Tombstone Tuesday - Who is Rt. Rev. John Brown?

Saint Gabriel's Cemetery, Hazleton, PA

Since I mentioned in a recent post, "A Well-Known Hazleton Baseball Player" about Rev. John Brown and how he'd been named in several family member's funeral notices, I figured I'd honor him this Tombstone Tuesday.

I still think he's a relative.  If you look at yesterday's post you may notice that Father Brown came up from Raleigh, North Carolina to be at and take part in the funeral.  Not really something that would have occurred unless he was family, so I decided to jump into my family tree and see if we've got any like players...

There is a John Brown in the family tree without a lot of information.  He's the son of Charles Brown and by looking at the 1910 and 1920 census he would have been born around 1909, just like the Rt. Rev. Brown.  Neil (who he helped celebrate the funeral mass for) would have been his uncle.

There is another John Brown in the tree (the son of the deceased), but this John was born 29SEP1927.  Wrong birth date and he would have been 10 years old when his dad died, so we can cross him out.

These are the only 2 John Browns in my tree.  Does that mean that I'm not missing one?  Of course not, but it is looking likely that the son of Charles is the John that became the priest.  I can still kick myself for not looking up his obituary when I was home a couple months ago!

I performed a search on Ancestry.com's copy of the SSDI and came up with the following John Browns born in 1909 and dying in 1986:

Ancestry.com search results

Only 6 and that's not bad.  Two, in fact, are listed in North Carolina.  Could be.  He was a priest, after all, so it's certainly possible that this is where his parish was and he came back home to Pennsylvania to be buried in the cemetery of the family's church.  Now I don't know why, but I get this impression that Father Brown was in the military too.  I don't know why this sticks in my mind.  It could be because Rev. McElwee (also listed in Neil Brown's obituary and in a separate blog post) is on my mind.  One of the things I'll have to check.  It's not listed on his tombstone, so it could just be my cruddy mind wandering off.

So where do I go from here?  I'm certainly not going to request 6 death certificates.  The SSDI isn't perfect and he could be absent from that list.  Nope.  I'm going to start simple.  Saint Gabriel's is an awesome church.  Granted, I've got quite a bias there...my ancestors helped found it and I was baptized there (as was my youngest child!), but they are very sweet about responding to requests about burials and I doubt they would object to one of their priests being remembered.

So an email to Saint Gabriel's church and most likely seeing how much a copy of the obituary from the local library would be after I find the date he was interred.  I should think that such a man would be remembered in the local paper even if he did die elsewhere. I'll keep ya posted!

Amanuensis Monday - A Well-Known Hazleton Baseball Player

Neil Brown Jr*

At least that's what his obituary says.  I will certainly be trying to find out more about my 2nd great uncle, Neil Brown Jr.  I'll have to look for pictures of the baseball team (I thought it was neat to see it spelled as 2 words rather than a compound word) and see if any of the pallbearers were former teammates.  Rev. McElwee was a relative and I've blogged about him previously, but I don't have any information yet on Rev. John Brown, although if I recall correctly, he was a relative too.  I wish I'd gone and looked up his obituary while I was at home during the summer!  Oh well...I'll put it on my to-do list for next summer!

"Neil Brown Dies In Mine

Former Well Known Base Ball Player Succumbs From Heart Attack.

Neil Brown, of 243 South Wyoming street, former well known base ball player died suddenly at 11 o'clock from a heart attack in the Hazleton No. 1 mine of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company where he was employed as a contract miner.  Mr. Brown several days ago was hurt when he was struck by a piece of timber.

Shortly before he passed away he was stricken with a pain on the side.  He asked for a drink of water and collapsed [sic] shortly afterwards.

He was taken to the State Hospital in the Valley Coal Company ambulance but life was extinct when he reached the institution.

Michael Ferrai of Hayes street, deputy coroner, viewed the body at the hospital.

Mr. Brown was born in Hazleton and was the son of the late Neil and Nancy Brown.  in his younger days he was a ball player.  he covered third base for the Hazleton team which at that time was managed by Harry Dryfoos which played its games at Hazle Park.

He was married in St. Ann's church at Woodside to Miss Bridget Brown, a native of Freeland.  Mr. Brown was a member of St. Gabriel's church and the Holy Name Society.  Surviving him are his wife and the following children:  Mrs. Rodney Prosser, of Tamaqua; Mrs. Clyde Barth, of West Hazleton; James, Nancy, Neil Jr., Rita, Eugene, Paul, Jack, Joan and Charles Brown, all of this city.  Two brothers, Thomas Brown and Patrick Brown, of Hazleton, also survives.

No arrangements have yet been made for the funeral."

[Published in the Hazleton Plain Speaker, 30OCT1937 pg 18]

"All that was mortal of Neil Brown, of 243 South Wyoming street, former Hazleton baseball player was laid to rest today.  The funeral was held at 9:10 this morning followed by a solemn high mass of requiem in St. Gabriel's church at 9:30.  Rev. Father Charles McElwee, formerly of Hazleton, pastor of the Nativity church, Scranton, was celebrant, Rev. Father John Brown of Raleigh, North Carolina, deacon and Rev. Father Edward Lynch of St. Gabriel's sub-deacon.  The pallbearers were: James Fox, Andrew Rondash, John Breslin, Nicholas Klinic, Andrew Kennedy, and Timothy Ryan.  Interment followed in St. Gabriel's cemetery. Rev. Father Brown gave the blessing at the grave."

[Published in the Hazleton Plain Speaker, 02NOV1937, pg 16]

A rather uninformative tombstone for Neil's family

*My cousin Nancy O'Donoghue nee Brown sent me this picture.  It had been labeled "Neil Brown".  Since there are at least 4 Neil Browns it's hard to say for sure that this is Neil Brown Jr.  From the age of the picture and the fact that it appears he is wearing a baseball uniform, I would say with 90% certainly that this is Neil Jr.  Unfortunately, since my dear cousin Nancy has passed away, I can no longer ask her.

Happy Anniversary (Again)

Dana Cignarella, Rick and Cherie Cayemberg and Jeff Ryan Sr

My husband and I actually have 2 anniversaries.  We had a civil wedding first and then did the proper church wedding later (which I blogged about a few months ago).  Why the two weddings?  An interesting story...

My husband and I were both in the Army and stationed in Hawaii.  We knew that we were going to get married eventually and I was playing the good girlfriend and try not to ask every 5 minutes when it would happen.  In September 1999 my husband and I took a trip to Maui.  At his unit's last Christmas party he had won a trip for two so we decided that we'd go.  Maui was gorgeous (naturally!), but our hotel room was not.  No biggie.  As my now husband said, "We'll only be sleeping there."  So we spent the majority of our days there out and about, which is really what needed to be done anyway!

The view from the top of Haleakala

We decided to take a bike ride down the Haleakala volcano and we opted to go with a company that let you do it yourself rather than in a group.  We wanted to take our time and stop when we wanted to.  It was almost entirely downhill, so it wasn't like it was incredibly difficult.  The view from the crater of the volcano was very cool.  We were above the clouds.  What an interesting perspective.  Just like being in a plane, but it's open-air.  A bit odd to say the least.  And cold.  Cold is a word I would use too.  Not freezing cold, although that could happen too, but chilly cold.  You had to layer your clothes to do this bike ride.  At the top with a light jacket (preferably waterproof) and you could peel off layers on the way down.

We had decided that we'd stop and picnic on the way down and we did.  Rick saw a farm that over-looked the lower "saddle" portion of Maui complete with ocean on both sides of the "saddle."  We parked our bikes and climbed over the fence to the farm and sat down.  I know...we were bad, sneaking onto someone farm, but that wasn't how we saw it.  We just wanted the view.  I don't remember what we ate.  It was eclipsed by my husband taking a twist tie (like the ones on a loaf of bread) and fashioning it into an engagement ring and asking if I would marry him.

Rick sitting where he asked me to marry him

I'm sure some women would have taken a look at that and thought only of diamonds.  Not me.  I immediately said yes.  I knew this was the man I wanted to spend forever with...garbage bag tie ring or diamond.  He slipped it on my finger and gave me a kiss.  Then he took the real diamond ring out of his pocket and put that on my finger!  And he thinks he's not romantic!

I almost ruined the surprise and busted him that morning before we set off on our bike ride.  He was wondering around wearing his Umbro shorts.  The only pocket they have is one on the back.  I noticed a big lump on his butt and reached out with a "What's in your pocket?"  I really was dim.  I never thought that an engagement ring was coming that day.  He swatted my hand away and I still didn't figure it out.  I suppose he moved the ring to a pocket in the backpack we took, which was probably a good thing.  Could you imagine losing the ring on a 20 mile (ish) bike ride?

It was only a couple weeks later that we decided to get married.  We'd been living together since I moved out to Hawaii about 4 months earlier and he was getting ready to go to a 2 month long military school.  He thought it would be best to finalize the deal before he left.  Now it was a rush.  We got the marriage license and found someone to perform the ceremony.  Where did we get married?  On a beach at sunset of course!  Diamond Head Beach Park (also known as Leahi Beach Park) to be exact.  It was a small wedding, and it was the day before he was leaving for school!  We had our 2 witnesses and that was that.  My uncle Jeff was one of the two witnesses.  The other was a friend stationed out there.  I would have preferred to have had my Uncle Jeff and Aunt Cathy as witnesses, but because our wedding was so last minute, my aunt had to be back on the mainland that weekend for work.

Rick's family sometimes wondered if he was ever going to get married, so in true Rick form, he called them up the night before the wedding with a, "Hey, at whatever o'clock tomorrow (yes I don't remember the time we got married!) have a beer for me!"  The response was always, "Why?" and the answer, "Because I'll be getting married."  That's my hubby!

Me being all girlie and crying

It was beautiful (although the pictures aren't the best) and I did cry.  My uncle took us out to dinner afterward to celebrate at a wonderful restaurant called David Paul's and the food was the best I had eaten!  It was such a wonderful end to the day and I could never thank my uncle (and aunt) enough for that dinner.  We even went back there on our 1st anniversary!  The staff came out and presented us with the cork from the wine we drank and a card signed by the entire staff congratulating us on our special day.


I get asked which anniversary we celebrate.  Our civil wedding or our church wedding.  My answer?  Obviously the church wedding meant something very special to me or we wouldn't have had one, but when someone asks me how long we've been married I answer based on the civil wedding.  Wouldn't you?

Rick signing the marriage certificate

The rings

Rick putting on my ring

Putting on my husband's ring

The card and cork from David Paul's restaurant

Follow Friday - From One Extreme to Another!

I'm amazed at ignorance, although I know I shouldn't be.  If you haven't read Marian Pierre-Louis' blog post, "And So She Risks Everything by Being Completely Honest," over at Roots and Rambles, you really need to.  Perhaps those tactless individuals were indeed joking, but it really doesn't matter.  Just because someone hasn't gotten letters after their name yet doesn't mean that they are any less a researcher/genealogist/family historian.  It means that they don't have letters after their name.  Maybe some day they will.  Maybe some day they won't, but it doesn't make that person inexperienced, unqualified or any less than another.  It means THEY DON'T HAVE LETTERS AFTER THEIR NAME!  I'm not sure if they had their heads jammed in the sand or somewhere else!

Now I'd like to move to something of a more solemn nature.  A remembrance posted by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.  I've posted about the VVMF previously.  I love the fact that they are looking to put a face with every name that is inscribed on the Vietnam Wall.  The VVMF posted on Monday about a Vietnam Hero that does not appear on the Vietnam Wall, because he made it home alive and died saving others (thousands of others) in the WTC on 9/11.  Go and read the post, "10 Years Later and No One Has Forgotten."  It was incredibly moving.  A true hero.

A great point made by none other than Dick Eastman (always an excellent source for information), was a post "Copyright Myths."  We deal with these issues daily whether we are hearing about someone taking from us or from one of our colleagues (hopefully not us taking improperly from someone else.).  It's always nice for a little refresher.  Wouldn't it be nice if the people that needed the refresher would read this?  Ah well...we can always hope!  Thanks for the post, Dick!

The Shipwreck of the Royal Charter

A few days ago I posted "So Very Excited..." and relayed that the Chester Chronicle (A Welsh publication) was going to be publishing a follow up story this week about the shipwreck of the Royal Charter that occurred on October 26, 1859.  Images of the shipwreck were going to be printed in the Chronicle at some point this week.  All I had hoped for was to see a couple pictures on their website, but I was greeted with a much happier sight via the BBC's website.  There is a 2 minute long video clip which not only shows some bits of the shipwreck, but talks with Chris Holden, one of the authors of the book Life and Death on the "Royal Charter", as well as a brief summary of what happened to the Royal Charter 152 years ago this October.

Of course this developing story is of great interest to me as a descendant of someone that died in the shipwreck.  I've posted about the Royal Charter a few times before.  I am excited that there will be a documentary broadcast on the Royal Charter and that it will include the underwater images.  I'm bummed that I'm certain it won't be shown in America.  I may have to look for any YouTube posts on it.  I can only dream of it being released on DVD, but you can be sure that if it is I'll be first in line to get it!

If you'd like to view the 2 minute video and check out the news article on the Royal Charter head on over to the BBC here!

Tombstone Tuesday - William and Katherina Boegel

The autumn is always a crazy time of year.  School is back in session and Cub Scouts starts anew.  It usually means that I've got to put genealogy aside to complete the obligations I have in Scouting and PTA.  And although this year seems to be running much more smoothly than last year, I still have found myself hard-pressed for time.  I really wanted to get the 1890 census form up tonight, but reality and wishful thinking are two very different things.  Instead of not posting anything at all, however, I decided to get up a reasonably quick post with a beautiful family tombstone.  I simply have too much family data to not post something.  I'm always hoping to run across those distant cousins researching the same lines!

This tombstone always caught my attention when visiting St. Kilian's in Wisconsin.  It's just so huge.  This is my husband's side of the tree.  My side, well, I have yet to come across something so grand!  It's beautiful.

William and Katherina Boegel nee Melzer are my husband's 2nd great grandparents.  They were the parents of at least 8 children (that I've found so far), William Jr., Maria, Katherine (Mrs. Joseph Bonlender), John, Peter, Raymond, Mary (Mrs. Gebhardt Strabel), and Theresa.  John was my husband's great grandfather.

William Boegel Sr was born on December 21st 1848 in Wisconsin.  The son of Henry Boegel and Herietta (maiden name unknown), he married Katherine Melzer around 1875 (still working on that marriage certificate) and died on October 21st, 1922.  Katherine was born on December 12th 1846 in Germany (I know...that doesn't narrow it down by much) she died on May 24th 1927.  I don't know who her parents were yet.

What I do know is that St. Kilian's cemetery in Wisconsin has been completely recorded online, and while I may have over-looked the other Melzers in there when I passed through in genealogical bliss several years back, I can easily reference the interments by going to the Campbellsport, Wisconsin website.  And hey...writing this quick post did make me realize that finding relatives of Katherina (nee Melzer) may not be too difficult after all.  At least I have some names as leads now.

Well, time to jump in bed and prepare for a PTA-filled day tomorrow.  I need all the rest I can get for it!  Have fun tending those roots!

NOTE:  And after posting this and jumping to the wonderful Wisconsin Historical Society website I found the image numbers for a marriage of William Boegel and Katherine Meker.  I love their website!  It's now in my research calendar and when I get up to Wisconsin for Christmas I'll be copying that record!

Amanuensis Monday - Two Steps Forward and One Step Back

Did you ever feel like you were doing some kind of weird genealogical dance researching your family history?  I'm feeling that way right about now.  In mid-August I wrote a post "Wisdom Wednesday - I Live For These Moments".  In it I talked about a revelation I had about finding a missing (and most likely deceased) family member who disappeared from family history.  Bessie Dugan nee Quirk died in 1918 shortly after giving birth to her daughter, Elizabeth (Betty).  Betty was found in the 1920 census living with her father and his siblings in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  She was no where to be found in the 1930 census, but her father, Dennis Dugan, was remarried.

Family lore never passed on anything about Dennis, or Betty for that matter.  We had actually assumed that she died at the same time as her mom.  The newspaper clippings that stated the baby was well but the momma wasn't didn't change that view.  It wasn't until I started researching and found the above mentioned that we collectively began to wonder, "What ever happened to little Betty?"

My previous post's revelation was that if I researched the step-mother's obituary that perhaps Betty would be mentioned in it.  Either as having predeceased her or, hopefully, had survived her.  So I contacted the local Bethlehem, PA newspaper "The Morning Call" and asked for help getting to back issues.  They directed me to the library that holds the microfilm and they had a brilliant online search tool.  I was able to input Dennis' 2nd wife, Rose Dugan's, name and she popped up with the date of the obituary.  I also found Dennis' obit.  I didn't find Betty/Elizabeth.

So I paid the small fee to have the articles printed out and sent to me and I got them this past week.  The excitement was, and still is, there at having received this information, but it didn't answer the question I was looking for.  I will most likely continue to delve into this collateral line to find out the question of, "What happened to Betty Dugan," but for now, I'll simply share her step-mother's obituary.

The Globe Times - 13SEP1982

"Mrs. Dennis Dugan

Mrs. Rose King Dugan, 87, formerly a guest at Cedarbrook Annex, Fountain Hill, died today in St. Luke's Hospital.  She was the widow of Clarence Steager and Dennis Dugan.

Born in Bethlehem, she was the daughter of James and Ellen Larkin King.

She was a member of Ss. Simon and Jude Catholic Church, Bethlehem.

Surviving is a son, James J. Steager of Fountain Hill; two daughters, Sister Joan Dugan of Philadelphia, and Mrs. Mary Phillips of Bethlehem; a sister, Mrs. Anthony Reiser of Bethlehem, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A son Francis preceded her in death in 1956.

A mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Ss. Simon and Jude Catholic Church, 730 W. Broad Street.  Call one hour prior to services Wednesday evening.  Burial will be in Holy Savior Cemetery, Bethlehem, at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

The Charles M. Downing Funeral Home, 835 Broadway, Bethlehem, is handling arrangements.

Memorials may be made in her name to Ss. Simon and Jude Church."


[The Globe Times, Sep. 13, 1982 pg B4:Col3]