Katherine ODonnell and Her Family

Seven years ago I asked for additional information on Kathryn ODonnell (1858-1939). She was a sister of my great great grandfather, Patrick Francis ODonnell (1856-1931).

Kathryn was born in Killybegs, County Donegal, Ireland. By her first husband, Charles Mason, she had two children, Margaret and John. She then remarried to Patrick Kennedy. She died in California in 1939. I had been able to track Margaret's moves, marriage, and child.

Finally fuller stories for Kathryn's son, John Mason, and her second husband, Patrick Kennedy, have come to light!

Spoiler alert: I have not found additional information on Charles Mason, the first husband. His first and only appearance is in the 1885 state census in New Jersey. 

New Jersey State Census, 1885. Bayonne, Hudson County.
Charles Mason, Irish male, age 20-60.
Kate Mason, Irish female, age 20-60.

In the 1900 census, Kathryn was in Brooklyn with her two children but no husband. A missing husband and widowhood either meant that he died or left the family.

1900 United States Federal Census
Brooklyn, Kings County, New York
Katie Mason and her two children, Margarite and John. She worked as a nurse.

Since writing the original article in 2018, indexes of deaths have come online for the State of New Jersey and Kings County, New York. I have not found a good match for Charles Mason. Indexes for deaths in the State of Connecticut do not start until 1897. If Charles died after Kathryn appeared as a widow in the 1900 census, this record could be anywhere.

Using the newspapers now available for searching online, I set out to discover when Kathryn acquired her second husband.

Newspaper article in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
November 27, 1914.
Widow of Patrick Kennedy to inherit his estate.

Patrick Kennedy was born about 1841 in Ireland. He married Ellen Callahan and they had one son, John, born around 1872. Patrick worked as a police officer in New York City. By 1900 he was retired and worked on his land in Connecticut as a farmer.

In 1911, Ellen died. In 1912, John shot his father, Patrick. John was unable to see or hear because of typhoid fever, an infection suffered when he was a child. Yet somehow he was able to purposely carry out this action.

Newspaper article. John Kennedy held in jail after shooting his father,
Patrick Kennedy, in Stratford, Connecticut. 1914.

Patrick was not expected to live. Enter Kathryn. She nursed him from the brink of death.

John Kennedy was sent to the Connecticut State Hospital for the Insane in Middletown, Middlesex County. He died there in 1930.

Patrick and Kathryn married in April of 1914. Patrick Kennedy died on November 22, 1914. Kathryn inherited one-third of his estate.

In 1920, Kathryn was still in Connecticut. She was living in Bridgeport with her son, John Mason. By 1930 she was living in California with her daughter and son-in-law, Margaret and James Joyce.

What became of John Daniel Mason, the son of Kathryn ODonnell and Charles Mason?

Searching newspapers led to the answers- probably. (The last death certificate I ordered from the State of Connecticut took one year to fulfill. Two years and counting for fulfillment by the City of Bridgeport.) John D Mason was buried in Saint Michael's Cemetery in Stratford - the same cemetery as Patrick Kennedy. He died July 31, 1932, age 43 years. "World War . . . Co. C. 319th Inf." is carved on the stone.

An obituary appeared in a few newspapers in Connecticut and Brooklyn. A mother and sister were mentioned but not by name.

Newspaper article 1932
Johnny Mason, dancer, died in alley in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Johnny Mason danced with Lew Dockstader (1856-1924) and George Primrose (1852-1919). Is this the same John Daniel Mason? Throughout his records he listed his occupation as a laborer.

Library of Congress
Primrose & Dockstader's Great American Minstrels

I also found advertisements for a boxer or fighter by the same name.

Ad in newspaper about a boxing fight.
Johnny Mason versus Eddie Mack.
October 30, 1922 in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

I was hoping to find pictures of John Mason. He performed with some well-known personalities. Perhaps he was an unnamed background actor in the vaudeville acts.

I will order the death certificate to see if the names of the parents are Kathryn ODonnell and Charles Mason. This could take a year for Connecticut to do.

So that is the story of Kathryn ODonnell's son, John Mason, and her second husband, Patrick Kennedy. Still missing is what became of her first husband, Charles Mason.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

March 18 is the birthday of my paternal grandfather, Clifford Lutter (1915-1980).

He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1915. He was born outside of Newark, New Jersey because, as the story goes, his father, a musician, was performing in Philadelphia.

He came of age during the Great Depression. He worked a variety of jobs, but the stories center around his two passions: photography and police work.

His photographs are of unnamed models. As the years pass, so do people who might recognize the subjects. Please view them here to possibly help identify any of these people.

Below is a previously unpublished photograph of Clifford as a young man. He is on the right, standing inside the tree. I do not know who the other person is. The location is likely in Holmdel, Monmouth County, New Jersey- the home of this maternal grandparents, William Walling Winterton (1863-1932) and Catherine Butterfoss Dunn (1865-1944).

A rare photograph of a smiling Clifford Lutter (standing inside tree)

Death Records of Kings County, New York

The home page of Ancestry advertises one of their latest offerings, vital and voting records of New York City (at least my version does). The voter records are from the 1900s. The vitals start in the late 1700s.

Landing page Ancestry.com
New Release: New York City Vitals and Voter Records

I examined the findings of the vital records in this previous article.

I have a lot of ancestry in New York City; thus, I have a lot of hints for most of my family trees. This link created by Ancestry streamlines the records of these new databases, curtailed just for me.

The result is a list of thousands of hints for births, marriages, deaths, and voting records of people in all of my family trees.

There was a hint for Reverend Dietrich Hermann Wrage (1831-1882). He was a German Evangelical pastor who taught and translated. As such, more was written about him than most other people of this time period. His obituaries provided the place and date of death. He died at the Kings County Insane Asylum in Flatbush (Brooklyn), Kings County, New York on May 2, 1882- one day after his 51st birthday.

Yet I could not find an entry for him in the New York City death indexes.

Obituary of Reverend Herman W Wrage
The Brooklyn Daily Times, New York
Thursday, May 4, 1882

His hint in the newest vital records collection.

Newest hint for Herman D Wrage, died 1882 in Brooklyn.
No certificate number is provided.

The link brings up the ledger book for deaths in Flatbush from 1880 through 1886.

Ledger Book of Deaths, Flatbush, New York 1880-1886
Line 1238: Hermann D Wrage died May 2, 1882 at Kings County Insane Asylum.
Occupation clergyman. Age 51. Married. Born in Germany.

Close up of Hermann's entry

I don't understand why Hermann received a line in this ledger book and not an individual death certificate. The individual certificates started in 1866 (or 1862 in Brooklyn).

Most of the entries are for the Asylum or other institutions.

The beginning of the book starts with entries immediately- no explanation as to how someone ended up in this book as opposed to an individual record of their own.

Margaret B Giddis died December 11, 1880 in Flatbush. No institution was mentioned. Her death was recorded in this ledger book.

Ledger Book of Deaths, Flatbush, New York 1880-1886
Line 10: Margaret B Giddis died December 11, 1880 in Flatbush.
Occupation housekeeping. Age 48 years, 2 months. Married. Born in Ireland.

Close up of Margaret's entry

Margaret's death appears in the Death Index- certificate 10. I typed this information into the online website of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services. 

Entry in index for Margaret B Giddis
Certificate 10

Certificate 10 of 1880 belongs to Hiram Miller (1800-1880). He was buried at Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Number 10 is too low to be at the end of a year.

Death certificate of Hiram Miller
died January 1, 1880 in Brooklyn

Entry in index for Hiram Miller
Certificate 10

Certificate 10 for Margaret Giddis must mean the number of the line in the ledger book- not individual certificate.

So why were some deaths recorded in the book, while others were recorded on an individual record?