Anna Preston 1890-1921

November 22, 1890 was the birthdate of my great grandmother, Anna Preston. She was the mother of my maternal grandmother. She died May 10, 1921 at the age of thirty. I remember my grandmother telling me stories about Anna's early death. My middle name is in honor of Anna.

I have no pictures of Anna, unfortunately. I have documents instead.

Anna's death certificate lists the cause of death as otitis media followed by mastoiditis. Meningitis was contributory. An operation was performed six days before her death. 

My grandmother's family was very good about putting full names of parents on records.

Transcription of obituary:

Mrs Anna ODonnell died yesterday at her home 162 Orient street, after a brief illness. She had been a resident of Bayonne for over 21 years and was very well known in the Point section.

Mrs ODonnell leaves her husband, Frank ODonnell, five children; a father, John Preston; four brothers, John, George, Walter and Henry of Newark; three sisters, Mrs Mary Late [Lake], Thomas Burns [Hannah Beirne], and Miss Catherine Preston.

Funeral services will be conducted Friday morning when a solemn high mass will be celebrated at St. Andrew’s R. C. Church at 10 o’clock. Interment in family plot in Holy Name Cemetery under directions of Thomas M O’Brien.

  

Anna's obituary states that she died at home, 162 Orient Street in Bayonne, New Jersey. Note that the death certificate states that she died at Bayonne Hospital. She was survived by seven siblings- two had predeceased her.

Anna was the eighth of ten children born to John Preston (1857-1928) and Bridget Sheehy (1857-1916). I did not find a birth certificate for her, but she was probably born in Independence, Warren County, New Jersey. The family relocated there around 1884 from Stanford, Dutchess County, New York.

The day before Anna turned 21, she married Francis Patrick ODonnell (1888-1959) at Saint Mary's Catholic Church in Bayonne, November 21, 1911.

Their first child, John Edward, was born in 1912. Four more children followed:

Rita Ann, 1914

Francis Leo, 1916

Claire Veronica, 1918

Jeannette Elizabeth, 1920 (my grandmother).

The 1920 census was the last in which Anna is enumerated. Frances and Anna were living at 140 Lord Avenue in Bayonne with four children. Their final child, Jeannette, had not yet arrived.

142 Orient Street was the address of Anna's father, John Preston. Perhaps the family moved in with him when she became ill?

Nine months after giving birth to Jeannette, Anna was dead. She was buried in the ODonnell plot at Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City.

Baby Jeannette moved in with her paternal grandparents, Patrick ODonnell (1856-1931) and Delia Joyce (1862-1929). They were also buried in this plot.

I always wished for a picture of Anna. I wondered if Jeannette had a picture of the mother she lost so early, depriving her of a memory. A cousin sent me pictures of Anna's parents.

Just in Time to Appear in the Census

I photographed the gravestone of Lucie Skehan McCrea (1893-1920) for upload to Find A Grave.

Mount Hebron Cemetery
Montclair, New Jersey

I looked for Lucie on Ancestry.com to see if she could be linked to others in this cemetery.

Lucie died in Pelham, Westchester County, New York. These indexes are online. The actual death certificates, however, can only be ordered through the New York State Department of Health for $22.

Lucie was enumerated in the 1920 census in Pelham with her husband, Daniel McCrea (1883-1936).

Newspaper articles popped up, so I took a look.

Transcription of death notice:

McCrea. - At Pelham, N.Y., January 19, 1920, LUCIE SKEHAN, wife of Daniel W. McCrea. Funeral at St. Catherine's Church, Pelham, N.Y., Wednesday, January 21, ten A.M. Interment private.

Lucie died very early in the year- January 19, 1920. So I went back and looked at the date on the census.

These census entries were recorded the day Lucie died! Was she at home when the census taker arrived? Was she ill at the time?