten something; listings of residents by street, a much better way to find your ancestors' neighbors than looking at every name and address in the directory.

I'll also admit that I wasn't going to go there at first. There aren't any big mysteries in this branch of my tree, but writing a post about it gave me the kick I needed. I discovered that the 1923 directory was the first in Manchester to list residents by street. It was first called the Street Directory and later the Numerical Directory. One of the interesting things that the Manchester Street/Numerical Directory tells you is who had a telephone. As of now, I know that my great-grandparents and my great-grandmother's sister who lived in the other half of their two-family home, had telephones as of 1923 which is about the time telephones were found in most households. So, I did add a little time and tedium to my project, but I also learned something interesting.

Also, if your ancestor owned a business, don't forget to look for advertisements and a listing for their business. You may even find them on a page that lists businesses by type, like Mrs. Blanche Rochon, the Clairvoyant or Dr. David Nelson and Merwyn Squires, the Chiropracticers (yes, that is how it reads in the Directory).

I hope you have found this to be helpful in your research, even an experienced genealogist can use a refresher now and then, and if there's something in directories that you think I missed, please feel free to let me know in the comments, which I think I can reply to again!  Happy hunting.