Mother Cadmus or Caddan

Patrick McCabe (1845-1912) and Ann Somers (1845-1904) were born in Ireland. In 1867 they married at Saint Peter's Catholic Church in Jersey City, Hudson County New Jersey. The buildings were reconstructed and expanded over time and are now part of Saint Peter's Preparatory School.

Three questions arise when first encountering an immigrant couple:

Where were they from?

Who were their parents?

Who are their relatives in their new home? 

This information can be found on marriage and death records, when the creator of the record writes down such information. Spoiler alert- nothing more than "Ireland" was on these records for Patrick and Ann.

Marriage records filed with the State of New Jersey for the years 1848 through 1878 are in the form of ledger books and can be (mostly) found on Ancestry. 

Ledger entry for marriage of Patrick McCabe and Ann Somers.
Married July 28, 1867 in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey.
Acces through Ancestry.com collection

Close up of the names of the parents of Patrick McCabe and Ann Somers.
Surnames of mothers were omitted.

The marriage record at the State level gave the names of Patrick McCabe's parents as Ed and Elizabeth. Ann Somers' parents were Patrick and Julia. We need surnames for the mothers.

The records of Saint Peter's Church were copied to microfilm and then digitized; however, you cannot view the images at home. You can view the index- not the images- from home at FamilySearch.org.

Indexed entry for Saint Patrick's Church, Jersey City.
Patrick McCabe and Ann Somers married July 28, 1867.
Film number 1403371.

 

Location and availability of images of Saint Peter's Church records
via FamilySearch

Unlike the record filed with the State, the church record contains the names of the parents- according to this index. A trip to the nearest Family History Center enabled access to the image.

Ledger book of marriages at Saint Peter's Church in Jersey City.
The entry for Patrick McCabe and Ann Somers is on the left page, middle.

Close up of marriage entry for Patrick McCabe and Ann Somers, July 28, 1867.
See below for text.

The text appears to be:

July 28, 1867 

McCabe Patrick, aged 23, son of Edward McCabe and Elizabeth Caddmus,

to Ann Somers, aged 26, daughter of Patrick Somers and Julia Reilly.

Witnesses: Michael Welsh and Delia Rafferty.

Patrick Cody

 

I wrote "appears" because I am unsure of the name of Patrick's mother. The indexer typed "Caddan," but when viewing the entry, the handwriting looks like "Caddmus." Both are Irish surnames.

The added bonus of viewing the church record is the entry for witnesses. Presumably Michael Welsh and Delia Rafferty could have a relationship to either the groom or bride. At this point, I do not know their relationships, but at least the names are not terribly common.

The next source to view names of parents is the death certificate. Ann died in Jersey City in 1904 from apoplexy (most likely a stroke). I copied her death certificate from the Archives in Trenton. (New Jersey death certificates are not online.) Her parents match on both documents: Patrick Somers and Julia Reilly.

Death certificate of Ann McCabe.
Died July 18, 1904 in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Copied at New Jersey State Archives.

In 1912 Patrick died in New York City from chronic interstitial nephritis. I do not know why he moved there. Vital records for New York City are online at the website of the Department of Records and Information Services, but with clarification: 77% of the records are digitized. Deaths in Manhattan 1876-1919 have not been posted to the website as of this writing.

Screenshot of website of New York City Department of Records and Information Services.
77% of historical vital records have been digitized as of January 2025.

Patrick's death certificate is viewable at the Family History Center. It's a poor image. I hope that a cleaner image makes its way online.

Death certificate of Patrick McCabe.
Died August 18, 1912 in Manhattan.

The name of Patrick's mother on the death certificate could be Caddan, but I think it looks more like Cadmus.

Names and places of birth of Patrick McCabe's parents, as written on his death certificate.
Father- Patrick McCabe. Mother- Elizabeth Cadmus?
Both born in Ireland.

Below are both versions of Patrick McCabe's mother. Elizabeth's surname differs a little. The marriage record is the earlier record and should be more reliable than the later record. Patrick was alive at the time of making the marriage record. The informant for the death certificate may have had no personal knowledge of Patrick's parents.

Name of Patrick McCabe's mother.
Top image- marriage record from 1867.
Bottom image- death certificate from 1912.

The marriage and death records were necessary to obtain, but they only get us so far. McCabe is a common surname, perhaps too common to chase with this limited information.

Somers was easier. I located three siblings for Ann Somers in New York and New Jersey, thanks to DNA matches and cemetery records. That is for another article.

The next research move is to view the the baptismal records for the children of this couple. The sponsors could be related. Nine children have been identified so far, born from 1868 through 1884.

Citizenship Lost

When reviewing records from the first half of the 1900s, you may find entries about citizenship that you might think are errors.

For example, in the 1920 census in West Hoboken, New Jersey is the Nelson household. Bessie is listed as "Al," or alien. Yet her place of birth is listed as New York.

1920 United States Federal Census
Bessie Nelson. No year of immigration. Alien. Born in New York.
Husband Harry Nelson. Immigrated in 1908 from Norway; has first papers.
West Hoboken is now Union City, Hudson County, New Jersey.

Bessie was correctly described as an alien in the 1920 census. In 1919 she married Hartwig Nelson, an immigrant from Norway. Under the 1907 federal law known as the Expatriation Act (34 Stat. 1228), American women who married men of a foreign nationality lost their American citizenship. Bessie's legal status became that of her husband- a Norwegian immigrant who was not an American citizen. She was no longer a citizen of the United States, even though she was born and resided in the United States.

Marriage record
Hartwig Nelson (1890-1970) and Bessie M Durling (1892-1969) married May 31, 1919
in West Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey

Note: Bessie listed her place of birth as Warwick, New York. As New York has stopped issuing genealogy records, we cannot obtain this record.

A woman who lost her citizenship had to apply to regain her citizenship- if her husband was eligible to become a citizen. This is why Pearl Maurer petitioned for naturalization in 1927, even though she was born in Connecticut.

Pearl's petition is stamped "Declaration of intention omitted under Cable Act Sept 22, 1922." This law (42 Stat. 1021b) reversed the 1907 law for women who married foreigners after September 22, 1922. Women who lost their citizenship by marrying foreigners between 1907 and 1922 still had to apply for naturalization. Apparently the Cable Act was interpreted to mean that filing a Declaration of Intention could be skipped.

In 1940, The Nationality Act (54 Stat. 1137) eased the repatriation process by only requiring an oath to reestablish citizenship lost because of marriage, as long as the woman had continuously resided in the United States.

At this point in time, any woman who lost her citizenship because of marriage is now deceased, so this is no longer an issue.

For further explanation, please view this video by Amy Johnson Crow.

Error on Marriage Certificate

Samuel Schwartz and Hani "Annie" Perlstein settled in Jersey City, New Jersey after their arrival from Hungary in the 1880s. I wanted to know the names of their parents and their hometown. A marriage record is a great place to possibly find this information.

No match was found in the indexes of New Jersey, New York state, and New York City. However- there was an entry for Samuel Schwartz and Amelia Friedman in 1889 in New York City. Samuel and Annie's first child, Edward, was born in 1890 in Jersey City. In general, to find a marriage record, begin with the birth of the first child and work backwards.

Index of New York City marriages at Ancestry

New York City vital records are being digitized and are available for free on the website of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services.

The Certificate of Marriage is two pages. The first page lists the groom as Samuel Schwartz and the bride as Amalia Friedman. This is consistent with the index at Ancestry.

Certificate of Marriage, New York City
Samuel Schwartz and Hani Perstein married January 20, 1889.
In error was written "Amalia Friedman" as the bride's name.

The second page reveals that there is an error on the first page. The bride was Hani Perlstein, not Amalia Friedman. The author wrote the name of the groom's mother instead of the name of the bride. The document is written with two different colors of ink- blue and black. This could reveal that the document was completed at a later time, resulting in confusion.

Certificate of Marriage, New York City
Samuel Schwartz and Hani Perstein married January 20, 1889.
Groom's parents- Pincus Schwartz and Amalia Friedman.
Bride's parents- Adolph Perlstein and Lina Perlstein.

I will also note that the difference in the color of the ink would not have been known if this document was not digitized in color!

To solidify that we have the correct couple, the death certificates were obtained from the New Jersey State Archives. Samuel Schwartz died in 1958 in Jersey City at the Hebrew Home for Aged. On this document his father was Pincus Schwartz and his mother was Miriam Friedman. This is a good match for the marriage record from 1889.

Death Certificate, New Jersey
Samuel Schwartz died April 17, 1958 in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey

Annie Schwartz died in Atlantic City in 1940 from a stroke. Her residence was in Jersey City. Atlantic City is a popular vacation spot in New Jersey, so perhaps she was on a trip when suddenly struck. Her parents were listed as Abraham Perlstein and Unknown. (My least favorite name.)

Death Certificate, New Jersey
Annie Schwartz died January 23, 1940 in Atlantic City, Atlantic County, New Jersey

After collecting the death certificates to confirm that the entry in the index was for this target couple, I submitted a correction to the erroneous entry for Amelia Friedman in the index at Ancestry. The correct name of the bride, Hani Perlstein, was added. Amelia is not really wrong- it is the bride's name on the first page. Now, if someone searches for Hani, she can be found.

Corrected entry for Hani Perlstein in the 
index of New York City marriages at Ancestry

No hometown in Hungary was given in any of these records.