Back Surgery in 1964

Donald is currently under the knife having a cervical discectomy and I am not capable of doing any real research while I wait for news, but I was thinking of these photos of my grandmother, so I thought I would share.

I don't know the details of the procedure, but my maternal grandmother, Marjorie Elizabeth Dean, had back surgery at Montreal General in 1964. The recovery was long, involving a lot of follow up, and my grandparents lived about a three hour drive from Montreal, so they rented an apartment "in town" for the duration. My mother doesn't remember how long her actual hospital stay was or why my grandfather brought a camera to the hospital one day, but I'll never be mad about documentation of life events like these.

The poor thing is wearing a full body cast, as she would for months.

Just casually enjoying a cigarette in her hospital bed!

Poor grandma. She had to hang like this for hours at a time!

My parents had not even met when my grandmother had this procedure but I did unfortunately visit her at this very hospital over Christmas sometime in the 80s. She was at the airport, on her way to visit us, when her rolling suitcase, which had a strap back then, not a handle, hit some ice, went airborne and knocked her down so hard that she broke her pelvis. Yikes!

Mum and I ended up flying to Montreal and spent that Christmas at our cousins' apartment in the city while they were in the mountains. Thankfully, although she was 80 or thereabouts, she did go on to make a full recovery then as well.

I'm still waiting for a call from Donald's surgeon, so I'm going to count my socks or something, since its quite cold here today, and our dog does not want to go for another walk.  Stay safe out there!

WikiTree, Transcriptions, Citations and Discoveries

 

Photo from the Digital Collection of the New York Public Library, cited below,

While my family did have to make adjustments during the Great Depression, most of my ancestors still had jobs. Some took reduced salaries, some delayed marriages, but none faced the hopelessness of an entire family out of work. Donald's family, as I realized this week, while luckier than many, still faced the fear and uncertainty of what appears to be years of joblessness.

I finally joined WikiTree recently and one of the things I picked up on pretty quickly is an emphasis on sourcing. Sourcing is part of the WikiTree Honor Code and every year for about six years now, WikiTree has held a 72-hour Source-a-Thon, where members volunteer to add sources to unsourced profiles for prizes and to improve WikiTree.

When I signed the WikiTree Honor Code last week, I promised myself that I would add citations as I add each new person to my tree, sourcing each fact in each profile before moving on to the next. And this is a good thing. I had been getting a bit ahead of myself and not following good protocols when I was finding new documentation. I had not been transcribing my documents as I found them.

This week I have been adding citations to WikiTree for Donald's maternal grandparents and transcribing all of their records, including census records for 1930 and 1940. My earlier focus was on family groups and ages, transcribing gave me a deeper look.

In 1930, Donald's maternal grandmother, Catherine Barry, was 16 and living at 266 1st Avenue in Manhattan, where she would live her entire life. Living there with Catherine were her parents, Edward and Mary and her maternal uncle, Thomas Fitzsimmons. Thomas was a widower - or possibly divorced -and had been living with the family since about 1917. Luckily, Edward and Thomas were both working; Edward as a stock man in a warehouse and Thomas as an electrotypist at a printers.

Over on East 15th Street in the Bannon household, things were more serious. Catherine's future husband William, then 19, was out of work, as was his father, Frank. Luckily, in addition to William and his parents, his household included his sister, Betty, and her husband of two years, Thomas Caslin who was working as a watch engraver. It's too bad that the unemployment schedules do not survive, so that we could get more detail.

For now, we wait ten years to get our next snapshot of these two families, although we do know that Catherine's father died in 1937. In the 1940 census, it's just Mary, Catherine and Thomas still living at 266 1st Avenue, but none of them are employed. Thomas is then 59 years old, so I don't believe he was retired, but I don't know. Thankfully, things are much brighter in the Bannon household, where William "Buster" and his father are both employed as steamfitters and had been working steadily since at least 1939.

1940 brought joy and sadness to these families. Mary passed away on September 5th, just weeks before Catherine's marriage to Buster on the 28th. He moved into the 1st Avenue apartment and spent the rest of his career working as a steam fitter, except for a stint in the Navy during WWII. I don't yet know what happened to Thomas, although he did register for the draft in 1942. He was unemployed then and originally gave his address as the 1st Avenue apartment, but it was crossed out and changed to an address on East 18th Street.

And just like that, I'm super invested in the 1950 US census! I don't have a whole lot to learn about my own ancestors in 1950, but so many questions about Donald's.

All because I took some time to transcribe these documents. No wonder I still feel excited when I find someone in the census!

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. "Pike and Henry Streets, Manhattan." New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-4ef4-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

1930 U.S. census, New York County, New York, population schedule, Assembly District 6, Enumeration District 0200, p. 22A, dwelling 219, family 205, Edward Barry family; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 30 June 2021), National Archives, roll 1553, FHL microfilm 2341288.

1930 U.S. census, New York County, New York, population schedule, Assembly District 6, p. 13A, dwelling 46, family 187, Frank Bannon family; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 30 June 2021), National Archives microfilm roll roll 1553, FHL microfilm 2341288.

1940 U.C. census, New York County, New York, population schedule, Assembly District 6, Enumeration District 31-467, p. 4A, dwelling 265, family 22, Edward Barry family; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 19 Nov 2021), National Archives mircofilm roll T626.

1940 U.S. census, New York County, New York, population schedule, Assembly District 6, Enumeration District 31-464, p. 8A, dwelling 201, Frank Bannon family; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 30 June 2021), National Archives microfilm roll m-t0627-02634.

Honor Roll Project - Bellmore, NY

As part of Heather Wilkinson Rojo's Honor Roll Project, I have transcribed this Roll of Honor in Bellmore, NY to make the names visible to search engines so that family researchers can find them.

This memorial park is located on Bedford Avenue just north of the Long Island Rail Road tracks.

Erected by the residents of Bellmore in honor of our boys who answered their country's call. In The War For Liberty 1917-1918.

George R. Adams

William Armstrong

Harold Baldwin

Walter Brockman

Clair S. Bartholomew

G. Anderson Bloomer

Frank R. Britton

Amos Baldwin

William Betz

Michael Betz

John Busch

Rudolph Busch

E. H. Bohnemann

Le Roy Dunn

Walter T. Dunn

Harry Green

Arthur Horn

George Howley

Dr. H.V. Holcomb

Frederick Hodgson

Walter Hardy

Harold Hardy

George Johnson

Peter Johnson

Paul Jaeger

Jacob Karp

Mande Karp

Alex Karp

Jacob Koch

Elmer Kress

Frederick Lutz

George Merrett

James M. O'Hearn

Kenneth Tillotson

Thomas Palermo

Arthur Southard

Frederick Schebs

Thure Sindburg

Percy Smith

William Smith

Herbert L. Von Mechow

Harold A. Von Mechow

Emil Wiedeman

No plaque here lists the names of those who served or died during World War II.

In Memory of the men from Bellmore who died during the Vietnam War.

James Kendrick

Joseph Piambino

Joseph Mancuso

Joseph Mandarino

Charles Meerholz

Richard Weidner

William Klenert

Michael Mannina

Greg Ellison

Charles Emery

William Wicks

John Coughlin's Will & Probate Record

 

After giving myself a month of Ancestry to examine some of the documentation there for ancestors on Donald's Barry lines, I followed a hint to the Surrogate's Court record of the John Coughlin of the Coughlin headstone series.

You may remember that verifying the information for John lead me to Irish Catholic parish records and the discovery of two potential siblings who appear to have stayed in Ireland.

John's first bequest gives some additional documentation of one of those siblings. When I was searching the parish records for the Coughlin family, there was a baptismal entry for a Patrick with same name parents as John and Ann. John has given us further evidence of this relationship.

"First, after my lawful debts are paid, I give and bequeath unto my brother Patrick Coughlin residing at County Galway, Ireland the sum of Five hundred Dollars."

Next, John gives us something new to search for, if this type of record from the Emigrant Savings Bank survives.

"Second - I give and bequeath to my nephew-John Barry my Gold Watch, but I direct the same by [sic] placed by my Executor hereinafter named in the Emigrant Savings Bank for safe keeping until he arrives at the age of 21 years, when the same shall be delivered to him"

John's third bequest gives us more information about the Coughlin headstone. The headstone says that it was erected by John's sisters Ann Tucker and Winifred Barry, so I had pictured a scenario where the sisters had pooled their money to erect the stone after John's death, but his will tells us what actually happened. 

"Third. - I direct that the sum of one thousand dollars be applied by my Executrices towards my funeral expenses & this item is also to cover the expense of a tombstone, Requiem Mass, and other Masses to be said for the repose of my soul after my death & I most earnestly request that my Executrices will obey my wishes in that respect"

One thousand dollars then would be worth about $28,000 today.

When I was researching John for the headstone series, I noted that I wasn't finding anything documenting a wife or children. From the lack of mention of any children in the will, I strongly suspect that he didn't have any, and now we have this new wrinkle.

"Fourth.-My wife Ann Coughlin having deserted me for the last six years without any cause on my part I ignore her in this my Will & leave her nothing, & it is my wish that  receive no part of my Estate"

Mysterious and sad. When my research focus returns to John, I will have to see what, if anything, I can discover about Ann and their marriage. I will also be following up on the mention of a Mary Coughlin as next of kin in the Surrogate's court portion of this record. It is possible that Mary is another sibling who joined John, Winifred and Ann and some of their nieces and nephews here in the states but that remains to be seen.

Stir Up Sunday

I grew up in the Episcopal Church, a member church of the Anglican Communion. In fact, until I was about six, my father was an Episcopal priest.

Today is the Sunday before Advent and the collect for the day in the Anglican Book of Common prayer begins something like "Stir up, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people". Today is also the day that many Anglicans make their Christmas puddings, or, like our family did back when, their fruit cakes. Add these things together and you get Stir-Up Sunday.

Unfortunately, I have not continued this tradition, not being a fan of fruit cake, but I do have some photos of my and my mother stirring up the batter back in the late 70s.

Let the Christmas traditions begin!

Tombstone Tuesday - Barry/Bannon/Fitzsimmons at Calvary

Photographed by me in 2019.

Although I was able to resist renewing my Ancestry membership while I was researching the Coughlin headstone, I broke down about a week ago and have already connected to some interesting documentation. This plot, also at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, has been at the center of the most interesting so far.

After concluding the Coughlin headstone series, I went back to more traditional research on Donald's Barry lines, starting with his maternal grandparents, William Francis (Buster) Bannon and Catherine Winifred Barry and Catherine's parents, Edward Barry and Mary Fitzsimmons. While I was reviewing Ancestry hints, new and old, I saw that I had, years ago, accepted a hint from FindAGrave. I was confused, though, because the headstone photo I saw when I followed the link was not the same headstone that I photographed in the summer of 2019. I almost rejected the hint until I realized that the information on the headstone matched Donald's family, but was missing his grandfather's name.

Used with permission.

This was the original headstone for this plot, replaced after Buster's death in 1985 because his name would not fit. It rested on the back of the new headstone for many years, but when Donald visited in 2003, the old stone had disappeared.

After Donald told me the story, I sent a message to the contributor of the photo, thinking they would never remember it eleven years later, and ended up speaking with him on the phone. But he did remember, having found the stone in 2009 behind some planks of wood in the general vicinity of the plot and photographing it, not knowing any details of course, and putting it up on Find A Grave for the family to hopefully find one day. He was even kind enough to scan a map with the location of the headstone as he found it eleven years ago and email it to me last night.

Late this morning, Donald and I made our way to Calvary Cemetery to see what we could find. As we pretty much expected, we found that the headstone was now gone again, which was a bit of a let down, although I'm not really sure what we would have done with the stone had we found it. I'm sure it was supposed to have been taken by the monument company when the new stone was installed.

The best part for me is that we have this photo of the original headstone and can document the change. You just never know where a day of combing through Ancestry documents will take you.

Verifying What is Written in Stone - Summary & Resources

I've had a lot of fun with this project; trying to verify the information on this headstone from Donald's family. I have relearned some old lessons, like taking the time to understand a new-to-me record set before diving in, I've learned about new records and I have a nice list of things to learn and investigate. And additional documentation is needed for a lot of the information on the stone, so the project isn't really over, just my blog series.

I've loved looking through New York City census records for this time period; these time capsules are a great tool for imagining life in the past. Like the occupations captured on just one page; an embroidery designer and operator, a janitor, two coopers, two vaudeville actresses and a department store detective and a handful of servants. I think you could write a novel using just one page as a starting point.

I want to learn more about Winifred Coughlin; about her life in Ireland if at all possible and her early years in New York City, before she married William Barry. There were some fantastic lectures at the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa conference and I'm hopeful that they can help me add to our knowledge of the Coughlin family in County Galway.

I am also hopeful that learning more about William Barry will help us to discover his home parish in Ireland and open up another branch of Donald's family. I'll be looking for any documents related to his immigration and naturalization as well as records of the Emigrant Savings Bank, which I believe are on Ancestry. The New York Public Library also seems to have some images, but I'll have to look into that further. Investigating William Barry's Civil War service is sure to be another great learning experience. I plan to start with a webinar at Legacy Webinars and go from there.

In the spring I will be on an absolute mission to do two things in New York City that I've been talking about for a while; finally visit the Tenement Museum and spend a day in the Milstein Division of the New York Public Library. A presentation at the New York State Family History Conference by one of their librarians gave some great examples of how their holdings can help you get a picture of what the city was like at a particular time. This is what it is all about for me. And maybe we can get back to Castle Garden, now that we know so many of Donald's ancestors came through those same gates that my own ancestors did.

Like most of you, I would imagine, I have quite a wish list of books and website subscriptions that would greatly help in my research. A couple of months ago, I joined the The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society and can't wait to get my hands on the New York Family History Guide and Gazetteer and the New York City Municipal Archives guide.  But the NYG&B also has some great free resources.

Reading their guide to New York State census records saved me a lot of time searching for non-existent records. You can read it here to learn about the availability of each census, what areas may be missing in any particular year and what information was collected. It's really a must-read if you are researching in New York. At the end there is also a list of links to other articles that you may find useful; like Researching Irish Ancestors in NYS and Surprising Facts About Immigration to New York. NYG&B has a nice collection of webinars for members, they also have a YouTube channel with a few lectures than anyone can watch. This includes five hours of classes from the Fundamentals Day at the recent New York State Family History Conference. That is a must-watch if you haven't already.

In my ongoing research into Donald's family, I also want to learn more about Lutheran church records. Not only was Annie Miller Barry born into the Lutheran church, but I suspect that one of Donald's great-grandmothers, Emma Fredericks, and her ancestors were as well. For this I will need help from resources like the FamilySearch Wiki and a great book that I bought last year; How To Find Your Family in U.S. Church Records: A Genealogist's Guide by Sunny Jane Morton and Harold A. Henderson, CG.

Something I wrote about during this series was the National Library of Ireland website where you can find images from Irish Catholic parish registers. There is no index on their website and you won't get any hints as you may on Find My Past, but if you know your ancestor's home parish, you may be able to find them for free without the index or hints.

Facebook groups are a great way to access the "hive mind" when you are stuck on something. Back in 2013, Katherine R. Willson started a list of Facebook groups for genealogy. Her last update to the list was in January of this year, which you can find here. Since then, Cyndi Ingle of Cyndi's List has taken over and you can find that on her website, here, although as of the writing of this post it is still under construction.

Chronicling America is a free digitized newspaper resource from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress. This is where I found the news article about William Barry's mourner who collapsed at the church before his funeral.

One last resource that I thought I would use more, especially for analyzing records in search of Annie Barry's year of birth, was Clooz. One of the drawbacks of this program is the data entry. It did get a bit ponderous and I admit that I lost patience for it, although that may have something to do with the fact that I desperately need new bifocals. Since concluding the series, I have gone back and entered the data for all of the records that I have for Annie, but I was not able to produce a report that would have been any help with this problem. I'll keep working with the software, though, and keep you posted when I've had a chance to watch more of their videos and use it more.

Of course, the most important thing to remember from all of this is that just because information has been "carved in stone," or even recorded in a parish register, doesn't make it correct!