The Final Resting Place of Walter Joseph Preston

Where was Walter Joseph Preston buried?

Walter was a great granduncle on my mother's side. On August 4, 1899 he was born in Independence, Warren County, New Jersey to John D Preston (1857-1928) and Bridget A Sheehy (1857-1916). The family soon relocated to Bayonne in Hudson County. 

In 1926 Walter married Edna Armstrong (1899-1976). They had two daughters, Margaret Mary (1928-1998) and Joan Marie (1931-1912).

In the 1940s Walter and his family relocated to Elizabeth in Union County.

Walter worked on the East Jersey Railroad. He was at work when he died of a heart attack on April 23, 1957.

Walter's father, John, died on the railroad in Bayonne in 1928, but because he was struck by a train while working. Walter's brother, Michael, also died on the railroad in 1918, perhaps from jumping out of the train after missing his stop.

Death certificate of Walter Preston, 1957

Obituary of Walter Preston, 1957
The Bayonne Times

 

The place of burial differs on both documents concerning Walter's death. The death certificate has St Gertrude Cemetery in Woodbridge. The obituary has Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City.

Neither document is a primary source for the burial.

I have the records for Preston at Holy Name Cemetery. Walter is not listed with them. The records (not in their entirety) were microfilmed and can be viewed at a Family History Center or Affiliate, but not from home. FamilySearch offers a searchable index of the index that you can view at home.

Find a Grave provides a memorial page for Walter in Saint Gertrude Cemetery in Colonia, Middlesex County. Someone has taken a picture of the stone that Walter and Edna share.

Find a Grave memorial page
Walter Joseph Preston
1899-1957
Saint Gertrude Cemetery

Saint Gertrude Cemetery is included in the searchable database of the Newark Archdiocese. Walter has an entry for his burial in 1957.

Find a Loved One Search
Newark Archdiocese, New Jersey
Walter J Preston buried April 27, 1957 at Saint Gertrude Cemetery

The actual records of Saint Gertrude Cemetery would be the best source for the resting place of Walter Preston.

Albany Research Trip: Sorting through the Finds

The research trip to Albany, New York lasted three days.  I found a lot of useful information.  I was unable to post because Internet service was spotty.  I refueled the car in Albany and set out for home, where electric service was coming back after Hurricane Sandy.  I was wise to stop in Albany for gasoline.  The entire way back home was dotted with lines at gas stations, growing larger and with more police cars as I approached Northeastern New Jersey.  My home suffered no real damage and the electric and heat had returned Saturday morning after going out on Monday.  The food stores were slowly receiving new shipments of perishables.  Schools were closed because they either had no electricity or were too damaged.  More people were out riding bikes or walking to their destinations.  Traffic lights were out at many intersections and large trees blocked roadways.  At this moment, many blocks in town are still without power, heat, and water- while the first snowfall, Winter Storm Athena, is blanketing last week's destruction.

One of my goals in Albany was to uncover more information about Mary or Margaret Campbell, wife of Patrick Joyce.  I have not found either of them in the 1860 census and the earliest child I can find was born in 1861.  In the 1870 census in Pawling, Dutchess County, New York, Patrick Joyce is head of a household of four children under the age of ten; no wife.  Mary Joyce is listed on the Mortality Schedule, having died in May of 1870, "Railroad run over by cars."  She is a tail in my family tree- I do not know her parents.  Growing up, I heard the story often about how the train caught her skirts and dragged her to her death- after she threw a baby from her arms to safety.

At Albany, the index of deaths for New York State begins in 1881, or eleven years after Mary's death.  No luck there. A consultation with a researcher from the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society raised an important point:  A death by train could have occurred anywhere there was a railroad- not just in Pawling.

I expanded my search of digitized newspapers at GenealogyBank (you can access from home for a subscription or use Ancestry.com) and found a small article about the incident.

According to The New York Herald-Tribune [actually called the New York Herald in 1870], Margaret Joyce died in June of 1870, not May.  The researcher was right:  She was not killed in Pawling, but about 25 miles south, in Katonah, Westchester County, New York.  She was not killed instantly, probably lingering a few days after the train severed her leg.  I can only hope she was unconscious for those last days.

It is interesting (and fortunate) that she appeared on the Mortality Schedule because only deaths before May 31st of that year should be listed.  The newspaper article places her death in June.  So we have two dates of death.

My plan of action:
Contact St. John's Cemetery in Pawling where her husband was buried in 1905.
Contact the local historical society and town clerk for records they may hold for this family.
Search through more online newspapers using keywords of "Katonah" and "Harlem Railroad."