Sunday's Obituary - The Inexhaustable Marian Brown

Janus yearbook 1948

I always knew when my great Aunt Marian Veronica Brown died.  I've visited and placed flowers at her grave over the years.  I've heard many stories about Aunt Marian, but I've never read her obituary and all I can say is WOW!

"Marian Brown, HHS Teacher, Dies

Miss Marian V. Brown, director of dramatics at Hazleton High School and well known throughout the region for her readings and direction of the local Thespian troupe, died at 5:45 o'clock this morning at the St. Joseph Hospital.  She had been admitted as a medical patient a week ago.  A lifelong resident of this city, she resided at 505 West Broad street.

She was a daughter of the late Thomas and Mary Barrett Brown.

A graduate of Bloomsburg State Teachers College, she received a bachelor of arts degree from Marywood College and her masters from New York University.

Miss Brown taught English at the H. F. Grebey Memorial Junior High School before being transferred to Hazleton High School about 1935.  She was named director of dramatics and public speaking instructor at HHS about 1939.  For the past two years she also taught Latin.  She has always taken charge of the high school's commencement activities, play and program, and directed numerous faculty plays.

The Plain Speaker, 09AUG1956, pg 12

Sponsored Thespian Troupe

She was sponsor of National Thespian Troupe No. 257 at HHS and this past June chaperoned a group from the local troupe to a summer dramatic workshop at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind.

For the past several years, she aided the scholarship fund of Hazleton branch, American Association of University Women, by producing a benefit play.  Last year the branch named its scholarship the Marian V. Brown Scholarship.

She was a member of St. Gabriel's church and of the Altar and Rosary Society of the parish.  Other memberships included the Hazleton Teachers Association, Pennsylvania State Education Association and the National Education Association.

Taught Many Adults

She participated in the adult education program of the city by conducting speaking classes.

Surviving are three brothers, Edward, vice principal of H. F. Grebey Memorial Junior High School; Walter, teacher in Philadelphia; and Thomas, of Elmira, N.Y.

The funeral will be held from the Boyle funeral home Monday at 9 a. m. with solemn requiem high mass in St. Gabriel's church at 9:30.  Interment will be in the parish cemetery."

The Plain Speaker, 13AUG1956, pg 20

"Miss Marian V. Brown, Hazleton High School teacher who died Thursday, was buried this morning from the Boyle funeral home.  Solemn requiem high mass was celebrated in St. Gabriel's Church by Msgr. Dennis J. Kane, with Rev. Edward Haggerty as deacon and Rev. Eugene Moran as subdeacon.  Seated in the sanctuary were Rev. William Ward, chaplain at the St. Joseph Hospital, Rev. Frank and Rev. Cane, both of the Lady of Victory Church, Harvey's Lake.  Msgr. Kane gave the blessing in the parish cemetery.  Pallbearers were James Malatack, William McLaughlin, John Senko, Robbert Sacco, Frank Serany, Jr., and Herbert Skuba."

Aunt Marian was one of those people that my mom, aunt and uncle always talked about.  I can understand why when I see the obituary.  She did so much.  She was so active and obviously loved.  I mean to have the priests from the Harvey's Lake church and the hospital come to her funeral is really saying something.  The family took trips to Harvey's Lake in the summer.  It's not like they were there year-round!  And the pallbearers...they weren't family.  I can only imagine they were educators and friends that wanted to take part in remembering this great lady.  There were certainly family members that could have been pallbearers.

She attended and graduated from three colleges/universities!?!?  She had a scholarship named after her!?!?!  I find this amazing!  I also found out from my mom she paid her own way through school.  No help from her parents.  Her father, Thomas Brown, was a very loving man but he didn't believe that college was for women.  She was determined and obviously succeeded.  I don't know if she got any grants, scholarships, or worked her way through, but she did it.

Janus yearbook.  Year unknown.

She is also responsible for my grandfather, Edward Brown Sr, and great Uncle, Walter Brown Sr, going to college.  She paid their way!

She supported those organizations that she was apart of and she bought special presents for her nieces and nephews.  My mom tells me that Aunt Marian had great taste and bought the most beautiful presents.  When she died, she had no money left.  This wasn't due to frivolous spending on her part, but she believed in enjoying her life and used her money appropriately.  She wasn't married, had no kids, and knew that you can't take it with you!  She lived her life well and spent her money accordingly.

As for why Aunt Marian never married.  My mom tells me that there was talk of a man that she was in love with that was killed in World War II (name unknown).  There are also rumors of an affair with the novelist John O'Hara.  Frankly if you read about John O'Hara's life, affairs and him go hand in hand.  Does that make it true.  No...still a family legend.  But he was from the region and did reside in New York (one of the places Marian went to school).  Possible, but not confirmed.  Allegedly in one of his novels a character he created...a drama teacher...is based on Aunt Marian.  Since John O'Hara would change the names of people and cities, I'll most likely never know.  I just got one of his books and hope to see if anything sounds close to Aunt Marian as I read through it!  I'll keep you posted!

Sadly, I can find no mention of Marian's scholarship still being in existence.  Additionally the webpage for the Hazleton AAUW is pathetic...it's blank.  I'm not hopeful, but won't give up.

She obviously was a magnificent woman.  She achieved so much.  I wish I could have known her personally.  I wish I could have the opportunity to hear people she taught speak of her and find out what they thought of this obviously wonderful lady.

Follow Friday - This is Why We Subscribe to Blogs!

Seriously.  It never ceases to amaze me the number of fantastic blogs/posts that are out there.  There is simply no way to share them all, but each is worth it's weight in gold.  We all have various experiences and our collective knowledge base...wow.  No matter your experience level in genealogy and family history, you can always learn from others.  You just need to allow yourself to!

Here are just a few of the fantastic posts that I've wanted to share from the past few weeks.  I hope you head on over and check them out.  I'm sure you'll enjoy them as much as I did!

Lynn Palermo at The Armchair Genealogist has a rockin' series on Family Reunions.  I'm a family reunion ignoramus having only ever been to one and I rather young at the time...and bored to tears.  That was the Tabor family reunion in the late 70s/early 80s.  We never went to another, which was a shame.  I'm sure there would have been a point when I started enjoying them!  June 2012 is a big event in the Cayemberg Family.  The 75th Cayemberg Family reunion will be held in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  I've been married for almost 12 years now and I've never gone to the annual reunion.  It's not from a lack of desire, but the military has kept us so far away.  Next summer, come hell or high water, we will depart Texas for the trip to Wisconsin.  There's no way I'm missing this one!  Reading Lynn's posts got me so incredibly excited.  I hope we do some of the neat stuff she suggested...and a Facebook page for the event...FANTASTIC idea!  Check out "Family Reunions - Part 2 - Fundraising and Genealogy"...you'll be hooked and going after all the previous posts!

Genealogy Gems brought some exciting news about the 1940 census (who isn't extremely excited about this!).  The census won't be indexed when it first comes out so to search you'll need to do it by address which means that you need to know the enumeration district for the people you're looking for!  NARA has uploaded the maps to their website and Steve Morse has created a search form to help you find the E.D. easier.  Links at Lisa Louise Cook's Genealogy Gems blog!

Got Belgian ancestors?  My husband does and I've got to say, I was delighted to discover the Belgian Laces publication and the "What's New in Belgian Genealogical Research" blog.  I don't tend to hear about Belgian research often so it's great when you find blogs and societies that specialize in them.  Get out there and look.  You'll be surprised at what you find!

Trying to find ancestors that fought in the Civil War?  Lisa Swanson Ellam's (The Faces of My Family) post "Military Monday:  How to Find Possible Civil War Soldiers in Your Tree".  She explains a filtering process she learned at Fort Wayne's Ancestry Days from Anne Gillespie Mitchell of Ancestry.com.  It will narrow down the list of people you have in your tree to those most likely to have served during the Civil War.  I have to adapt it to the filters in my genealogy program, but the concept should still be the same.

At Onward to Our Past, Scott has another tip for "Real World" genealogists about saving and organizing your family trees, photos, documents, etc.  I always love his tips.  Practical for us all!

That's all for now.  There is so much more to share though.  So many impressive blogs...so little time!

Treasure Chest Thursday - Share a Treasured Family Album...with EVERYONE in the Family

Quirk Album/Scrapbook recreated digitally for sharing

Lorine McGinnis Schulze from "Olive Tree Genealogy" inspired this post with her "Shutterfly: I'm Loving It!" post.  I'm also a fan of Shutterfly.  I love that you can create calendars, mugs, and photo albums through their website.  It's truly a wonderful way to create a family treasure!

In May 2002 as my family and I were preparing to depart Hawaii which had been our home for the past three years and head to our new duty station in Monterey, California, we were blessed to be able to stay with my aunt and uncle in Kailua.  My aunt shared with me some wonderful family photos and a very old family scrapbook from the Quirk side of the family.  We knew little about the album apart from the fact that it was a Quirk family album.  It had belonged to my grandmother, Mary Ann Brown nee Quirk, and had most likely been put together by one of her aunts and given to her. 

None of the pictures were labeled so no one was identified.  Bummer.  We were able to make out one of the people in the album for sure...Mary Ann, and she was in at least half of the pictures.  Score! The album was beginning to fall apart.  Mary Ann was born in 1913 and this obviously was from that era.  I made sure that when I scanned the images (600 dpi) that I scanned and saved them in order.  I fact, after I cropped the photos from each page, I saved them by page number (pg 1a, pg 1b, etc).  I wanted to keep the photos in context.  They were obviously put in the scrapbook in that order for a reason...even if that reason was the chronology of events.  It would undoubtedly give clues.

So after this week of being in family history heaven we moved on to our next duty station.  I became a Drill Sergeant and life got busy.  The pictures sat for almost 8 years and then I finally discovered Shutterfly albums and decided to do something meaningful with them.

I couldn't think of what to get for my mom for her birthday/Mother's Day (the both are always close) so it dawned on me to put together a copy of the album for her.  It's not exact but at least the photos are in the right order.  I even made the album pages black like the original album and added pictures of photo corners (something I wish the original had!).  I had shown the scanned images to my mom on previous trips home, trying to figure out who the people were.  Even though we hadn't solved many of the mysteries knowing our family history I was able to add at least some text with each page even if it asked a question, "Who were they?"  "Could it be this person/event?"

I created a pedigree chart for my mom and placed a picture of a coal breaker in the background (coal mining family here!).  I printed it on a mailing label (a 8-1/2x11 sized giant sticker), and placed it on the inside back cover.  I just gave it to my mom during this trip home.  It took awhile for me to get everything the way I wanted it.  She loves it and seeing how much she loves it meant so much more than I could possibly say.

There have been some benefits already.  My mom's memory was jogged a bit more.  I mislabeled a photo of people standing in front of a "Jeanesville, PA" sign as possibly being at a train station.  My mom reminded me as to how small that city was and that it was unlikely to have had it's own train station.  That Elizabeth Quirk was the postmistress for Jeanesville and this was most likely on the house since the post would have gone through there.  The album is saved on my Shutterfly logon and can easily be changed for the next person that gets a copy!

Shutterfly puts little orange triangles by pictures that may not print well or text that may have spelling mistakes

Wedding Wednesday - Edward and Mary Ann Brown nee Quirk

The Plain Speaker, 18JUN1940, pg 28

"Brown-Quirk.

Miss Mary Ann Quirk, daughter of Edward J. Quirk of Jeanesville, and Edward J. Brown, son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Brown, of West Broad street, this city, were married this morning at 8 o'clock at St. Gabriel's church by Very Rev. Monsignor Dennis J. Kane, who also celebrated the nuptial mass which followed the ceremony.

The bride wore a gown of white marquisheer made with a high neckline, short sleeves and a full ruffled skirt.  Her finger-tip veil of illusion was held in place by a cap of orange blossoms, and she carried an old fashioned bouquet of white roses, larkspur and sweet peas.

Miss Anna Turnbach, cousin of the bride, was bridesmaid and carrying out the all-white theme, wore a gown of white marquisheer similar to the bride's.  She wore a doll hat of white maline trimmed with small white flowers, and her old fashioned bouquet of mixed flowers.

Walter H. Brown, brother of the bridegroom, was best man.  The ushers were Eugene McElwee, cousin of the bridegroom, and Edward J. Corcoran.

Miss Margaret Flynn presided at the organ, and Patrick McHugh sang during the mass.

Immediately following the mass, a wedding breakfast was served at the Catholic Women's Club, after which the couple left on a motor trip through the New England States.

The bride is a graduate of West Chester State Teachers' College and is assistant music supervisor in the Hazle township schools.  The bridegroom is a graduate of Villanova and is a member of the Green-Vine Junior High School faculty."

This is the wedding announcement for my grandmother and grandfather.  I'm hoping that someday I'll be able to see a picture of the bride and groom.  The descriptions of the dresses were fantastic!  I'm told by my mom that it should be familiar...that she wore the same dress at her wedding, which  I remember trying that on when I was in high school!  It fit in my skinnier days, but it zipped on the side from the waist to the underarm.  Very awkward to try to get off.  I almost got stuck!

Some things that were not mentioned in the article:

1) The groom's parents, Thomas and Mary Brown Sr nee Barrett, were also married on June 18th in 1901 so it was their 39th anniversary that day!

2) It was the bride's 27th birthday on her wedding day!

3) Mary Ann's mother is not mentioned in the article.  Her name was Alice Quirk nee Blanchfield and she died on September 23, 1915 in (or shortly after) childbirth when Mary Ann was only 2 years old.  The child (gender unknown) died as well (or was stillborn).

4) The bride (as previously mentioned) was 27 and the groom was 31 when they married.  A bit older than we would normally see for this period.  I'm sure the fact that they were both college graduates had something to do with that!

Tuesday's Tip - Inputting Data on the 1850 Census, Schedule 2

1850 U.S. Federal Census, Schedule 2

Last week I posted the Schedule 1 for the 1850 census which for the first time only collected data on free inhabitants of the United States.  This is the first census where slaves were counted in a completely separate schedule, so we've got to have a separate inputtable form to go with it right here!

Whether we are researching our own genealogy as descendants of slaves or slave owners or researching someone else's, it is certainly convenient to have a form that you can transcribe to and save!

At this point in my blog post, I would normal start directing you to websites such as www.1930census.com or the site for the U.S. Census Bureau.  While those sites are worth checking out as I mentioned in last week's census post, they are rather lacking with details on the Slave Schedules.  Perhaps I missed something.

I have previously glossed over the information on Ancestry's website, not because there isn't information worth sharing, but it's like beating a dead horse.  Been there, done that, everyone's used their site before.  In this instance, however, I do defer to quite a well-written source explanation that they posted from William Dollarhide's, The Census Book: A Genealogist's Guide to Federal Census Facts, Schedules and Indexes (affiliate link) and Loretto Dennis Szucs', "Research in Census Records." in The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy (affiliate link). Check out the excerpt on Ancestry's 1850 Slave Schedule census page for some great information before diving in.

Some good general information on census research on FreedomCenter.org.  One page of stuff that we pretty much already know, but it's always a good to be reminded of some things!

Netplaces.com has a sweet little article written by Kimberly Powell on jewels we can find in all the special census schedules.  If you haven't worked with any of the special schedules yet, this article will get you ready to jump in.

Perhaps my favorite site so far for Schedule 2 is an essay written by David E. Paterson on Afrigeneas which points out that the schedules were controversial and rewritten specifically to exclude the names of the individual slaves, places of birth, etc.  It's really a very interesting essay, but be warned it may get your blood going when you have to read through the prejudice of the past.

As always, if you have any trouble viewing or downloading the spreadsheet, just comment or send me an email and I'll see what I can do to fix it.  So far there hasn't been any trouble since the very first sheet I posted.

When you view the census through Google documents it does appear as if it were 3 pages, but rest assured that when downloaded it looks like the image at the top of the blog and in one simple page.  The sheet is locked so you can't accidentally erase the headers and you can only input in the blanks.

One word of warning.  I couldn't figure out how to wrap the text so the cells would fill in the entire left side of the form and then start again in the right column.  So right now when you hit "tab" it will move across the entire row before wrapping around.  I've been trying to look up ways to assign cell order, but so far, no good.  Just keep your eyes on where you're typing!

Let me know if there are any mistakes as well.  I'm sure you can imagine my eyes were starting to go crossed by the time I was done with this form!  Corrections and suggestions are always welcome!

Next week I'll be traveling back home to Texas so we'll see if I can get the next schedule out and ready to go before then!  Until next time, have fun tending those roots!

Military Monday - Martin Joseph Cayemberg

MJ Cayemberg awarded Purple Heart

 "Martin Cayemberg [sic], 875 Shawano avenue, was awarded the Purple Heart, United States Army medal for meritorious service in the World war, during the Memorial day program at the Columbus club Friday morning.  Cayemberg [sic] served with Co. A, 38th infantry, Third division.  H. J. Menard, master of ceremonies for the Memorial day observance, is pictured above pinning the medal on Cayemberg [sic] who is at the left."

MJ Cayemberg w/WWII Soldiers at DAV

"Nurse's Aide Miss Marianne Van Drisse is shown serving lunch to Privates Paul M. Albert, Jack Stricker, and Robert Davis with Martin J. Cayemberg, commander of the local D.A.V. after they donated blood to the American Red Cross mobile unit Monday evening.  The unit will complete a five day engagement here Friday afternoon."






Some newspaper clippings I came across in a scrapbook of articles that was passed on to me.  I had found the below article on him being "slightly wounded" during World War I in the Washington Post, but hadn't seen the articles on him being awarded the purple heart until I began scanning those albums!

Washington Post 11FEB1919 pg 8

Thanks to that fire at the National Personnel Records Center in 1973, this was the only information NPRC could/would release to me.  Can anyone explain to me why it's on a Freedom of Information Act form?

Without these newspaper articles an important part of Martin's life and military story would not have been told.

Sunday's Obituary - Thomas Joseph Brown Sr

Thomas Brown Sr and Catherine Ryan nee Brown

 
"Thos. J. Brown Taken In Death

Thomas J. Brown, of 505 West Broad street, one of Hazleton's most prominent citizens, died this morning at 7:10 o'clock at St. Joseph Hospital.  Ill for a time, he had entered the hospital a month ago.

At last night's banquet of Hazleton Council 442, Knights of Columbus, at the Altamont, he was mentioned as one of the honorary life-member of that order who had been associated with the council for more than fifty years and to whom tribute was paid.

A son of Neil and Nancy McCoy Brown, he was born in this city, where he had spent his entire life.

Prior to his retirement ten years ago, he had been engaged as engineer by the G. B. Markle Coal Co. and the Jeddo-Highland Coal Co. for 42 years.

A devout Roman Catholic, he was a member of St. Gabriel's church and the Holy Name Society.

Mr. Brown was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Barrett Brown, ten years ago.

Surviving are these children:  Marian V. Brown, member of the HHS faculty and dramatic director for many years; Edward a member of the Grebey Jr. High School teaching staff; Thomas, of Elmira, N. Y., and Walter, and instructor in the public schools of Philadelphia.  There are five grandchildren.  Two nephews, Rev. John Brown, of Pinehurst, N. C., and Rev. Aloysius McElwee, for any years a chaplain in the United States Army, and recently assigned to a post in Mississippi, also survive.

The funeral will be held from the Boyle funeral home on Friday morning at 9 o'clock.  Solemn high mass will be offered up in St. Gabriel's church at 9:30 and burial will be in the parish cemetery.

Friends may call at the funeral home on Wednesday and Thursday from 2 to 4, and 7 to 10 p. m."

"Today's Funerals

Thomas J. Brown of 505 West Broad street, retired engineer for the Jeddo-Highland Coal Co. who died Tuesday at St. Joseph Hospital, was buried this morning from the Boyle funeral home.  Rev. Aloysius McElwee, Chaplain-Major of the United States Army at Fort Devens, Mass., and a nephew of the deceased, was celebrant of a solemn high mass in St. Gabriel's church.  Assisting at the mass were Rev. Eugene R. Moran, deacon, Rev. Paul J. Purcell, sub-deacon.  Rt. Rev. Monsignor Dennis J. Kane, and Rev. Gerald Conahan, the latter of Scranton, were seated in the sanctuary.  Burial was in St. Gabriel's cemetery with Father McElwee, assisted by Father Moran, giving the blessing at the grave.  Pallbearers were John Gallagher, William Halton, Peter McCoy, Daniel Meehan, Connie McHugh and James McKelvey."

Thomas Brown Sr was my great grandfather.  The articles certainly have enough wonderful clues to help further my research.  Was Peter McCoy a cousin?  It was his mother's maiden name and getting past her is one of my brick walls!  I'll have to see what I can do able using this information to scale it in the near future!