Original immigrants, documents, and place names

Patrick Frances O'Donnell was born around 1856 in Ireland.  In the 1900 United States federal census, he is living with his wife, Delia Joyce, and six children in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey, with an immigration date of 1880.  I was working under the theory that he was the original immigrant- the first in that family to come to the United States.

While playing around at the website familysearch.org, I came across the following record.

pilot.familysearch.org

According to the death certificate for Patrick O'Donnell, his parents were Peter O'Donnell and Margaret Gallagher.

This was a great find.  Rose O'Donnell could be the sister of Patrick O'Donnell, indicating that Patrick came over with family.  I neeeded to find the original marriage document, so I went to the archives in Trenton.

Rose O'Donnell married James Kenny in Bergen Point, New Jersey in 1883.  She was the daughter of Peter O'Donnell and Margaret Gallagher.  But, Patrick and his family lived in Bayonne.  What of the Bergen Point location?  I immediately thought of Bergen County, New Jersey.  I did some searching online and came up with an answer:  Bergen Point is a southern location within Bayonne.  Now it looks as if I have found a sister for the original O'Donnell immigrant.

Bergen Point, Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey
mapquest.com

Drowning

The Preston family had many misfortunes and many family stories about these tragedies told through the years.  In addition to deaths by train, there were deaths by "drowning in the bay."  I have uncovered records that shed light on one such drowning.

John Preston, his wife, Bridget, and their ever-growing family moved to Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey around 1901.  They had previously resided in Warren County, New Jersey and before that, Dutchess County, New York.  Tragedy struck when their son, Edward, almost 18 years old, drowned in New York Bay.  The story is that he dove in and never came back up.  According to the newspaper account, Edward came back up to call for help, but drowned before his body was found.

Edward was buried at Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City.  I have a listing of Preston burials at this cemetery, so I easily located Edward's death certificate.  The cause of death promised an explanation in a local paper.

Preston deaths in New Jersey for the year 1903, all counties.
The death indexes for years 1901, 1902, and 1903 are on one microfilm reel.
The number next to a name is the death certificate number.

Another train collision

John Preston was the son of Irish immigrants, born around 1860 in New York.  His son, Michael J Preston, was killed by or near a train in Bayonne, New Jersey in 1918.  I previously wrote about uncovering documents that shed light on the family story about Michael's fatal train ride.  The missing part from that story was the dog.  "The dog always went to meet him at the train station.  We knew something was wrong when the dog returned without him that day."  Michael was killed late at night and I hoped that the dog was not supposed to be wandering about at night for Michael.  So who else was killed by a train?

I located the 1928 death certificate of John Preston.  I think that the circumstances of his death would support the dog part of the story.  John worked for the Central Rail Road of New Jersey.  He was about 69 years old on June 28, 1928 when struck by a train in the morning.  My grandmother would have been old enough to remember the dog's return without its master.