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.

Happy Century, Jeannette

Today would have been the hundredth birthday of my maternal grandmother, Jeannette. She died in 1993 when I was seventeen years old.

Her stories about her family inspired my interest in genealogy.

Her secrets became the focus of my searches.

Jeannette Elizabeth ODonnell was born on July 30, 1920 in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey. She was the fifth and final child of Frank ODonnell and Anna Preston. Anna became ill shortly after the birth and died the following year. Jeannette lived with her paternal grandparents, Patrick ODonnell and Delia Joyce. Jeannette told us about Delia's blindness. Jeannette was very fond of her Aunt Kitty. Many relatives were killed in train accidents. She didn't get along with her siblings because they were raised apart.

Her best friend was her cousin, Edna. Jeannette said that they used to pay one nickel each to get a pack of cigarettes to share.

Edna told my mother and me that she promised to take Jeannette's secrets to her grave. She did. She died four days ago at the age of 98.

My mother, Judith, was born in 1950 when Jeannette was thirty years old. As a child, I didn't notice that Jeannette's stories left out the time period of her young adulthood, from the late 1930s and through the 1940s. All I remember is that she said she was a switchboard operator for the phone company. She had a switchboard plug that she said was used to connect calls.

When I began requesting family documents and photos, my mother told me that I would find discrepancies in Jeannette's story of her life and that if I ever found the truth, she wanted to know.

Jeannette may have discarded her copies of official records of births and marriages, but the State of New Jersey preserved their copies. So did newspapers. DNA testing was unfathomable until recently. That was the key to unlocking more secrets.

As I find out more about the events in Jeannette's life, I can't help wondering how she felt. She hid tragedies. I try to remember her stories for hints or clues, but I come up with no indications of what transpired in her young adulthood.

Happy 100th Birthday in Heaven, Grammy.

MyHeritage Photo Enhancement and Colorization Tool

This is Rita ODonnell (1914-1995), my maternal grandmother's oldest sister. (Her eyes were blue, not brown.) She looks multi-dimensional and so real.

Below is the original photo. It's a wonderful photo but the details really come to life in the enhanced and colorized version.

The enhancement and colorization are thanks to a new feature at MyHeritage. You can try a few photos without a subscription.

This is Delia Joyce (1862-1929), my grandmother's paternal grandmother. Below is the original. We can see her features, her hair, even her eyelids!

There are few pictures of my grandmother as a young person. The pictures on the bench are great to have, but are of poor quality. The enhancement tool really brings out her features. (Her eyes were blue, not brown.)

The details for my father's great grandmother, Clara Uhl (1865-1955), really pop. Her soft curly brown hair. Her earrings. The creases in her lips.

Veterans Museum in Bayonne, New Jersey

I recently visited the Joyce-Herbert VFW Post 226 Veterans Museum in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey.

This VFW is unique because the Commander, Glen J Flora, turned it into a museum. The space holds information about local Bayonne residents who served in wars, as well as military artifacts from every foreign war. The is an education in American history.

In December and January I met with Commander Flora and Jackie George, Esquire, Commander's Aide and Museum Tour Coordinator. They explained the Museum and its story.

The place caught my attention because my grandmother's grandmother, Delia Joyce (1862-1929), lived in Bayonne. Whenever people of the same surname live near your ancestor, they should also be researched.

Martin Aloysius Joyce (1894-1918) is one of the two servicemen for whom the Museum is named. He was born in Bayonne to Michael Joyce and Mary Corcoran .

Martin Joyce was a fireman in the Navy aboard the ship USS Delaware when his skull was fractured. The newspaper articles in The Bayonne Review give the date as December 25 and January 25. He died in January 1918 at the Royal Naval Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland. His parents were notified by cable.

His body returned Bayonne in March. His funeral was from Saint Henry's Catholic Church. Interment was Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City.

I visited Holy Name Cemetery before going to the Museum. I was not sure if I had found the gravemarker because it was unreadable. I expected to find a stone because his mother applied for one in 1931.

At the Museum, the unreadable gravestone was confirmed as Martin's. In the bottom right of the picture below is an older picture of the gravestone.

Commander Flora explained that he would like the deteriorated stone replaced. Federal Regulation, however, specifies that only certain individuals can apply for marker. There is no exception for a marker that has already been issued.

If anyone is a known relative of Martin Joyce, we need your help by way of signature on the application that is waiting at the Museum. Martin had several siblings (listed below). Surely some of them have living descendants who will read this. If not, I can find cousins through his father's Joyce line or his mother's Corcoran line.

-Mary Joyce (1888-1910)
-Michael Joyce (born 1891) married Ida Manning
-Sarah Joyce (born 1896) married George Osbahr
-Margaret Joyce (1898-1968) married Harry John Shannon (1901-1975)
-Andrew Joyce (born 1901)
-Edward Joyce (born 1903) married Augusta Trebour (1905-1947)
-John Joseph Joyce (1905-1952) married Alice Smith
-Regina Joyce (1908-1986) marred Francis Brown (1901-1976)


Thank you to Commander Flora and Jackie for their time and dedication.

You can watch short films about the Veterans Museum here and here.

1959 New Jersey Death Certificates are Available

New Jersey State Archives has acquired death certificates through 1959.

The indexes for 1901 through 2000 can be browsed at a site set up by Reclaim the Records. Some years are missing as of this writing. (The work-around for the missing indexes from 1904-1919 and 1930-1948 is to look at the certificates year by year. They were filed alphabetically.)

This is the death certificate for one of my great grandfathers, Frank ODonnell (1889-1959). He was born in Bayonne in 1888 to Patrick ODonnell and Delia Joyce. His first wife was Anna Preston. She died in 1921. He married his second wife, Gertrude Farman, in 1940.

Frank died in Bayonne on Halloween, October 31, 1959. He was buried at Holy Name Cemetery (Hudson County Catholic Cemetery).

"Severe epistaxis," or nosebleed, is listed among his medical diagnoses. My grandmother used to say that her side of the family had a bleeding disorder. This could be one of the reasons why she said this.

If you order a death certificate from 1959 via mail from the Archives, please let us know if the cause of death was blocked. This certificate was copied by me in person from microfilm, thus the area containing the cause of death is not restricted.

Murnane and ODonnell of Bayonne, New Jersey

Mary ODonnell was an aunt of my maternal grandmother. She disappeared after the 1920 census in Bayonne (19 West Seventeenth Street). Mary was born June 1, 1899 in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey to Patrick Francis ODonnell and Delia Joyce. 

Someone wrote to me, inquiring about a marriage between Mary ODonnell and John Murnane around 1919 or 1920. Mary ODonnell is not an unusual Irish name. I have several in my family tree. Was this Mary ODonnell any relation to any of the people with the same name in my tree?

I checked the online New Jersey Marriage Index and found a possible match for 1920. This is an index by bride only and provides the husband's initials, not full name, for the years 1920-1929. The marriage records are housed in the Archives in Trenton and are organized by year by groom's surname.

The marriage certificate in Trenton showed that the entry in the index was indeed for the marriage of John Murnane and Mary ODonnell on July 3, 1920 at Saint Mary's Catholic Church in Bayonne. This Mary is my grandmother's missing aunt, shown by the names of her parents on the record.

The following year, the couple's first child, John Murnane, was born March 24, 1921.

Tragedy struck on July 30, 1925 when Mary gave birth to a baby girl prematurely. Both mother and baby died. (This day was also my grandmother's fifth birthday.) They were buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington, Bergen County, New Jersey. (Mary's parents are interred at Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City.)

Cause of death: toxemia of pregnancy and PP [post partum] haemorrhage.

You can view all people in a plot at Holy Cross. Also buried with mother and daughter is Daniel J Murnane in 1964. I do not know who this is.

A hint for finding Mary, besides the inquiring person, was in the wedding announcement of Margaret ODonnell to William Joseph Coughlin in August of 1920. Margaret was a sister of Mary. "Miss ODonnell was attended by her sister, Mrs J Murnane, as maid of honor."

We welcome more cousins to the ODonnell branch.

Tracking Campbell through Catholic Church Records

Margaret Campbell and Patrick Joyce (1834-1905) were my great great great grandparents.

Patrick's death certificate lists his father as Richard Joyce. I have no further information on his origins.

I have no information on Margaret Campbell's place of birth in Ireland or her parents.

Margaret died in May or June of 1870 a few days after being struck by a train in Katonah, Westchester County, New York.

The first probable appearance of Margaret and Patrick is the 1860 census in Patterson, Putnam County, New York. Patrick is listed as age 25, born in Ireland, with a personal estate of $50. Margaret's age is 20, also born in Ireland. No children are enumerated with them.

In 1865, the family can be more definitely identified because of the children, Mary, age 4, and Adeline, age 2. Adeline came to be called Delia. She was my great great grandmother.

Note that in the 1860 census, 5 years earlier, Patrick and Margaret were 15 years younger.

Working with the expanded Catholic marriage index at Find My Past, a record of Patrick and Margaret's marriage may have been found in 1860 at St Joseph Parish in Somers and Croton Falls, Westchester County, New York. Margaret's name is transcribed as Cammell, not Campbell.

I need to see the actual record, if possible, to verify the names and capture any additional information that may not have been included in this index.

I found two baptisms for children of Patrick Joyce and Margaret Campbell:

-Bridget in 1863 at St Mary in Wappingers Falls, Dutchess County

-James in 1869 at Immaculate Conception in Amenia, Dutchess County

In the entry for James, Margaret's name is spelled Cammell. This is what caused me to return to the marriage in 1860.

Was Bridget actually Adelia, my great great grandmother? The 1865 census lists two children, none named Bridget.

Immaculate Conception in Amenia was the church of another branch, Sheehy and Frawley.

The next step is tracking down these records.

Funeral Card Friday: Katherine Powers, died 1952

My maternal grandmother, Jeannette ODonnell (1920-1993), saved this funeral card for Katherine Powers, died September 22, 1952.  Jeannette's family is buried at Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey.  No record for Katherine was found at Holy Name.

I was going to feature this funeral card for a Friday blog post and leave it as a mystery, until I remembered that death certificates can be searched for the year 1952 at the New Jersey State Archives.  Glad I looked.

Death certificate for Katherine Powers, nee ODonnell
(See FindAGrave memorial)

My grandmother held onto this funeral card because Katherine was her paternal aunt.  Katherine's last definite sighting was in the 1930 federal census in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey.  She lived with her father, Patrick; brother, Joseph; and niece, Jeannette (my grandmother).

Katherine was born on March 5, 1904 in Bayonne.  She was the seventh and final child of Patrick ODonnell (1856-1931) and Delia Joyce (1862-1929).

Katherine is buried with Maurice Powers (died 1981) at Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington, Bergen County, New Jersey.  (See Newark Archdiocese Find a Loved One search.)  This is also the name of the informant on Katherine's death certificate.

Chasing Irish Hometowns

Spoiler alert:  Irish hometowns not discovered (yet).

I am trying to discover where in Ireland Patrick Joyce (1830-1905) and Margaret Campbell (1835-1870) were from.  They were my maternal grandmother's great grandparents.  Their first appearance in the United States was in the 1860 Federal Census in Patterson, Putnam County, New York.

Ancestry.com Family Tree of Jody's mother.
I recently figured out how to change the background color to purple.

We start with Patrick and Margaret themselves.  I do not know if they married in New York or Ireland.  I have found no church records for the Patterson, Putnam County area circa 1860 and no mention in a newspaper, which is not unusual.  Patrick's death certificate from 1905 in Pawling, Dutchess County, lists his birthplace as "Ireland" and names one parent, his father, Richard, of Ireland.  Margaret's death in 1870 was recorded on the federal census mortality schedule and in newspapers without mention of her town of origin or her parents.  Deaths were infrequently reported to the state at this time.

So next we turn to the records of their children.  My direct line is through Patrick and Margaret's daughter, Delia Joyce (1862-1929), who married Patrick ODonnell (1856-1931) in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey in 1887.  I cannot find a record of this marriage filed with the states of New Jersey or New York.  Saint Mary's Church in Bayonne, New Jersey has a record of this marriage.  Delia's parents are listed without a place of birth.

Even if a marriage record surfaces for this couple in the New Jersey State Archives from 1887, the certificates in this time period asked for the country of birth of the parent, so the answer could be merely "Ireland."

You can view this digitized microfilm at a Family History Library.
John Joyce was a brother of Delia Joyce.
Rose Kenny was a sister of Patrick ODonnell.  She married James Kenny in 1883 in Bayonne.

Delia died in 1929 in Bayonne.  Her parents were listed as Patrick Joyce of Ireland and Cannot Learn of Ireland.  (Sixty years after Delia's mother's tragic death, her name had been forgotten.)

So next we turn to Delia's siblings, the other children of Patrick Joyce and Margaret Campbell.  There were three:
Mary, born about 1861, last seen in the 1870 census
John, born about 1867, married Mary Delaney
James, born about 1869, married Ellen [-]

After Margaret died in 1870, Patrick Joyce remarried to Bridget Cortney (1850-1910) and had several more children.

The problem with finding records for the siblings of Delia Joyce is that they are in New York.  For New Jersey records, I can go to the Archives in Trenton and retrieve the records myself and copy what I need.  For New York records, you need to place an order via postal mail and pay at least $22 (US Dollars) and then wait.

The more time that passed, the less likely Patrick Joyce's children and grandchildren would remember the ancestral Irish hometowns, if this information was even requested.

Obituaries for these siblings were not difficult to track down thanks to FultonHistory.com.  (This site is a free resource of digitized newspapers, mostly from New York.)  Still no Irish hometowns.

I ordered the marriage certificate for John Joyce (1867-1934) and Mary Delaney (1866-1941).  They were married in Pawling, Dutchess County, New York on October 28, 1888 by Reverend Daniel J McCormick of Saint John's Church.  Only the names of the parents were requested; not the birth place.

The bride's parents were Edward Delaney and Catherine McCue.

The witnesses were John Delaney and Mary Ann Walsh.  Delaney was likely for the bride.  I don't know who Mary Ann Walsh could be.  Maybe the lost older sister of John Joyce?  More research needed!  Always investigate the witnesses.


The records kept by Saint John's Church in Pawling may be a great help.  This family was also buried in the church cemetery.  If anyone has a way for me to look at these records, please reach out to me.  Thank you.

Thirteen Years at FindAGrave

This year, I more than doubled my entries at FindAGrave.com (mostly owing to a continued debilitating physical condition that prevents my participation in my athletic endeavors).

Marion Bishop (1906-1999) and Thomas Harold Joyce (1902-1964) were two graves that I happened upon.  My mother is descended from Joyce and my father from Bishop.  I have not figured out what relation, if any, Thomas Joyce has to my mother; however, Marion Bishop was found to be my father's second cousin, twice removed.