Nurse Julia Flanagan 1857-1935

Cabinet card of a young woman by Sterry

This cabinet card is a picture of a woman, standing, dressed in clothing typically worn by nurses in the late 1800s. The photographer was Sterry and Company of 520 and 522 Broadway in Albany, New York. In blue ink is written "Julia C Flanagan 1888."

Backside of cabinet card of young woman by Sterry, Albany, New York

This card resides in New Jersey, not Albany, so the search for Julia had to span both places.

The Newark Sunday Call, a newspaper in New Jersey, detailed "The First Graduates of the Training School at the Asylum" in an article dated June 17, 1888. By this time, formal training of nurses as well as changes in the treatment of the mentally ill were creating educational and vocational opportunities. Julia and Agnes Flanagan were mentioned.

Newspaper article about graduates of the nursing school
of the Essex County Asylum, 1888

The training program at the Essex County Asylum lasted two years. Students were paid. Men earned $20 per month and women earned $14 per month. To earn $20, a woman had to complete the entire two year course successfully.

Note: The Essex County Asylum still exists, but is now called Essex County Hospital and is located in Cedar Grove, not Newark.

The Journal of Insanity
Volume 45
View here

The Journal of Insanity also reported on these graduates in October of 1888, though the author was not pleased with nurses receiving training and accolades. "By all means let nurses be trained, but let us not forget the wholesome maxim, Ne sutor ultra credpidam." Julia and Agnes Flanagan were noted for demonstrating their knowledge.

Note: The American Journal of Insanity began publication in 1844. It is still in publication, but under the name American Journal of Psychiatry, which changed in 1921.

1870 United States federal census
Bloomfield, Essex County, New Jersey
Julia Flanigan, age 11. At school.

Julia Flanagan and Margaret Agnes Flanagan were daughters of John Flanagan (1829-1889) and Ann Cahill (1829-1896). In the 1870 census, the family resided in Bloomfield, Essex County, New Jersey.

1900 United States federal census
Albany, Albany County, New York
Julia C Flannigan, age 37, nurse. Boarder.

Julia relocated to Albany, where she worked as a nurse.

Obituary of Julia C Flanagan, died January 7, 1935.

Julia has two memorial pages on Find A Grave. She is mentioned on the family stone in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Bloomfield, New Jersey.

Find A Grave memorial page for Julia C Flanagan
at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Bloomfield, Essex County, New Jersey.

Julia was buried in Saint Agnes Cemetery in Menands, New York. 

Find A Grave memorial page for Julia C Flanagan
at Saint Agnes Cemetery in Menands, Albany County, New York.

Julia's birthdate is engraved on both stones- September 25, 1858. The memorial in Bloomfield has a note: "born 9/24/1858 on tombstone (incorrect year)".

Neither is correct, according to the birth ledger filed with the state, which is a primary source. On September 24, 1857 an unnamed baby girl was born to John and Ann Flanagan in Bloomfield, New Jersey.

Register of births in New Jersey. Book I 1848-1867

Margaret Agnes married Frederick Van Houten  (1864-1922). She may have spent her years working for her family in the home, rather than being employed outside the home as a nurse.

The memorial page for Margaret Agnes Flanagan (1861-1934) originally linked to the wrong husband. Frederick VanHouten (1864-1922), buried in Woodland Cemetery in Newark, is the correct husband for Margaret. Frederick VanHouten (1866-1943), buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Newark, was not Margaret's husband.

Julia, a daughter of Margaret and Frederick, died in 1928 in Saranac Lake, Franklin County, New York. A copy of this death certificate was filed in New Jersey. This is unusual but sometimes happens. If someone resided in New Jersey but died in another state, it is possible that a record exists in New Jersey as well as the location of the death. This is worth a try, especially with the State of New York, since genealogy requests for records have stopped being filled.

New York death certificate filed in New Jersey.
Julia VanHouten died June 4, 1928 in Saranac Lake, Franklin County, New York.

The Elusive Parents of Jane Bell

 As I seek possible records for Reuben Bishop (1804-1855), finding his marriage record to Susan C Bell (1817-1888) would possibly help. Locating young Susan and her parents could help identify Reuben's place of origin. Marriages were between local people.

Family tree of Susan C Bell (1817-1888)
showing parents, spouses, and children

The name's of Susan's parents are from the record filed with the State of New Jersey for her third marriage in 1888 to Edward Prime DeGroot (1819-1884). Her father was listed as John Bell and her mother as Jane Bockover. Edward and Susan were married in the city in which she resided, Newark, Essex County. He resided in Morristown, Morris County, which is where Susan had raised her children.

Marriage record filed with State of New Jersey
Edward P Degroot married Susan C Bell, widow of Whitehead,
February 14, 1881 in Newark.
(Enos Littell Whitehead died February 2, 1880 in Newark.)

In the Morristown and Morris Township Library, while reviewing records for Evergreen Cemetery in Morristown, I checked out the family history books. There is a Bockoven family genealogy book compiled by Mrs R Vanderhoff of Bernardsville, New Jersey. This family lived in Somerset and Morris Counties, New Jersey.

Cover page
Bockoven book by Mrs R Vanderhoff

The Bockoven book lists the original immigrant as George Bockoven (1734-1814) of Alsace. George first married Mary Whitenack (1740-1806). Their children were born from 1759 through 1786.

After Mary Whitenack died, George Bockoven remarried to Jane Bell or Ball- a widow.

George Bockoven and his first wife, Mary, were buried in the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Basking Ridge, Somerset County.

Bockoven  Bell of Somerset County, relocated to Morris County, sound like Susan C Bell should fit in with this familial group. But she is not mentioned in the book.

1812 map northern New Jersey
Baskenridge in Somerset County is less than
ten miles south of Morris in Morris county.
(Rutgers Map Collection)

A copy of this bible is also available at the New Jersey State Archives in Trenton via the bible collection of the New Jersey Genealogy Society.

Bockoven bible printed in the Bockoven Book by Vanderhoff

Bockoven bible printed in the Bockoven Book by Vanderhoff

More research is needed, this time in Somerset County.

Cummings and Grant Ancestors in a Book

Thank you to the person who sent me this research tip that my Cummings and Grant ancestry is detailed in a book, Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution, by Bernard Bailyn with the assistance of Barbara DeWolfe.

Book jacket
Voyagers to the West

William Henry Cummins (1858-1882) was one of my third great grandfathers. He lived his life in Catskill, Greene County, New York. About 1877 he married Anna Belle Heiser (1860-1934). I descend from their only known child, Nellie Cummings (1879-1965). (These surnames are also spelled Cummings and Hyser.)

Family tree
Parents and grandparents of William Henry Cummins (1858-1882)
Catskill, Greene County, New York

After William's death, Anna Belle joined her parents in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey. This is 120 miles south of Catskill.

Map showing distance between Catskill, New York and Jersey City, New Jersey

William Cummins and Anna Belle Heiser/Hyser were both buried in their respective family plots in the Catskill Village Cemetery in Catskill. The stones next to William reveal are his maternal grandparents, Annie Cumming (1793-1876) and John A Grant (1792-1882), revealing the intermarriage in his family. 

Gravestones of William Cummins' maternal grandparents,
Annie Cumming (1793-1876) and John Grant (1792-1882).
Catskill Village Cemetery, New York.

Around 1880 the State of New York phased in laws requiring births, marriages, and deaths to be recorded with the State. Today the indexes are published in a few places. You can view for free at FamilySearch. The individual certificates are not available online or in any repository; instead, they must be ordered for a fee from the State.

Recording was spotty at first. I do not see a match in the index for William's death in 1882.

There are entries in the index for:

James Cummings 1912 Catskill Fourth great grandfather

Jane Cummings 1899 Fourth great grandmother

John Grant 1882 Fifth great grandfather

I ordered these three death certificates from New York State in February 2024. I do not expect to receive these records for a few years. I have been waiting two and a half years for a death certificate requested in March of 2022.

Death Index New York State
John A Grant died December 27, 1882 in Catskill.
I sent a copy of this index with highlighting to increase the chances
that the State finds this record and fulfills my order.

The grandparents of William Cummins were born in the 1790s, after the American Revolution ended. The excerpt in the book explains the arrival of the prior generation as they arrived in New York as the War was starting.

Gleaned from the book is some genealogy as well as a history lesson about what was happening in Scotland and New York in the 1770s.

In 1774 John Cumming arrived in New York from Scotland with several other people, mostly Grants and Cummings. "He was a native of Strathspey, the broad valley of the Spey River, southeast of Inverness in the eastern Highlands." John was a half brother of James Grant, governor of East Florida. John's brother was Alexander Cumming, a watch maker in London.

In 1776 John Cumming purchased land called Tapugieht, 1000 acres of land in the Catskill Patent, thirty miles south of Albany. He renamed this area Oswald Field. The families farmed the land. (This was in Albany County but became Greene County in 1800.)

This was a tumultuous time. The American Revolutionary War began in 1775. Great Britain versus the Colonies, which became the United States of America. John Cummings was deemed a Loyalist, meaning he supported the British crown and not the newly emerging country in which he found himself. (What a person had to do, or not do, to prove loyalty to one side or the other can vary and is subject to debate and confusion and is not the topic of this writing, though it is fascinating to explore.)

John Cumming was eventually arrested, lost his land and possessions, and allowed to return to Britain.

Many of the people who originally traveled with John Cumming in 1774 remained on the land, which lost the name Oswald Field.

I would normally place an old map here to help visualize these places, but "Oswald Field" and "Tapugieht" are not used in the literature and do not show up in a Google search. Use this link to view a map of Catskill from 1798- after the War. No Oswald Field or Tapugieht on this map.

I suppose that my third great grandfather, William Cummins, descended from these Scottish immigrants to Catskill who were thrown into a war shortly after their arrival. His grandparents were born to people who grew up during the Revolutionary War.

Citation of book:
Bailyn, Bernard, and Barbara DeWolfe. "The Rise and Fall of Oswald Field." Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution. Alfred A Knopf, Inc, 1986, pp. 597-604.

Book Review: The Rosie Project

"The Rosie Project" by Graeme Simsion is a funny book about a man's quest to find a compatible woman to marry.

The relationship of Don and Rosie is intensified by their joint project to uncover the identify of Rosie's biological father, an endeavor in line with Don's technical skills as a professor of genetics.  Their pool of candidates are the male students who graduated medical school with Rosie's mother.  Their collection methods are underhanded and mostly done without the knowledge of the people whose DNA is captured.

In the end, the biological father was identified when the obvious was not overlooked anymore.  The man who raised Rosie was her biological father, as determined by a blood drawn in a fight.

Those of us without such nerve and access to DNA labs can use commercial companies such as Family Tree DNA and 23andMe to find biological relatives.

Book Review: The Porcelain Thief

I enjoyed reading The Porcelain Thief by Huan Hsu.  Huan recounts his genealogical escapade in China, though he did not realize that he was researching his family's history until he neared the end of his journey.

Huan was born in the United States and is of Chinese heritage.  He knows little about his family's history.  He becomes fascinated with the family story of burying porcelain in the backyard before fleeing for their lives.  Huan decides to track down this old homestead and the porcelain.

Uncovering his family's history in China is extremely difficult.  He is fortunate to have living family members in China, one of whom employs Huan at his company, providing him with legal permission to stay in China.   Huan must learn the Chinese language and learn how to navigate the political and social customs of this culture so foreign to him.

As researchers of our family's history, we can identify with Huan when he tracks down elderly family members and tries to extract relevant information from them.  He learns that photographs and records were destroyed; people, places, and memories lost over the years; graves vandalized, moved, or reburied under new construction.

Huan's family's struggles reflect the struggles of China as a whole.  The family was torn apart by war, invasions, political movements, and major cultural shifts- in every generation.  His family's history is mostly oral, and as Huan discovers, will remain so without the availability of records.

While interviewing his grandmother's aged sister, Huan realizes:

"She wasn't making up her memories, but they had unmoored from their original context and drifted into a mosaic with no beginning, end, or order.  It wasn't all that different from my own uncertain understanding of how the fragments of our family history fit together, or what was real and what was imagined, and with fewer and fewer people to ask for the truth."

The homestead where the porcelain was supposedly buried was "forfeited" by the family when they fled.  Huan and his family likely have little legal recourse to reclaim the property, and digging for the buried porcelain is prohibited as it could indicate that the family may have a claim against the current corporate industrial owners.  The entire neighborhood was razed, as was most of their family's discoverable family history.

Some family pictures survived.

One of my favorite quotes from the book,
referring to China's attempt to "catch up"
with technology and industry by copying.
United States patent and copyright laws mean little.
If someone could re-do this with more artistic flair,
that would be great.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.  If you have an online presence and interest in reviewing books, give this program a try.

Book Review: Orphan Train

I enjoyed reading Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline.

The book intertwines the stories of two unwanted teenagers- one in the 1920s and 1930s and the other now.  (Reminded me of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg.)  When the modern-day teenager started sleuthing, I knew I had to tell blog readers about this great genealogical novel.

The teenager of the 1920s and 1930s, Niamh, immigrated in 1927 to New York City from Kinvara, County Galway, Ireland with her parents and siblings.  In 1929 a fire in their squalid tenement killed her father and brothers.  With no one to care for her, Niamh was placed on a train by the Children's Aid Society and sent West in search of a family to take her in.

Such a system really existed.  Children did not have to be orphans to be sent away.  Their parents could be in prison or an asylum; homeless; or poor.  The program lasted from 1853 until 1930, when the Great Depression made placement unlikely.

Rules were lax about taking in such children.  Most children became indentured servants on farms.  Niamh's experiences were terrible and caused her to feel no attachment to anyone or thing.  She ended up in Minnesota.  Her name was changed to Dorothy, easier to pronounce than the Irish Niamh, and later to Vivian, to replace a couple's deceased daughter of the same name.

By chance, Vivian reunited with a fellow train rider, Hans "Dutchy," renamed Luke, and married him.  I thought the book would have a fairy tale ending, but Vivian's misfortunes continued.  Luke was drafted in 1943 to fight in World War II.  Shortly after his departure, Vivian discovered she was pregnant.  Luke was killed and Vivian gave her baby girl up for adoption.

"I sob uncontrollably for all that I've lost- the love of my life, my family, a future I'd dared to envision.  And in that moment I make a decision.  I can't go through this again.  I can't give myself to someone so completely only to lose them. . .  Then I do it.  I give her away."

The modern-day teenager, Molly, performed the genealogy research that I was silently screaming for.  Molly found the ship record of Niamh and her family arriving at Ellis Island.  Molly located a newspaper article about the fire that killed Niamh's father and brothers.  Niamh's sister, Maisie, survived the fire.  She was adopted by neighbors, who had lied to young Niamh that Maisie had perished in the fire.  Maisie, renamed Margaret, married and had a family of her own- but died five months before Molly searched.  Molly presented Niamh/Vivian with a picture of Maisie- a face she had not seen for over eighty years.

"[Molly] feels a vertiginous thrill, as if fictional characters have suddenly sprung to life."

This is how I feel when I find documentation of a family story.

Molly discovered that over 200,000 children rode on trains similar to Niamh's journey and that there are databases of names and possibilities to reconnect with lost family.

Molly also sought out an online adoption registry.  Vivian's daughter had submitted her information years earlier.  Vivian submitted her own information to confirm the match.  The book ends with the daughter, now in her 60s, arriving to meet Vivian.

As you research a family, if a child goes missing when the family came upon hard times, you may wish to consider researching orphan train records.  The same is true on the other side.  If a child appears with a family as a farm hand or domestic, you may want to consider that the child arrived on an orphan train.

A More Precise Irish Hometown?

I found a website detailing the history of a school in Meentinadea, County Donegal, Ireland.

I was directed to the page by searching for a priest in the family, Father Charles O'Donnell (1884-1934).

The site mentions that Father O'Donnell's father (Cornelius or Neil O'Donnell) was from Altnagapple, "two miles from the school," and his mother, Mary (Gallagher), was from Cullion, Killybegs.  Father O'Donnell "visited his ancestral home at Altnagapple" on a return trip from Rome in 1923, saying Mass while an uncle, Charlie Mhici O'Donnell, "and relatives were present."

This information expounds upon the little information I previously had, which was from Father O'Donnell's book.  In a poem in the book, Father O'Donnell wrote that his father was from Ardara and his mother from Killybegs.  They met on the road in Donegal.

Father O'Donnell's father, Neil O'Donnell, was a brother of my great great grandfather, Patrick Francis O'Donnell.  Neil and Patrick's parents were Peter O'Donnell and Margaret Gallagher.  I am hoping that Margaret Gallagher was also from this area of Donegal and is related to the Mary Gallagher who married her son Neil O'Donnell.  That should make finding records easier.

I did not know that Neil and Patrick had a brother, Charlie, who remained in Ireland.

Hopefully this additional information will enable me to locate some more generations in Ireland.

Combing through Details

While looking for the ancestors of Ezra A. Dunn (1821-1898), I found a few people who worked at his pottery business.  Of special note was a little biographical sketch about William A. Dunlop (1833-1910).  William became an owner of the pottery business.  He was also the brother of Ezra's wife, Hermoine.

You can find a lot of these biographical books online now, as they are usually over 100 years old.  Use them to point you in the direction of actual records.  They were written about men in a designated geographical location with the intent to make them look good.

Short biography about William A Dunlop, his ancestors, and his children

I had already uncovered Joseph Dunlop and Margaret Little as parents of William and Hermoine and their siblings.  This is the second mention that Joseph Dunlop was born in Pennsylvania; the other mention is his enumeration in the 1850 census in Raritan Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey.

My focus shifted to Margaret, "daughter of James Combs, and widow of Robert Little."  This is important.  I have the record of Margaret Little's marriage to Joseph Dunlop in 1824.  Her last name is given as "Little."  There is no mention that she is a widow, but there is also no mention that she is young and unmarried, which is sometimes specified in the marriage record.  This record provides only the names of the parties; no ages, marital status, or parents.

I thought of Joseph Dunlop's grave, which I visited last month.  He is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Matawan, Monmouth County, New Jersey.  Close to his stone are three other stones:

Robert Little (1784-1821) of Billis, County Cavan, Ireland.
Frances Little (1809-1830), daughter of Robert Little and Margaret
William Johnston Dunlop (1829-1832), son of Joseph W Dunlop and Margaret

I theorized that Joseph Dunlop and Robert Little were connected through Joseph's wife, Margaret, though I was not sure of the relation of Robert to Margaret.  I was excited to finally find an Irish ancestor in my father's tree, complete with the hometown in Ireland and year of immigration to the United States.  With a new last name for Margaret, it looks like I have to relinquish the Littles as Irish ancestors.

Robert Little's will, signed October 20, 1821, is viewable at FamilySearch.  He died nine days after signing the will.  Some good information is given.

Monmouth County, New Jersey Wills
Volume B, page 271

Monmouth County, New Jersey Wills
Volume B, page 272

Robert Little named his beloved wife as Margeret Little.  I usually see that a wife's share is contingent upon her not remarrying, but that language is not in this will.  ("So long as she remains my widow.")

Robert Little named two daughters, Sarah Jane and Fanny.  Sarah Jane was described as the eldest and would turn 21 years old in 1837.  That gives us a birthdate around 1816 for Sarah Jane, while providing that Fanny was born between 1817-1821.  Robert also mentioned that Joseph Combs was occupying his farm.  Robert appointed his brother, William Little, and his friend, Henry Arrowsmith, as guardians of his daughters.  (At this time in history, a child's mother was often not named as the guardian because of financial interests and the tendency for a young widow to remarry.)

Robert mentioned his brothers, Thomas Little and William Little, and his sister, Margeret Little.  Friends were Asbury Fountain and Henry Arrowsmith.  Witnesses were Eli T Cooley, John Frost, and Asbury Fountain.

Daughter Fanny Little is likely the Frances Little buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.  She died April 30, 1839 at the age of 20 years and 6 months.  That would be about 1818, which is within the range of possible birth years, based on the wording in her father's will.

We can develop a timeline for Margaret Combs.
1790s- born
About 1815- married Robert Little of Ireland
1816- gave birth to daughter Sarah Jane Little
1818- gave birth to daughter Frances/Fanny
1821- death of Robert Little, first husband
1824- married Joseph W Dunlop
1827- gave birth to daughter Hermoine Dunlop
1829- gave birth to son William Johnston Dunlop
1830- gave birth to son Alfred Dunlop
1832- son William Johnston Dunlop died
1833- gave birth to son William A Dunlop
1836- gave birth to son John Dunlop
1839- daughter Frances Little died
1852- death of Joseph Dunlop, second husband

Margaret died after the 1850 census.

Shifting from Margaret Little to Margaret Combs, daughter of James Combs, provides us with some more avenues to research.

Transcribed Record
Old Tennent Scotch Presbyterian Church
Monmouth County, New Jersey

This transcribed record (available for free from FamilySearch) looks like our Margaret Combs.  Her birthdate is 1795; her father is James Combs; and the location, Tennent (Manalapan) in Monmouth County is where we need this family to be.  The church records survived, so I should be able to track them down.  The Old Tennent Presbyterian Church still exists!  Its cemetery has over 15,000 burials at FindAGrave- 93 of them are Combs!

Book of Eckler

Congratulations and thank you to Paul E Eckler for publishing a family history book, Eckler-Eiklor-Eaklor-Akler Family of Hudson Valley, New York and Bradford County, Pennsylvania.  This is a labor of love.  The original immigrant Christian Eigler was born about 1680 in the Rhine Valley region of what is now Germany and came to New York around 1711 with his wife, Maria Neff, and other Palatines.

You may reach the author, Paul E Eckler, at paul.eckler@att.net

 

 

Page 42: details of my Eckler becoming Hyser

The most recent Eckler in my ancestry was Catharine Eckler, born in 1830 in Catskill, Greene County, New York.  Her mother was Maria Layman.  The Layman family, also spelled Lehman, had many intermarriages with the Ecklers.  Catharine's parents were cousins to each other.  Her mother's great grandfather was her father's grandfather, Adrew Eckler, born in 1732.  This is an especially interesting line to me because it represents my father's direct maternal line.  Ten generations back from my father, all on his direct maternal line, are in this book, to Anna Maria Kieffer, born about 1700.

Great job, Paul!