Amanuensis Monday - Filling in Rosbeck Information One Name at a Time

It was so difficult to get a post up this evening.  The weekend was long and not very relaxing, although the Packers won, so that made me happy!  My oldest and the hubby were out camping with the Cub Scouts and the youngest and I did lots of running around, but we had some great snuggle time last night, staying up late and watching movies.  Of course, I paid for it this morning and it was all I could do to cheer on the Packers.  My mind was just too tired.  I attempted to transcribe an obituary only to realize that I had actually posted it a few months ago!  I thought I was going to be turning in without getting anything posted when I got my second wind.

Transcribing the obituary on Herman Rosbeck wasn't earth-shattering in any way, but it did give me information that I was missing from my family tree.  I now had a date for his death, and his wife's....and their marriage.  So while the transcription didn't give me any spectacular "Ah-ha!" moment, it did give me useful information.  Information that I can post online and maybe find someone researching my Rosbecks.  Information that I apparently had, but just hadn't gone through to enter it into my tree.  So even when I don't have time because of PTAing, Cub Scouting, and the various things that happen in our daily lives, I do realize that just getting something up on my blog helps me do a little with something I love so much.  So until I can give more time, I will tackle it (in this instance each Rosbeck) one name at a time.

"Herman J. Rosbeck

Herman J. Rosbeck, 81, Knowles, died Tuesday at Clearview Hospital, Juneau, where he was a patient for three months.

Mr. Rosbeck was an employee [sic] at Western Lime & Cement Co. in Nasboro for 30 years.  He was an active and long-time member of the Knowles Fire Department.

He was born on July 2, 1889, at St. Kilian to George and Margaret Rosbeck.  He married Sophia Schraufnagel on April 13, 1915, in Le Roy.

Survivors include one daughter, Mrs. Victor Schraufnagel, Route 1, Brownsville; one brother, Martin Rosbeck, West Bend; six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.  He was preceded in death by his wife on June 23, 1969; three brothers, three sisters and one grandson.

Funeral services will be held at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at St. Andrew's Church, Le Roy, with the Rev. Anthony Gundrum as celebrant of the Mass.  Burial will be at St. Andrew's Cemetery.

Relative and friends may call after 3 p.m. today at Koepsell Funeral Home, Mayville."

Published in the Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter, Wednesday, 28APR1971, pg42

Sunday's Obituary - Remembering Nancy

A electronic scrapbook page Nancy created and linked to me.  This is her as a little girl.

It's been a year since something horrible happened.  I previously wrote about how my cousin, Nancy O'Donoghue nee Brown, still didn't have a tombstone at her grave.  Well, today marks the anniversary of her death.  I'll never forget how I found out about it either.


My Uncle Ed reads the hometown news online even though he now lives on Oahu.  He saw an obituary for Nancy and emailed my mother asking if this was one of the cousins I'd found doing my genealogy research.  My mom forwarded the link to me telling me how sorry she was.  I had just talked to Nancy by email less than a month earlier and seeing a news article about her murder was surreal.  I starred at the page on my computer and although I read it, I didn't really take it in.  It wasn't her.  Why were they sending this to me?  Then it finally sank in.  It was her.  My sweet, sweet cousin was gone.  Murdered by her husband.  That's not a shock you get over and I cried sporadically for several days whenever I thought about it.

I'm not saying that I was close with my cousin.  I'd met her once and communicated with her sporadically.  We both enjoyed genealogy research and we'd found each other researching the same line through an Ancestry.com message board.  Then Nancy suggested that we meet up the next time I came back to Pennsylvania.  I took her up on it.  We met at the Knotty Pines restaurant (a local, Hazleton, PA landmark that is now a parking lot).  My mom came with me, as did my husband and oldest son.  We talked about our families, genealogy, and exchanged information.  She even went with us to Saint Gabriel's cemetery to visit family plots.  Sounds boring to non-genealogists, but it was a special memory for me.  And Nancy was one of the sweetest, kindest people I had ever met.  I felt like I had known her for years!  If it hadn't been for Nancy, I would still have a fairly large chunk of my Brown family missing from my tree.

I had felt like I had finally contributed something significant to our tree when I located the grave of our common Brown ancestor.  The grave of Neil and Nancy Brown (nee McCoy) was something we had both been looking for.  I excitedly took pictures and sent an email to her complete with directions on how she could find it.  She was excited and said that she looked forward to being able to visit it the next time she got up to Hazleton from Newark, DE.

She also talked about how she was hurting and had stopped going up and down stairs as much as possible.  I asked how bad she was feeling (my memory is always horrible and I couldn't remember what it was that caused her pain).  Nancy brushed off the question cheerfully.  She was just fine.  She changed the subject to digital scrapbooking and her grandkids.  It was the last I communicated with her.

I don't know why her husband did what he did. She never, ever spoke ill of her husband.  She always spoke fondly of him, her children and grandchildren.  It was clear that he was the love of her life, so hearing the news of her murder was particularly shocking.  I immediately began rationalizing what had happened.

"Hazleton native accuse of killing sleeping wife

Lucille Sukel of Hazleton couldn't understand why her high school classmates weren't returning her e-mails, as they talked every day.

She hadn't heard from Hazleton natives Michael J O'Donoghue and his wife, the former Nancy Brown, in three days, she said.  On Tuesday morning, Sukel found out why.

Michael O'Donoghue, 68, was charged with first-degree murder of his 67-year-old wife, Nancy, in their Newark, Del., home.

O'Donoghue called police early Monday morning - two days after shooting his wife in the back of the head as she was lying in bed, Delaware Online reported.

Police found Nancy O'Donoghue in a second-floor bedroom with bullet wounds and severe blunt force trauma to her head.

Michael O'Donoghue told police that he shot his sleeping wife twice with a small-caliber handgun from his night stand, court papers said.  He also took a hatchet from the garage into the bedroom, in case the gun did not kill his wife, court papers said.

O'Donoghue told police he may have struck his wife in the head with the hatchet after he shot her, investigators said.  He then got into bed and held her, court papers said.  Police recovered a gun and a hatchet in the home.

He is also charged with possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony.

Nancy (center) at the Knotty Pines

The news shocked friends who graduated in 1960 from St. Gabriel's High School with the couple, leaving them with more questions than answers, Sukel said.

"I have been on the phone with classmates all morning," she said.  "They loved each other very much.  This is the most unexpected thing.  We're in shock."

Sukel remained very close to the couple, despite the miles between them, she said.

"If she was going out shopping, I knew it," Sukel said.

She became concerned when neither answered the e-mails - the last sent Monday night.  Then, Tuesday morning, another classmate learned about the murder and word reached Sukel.

"We're all just astounded," she said.  "None of us could make any sense out of [sic]

Sukel worked with the couple to plan their 50th high school reunion, which was held in June.  The O'Donoghues were on the reunion committee, and Nancy had received a special award for all her hard work on the event, Sukel said.

Michael, who was known to friends as "Jay," had worked as an accountant, and Nancy as a nurse, she said.

Another of Nancy's scrapbook pages (her father)

"Both were retired.  They were happy and contented," Sukel said.

She wishes she could drive to Delaware to ask her friend what happened and why, questions to which she may never know the answers.

Delaware Online, an online edition of The News Journal of Wilmington, contributed to this story.

kmonitz@standardspeaker.com, 570-455-3636"

Published in the Citizens Voice on October 6, 2010

That was the news article.  Her obituary reads much better:

"Nancy O'Donoghue, 67, of Newark, Del., passed away Saturday at her residence.

Born in Hazleton, she was the daughter of the late James and Martha Brown.

Nancy was a graduate of St. Gabriel's High School in 1960 and worked as a registered nurse prior to her retirement.

Another of Nancy's scrapbook pages (her parent's wedding)

Preceding her in death, in addition to her parents, was her son, Patrick.

Surviving are her husband, Michael J.; sons, Dr. Michael and his wife Merih, Maryland; and James and his wife, Catie, Delaware; brothers, William and his wife, Barbara, North Carolina; and James, Arizona; and eight grandchildren.  Several nieces, nephews and cousins also survive.

Friends are invited to attend a Mass of Christian Burial on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Holy Annunciation Parish at St. Gabriel's Church, Hazleton.

Interment will follow at the parish cemetery.

Friends may call at the church from 10 a.m. until the time of the service.

Fierro Funeral Services Inc. is in charge of the arrangements."

Published in the Hazleton Standard-Speaker, October 7, 2010

Today marks the 1st anniversary of Nancy's loss.  It is still unbelievable.  Unreal.  I don't personally know her children or her husband.  I can only imagine what they've been going through and what they are about to go through.  Her husband's trial is set for the first week of November.  I know that it means more news will be out there.  Maybe something to help piece together as to how and why this could have happened, but my thoughts turn to her children and what they are going through.  To have lost their mother, and to see their father on trial for killing her.  It's got to be tearing them up inside.

I don't hold any animosity toward her husband "Jay" either.  I don't know why he killed her, but to have done it in the manner he did and then hold her for so long before calling the police?  My mind wanders to her telling me that she was hurting.  Was it bad enough that he thought he was helping her?  I can't believe that either.  They were both Catholic.  To take a life or to ask that your life be taken is damnable and they would know that.  Would believe that.  I cannot conceive of Nancy asking her husband to do something that would damn him, or her.  So even when I try to make sense of it all, it makes less sense.

I hope that her family is granted the strength they need to make it through all this and to make sure that fond memories are preserved like the beautiful pages in Nancy's scrapbooks.  A beautiful woman.  Never to be forgotten.

[Photos and scrapbook pages used in this blog were either taken by me or shared with me by Nancy.  Most pictures have been cropped to focus solely on Nancy.]

UPDATE:

Is it odd to update a post before it's published?  I had this post written and scheduled to go out and something unbelievable happened.  Nancy's husband just died.  Just a few days before the anniversary of her death.  I don't know why I'm angry.  As I stated before, I'm not angry at him necessarily.  I'm angry at what he did...it was so senseless.  Maybe I'm angry because now we'll never know why.  The trial would have been in a month and I wanted to know why.  Ah well.  Here's his obituary:

"Michael "Jay" O'Donoghue of Newark, Del., and formerly of Hazleton, passes away on Wednesday at Heartland House Hospice, Wilmington, Del.

Forn in Hazleton, he was the son of the late Michael E. and Lucille (Sargent) O'Donoghue.

Jay was a graduate of St. Gabriel's High School.

Preceding him in death, in addition to his parents, were his wife, the former Nancy Brown, and their son, Patrick.

Surviving are his sons, Michael and wife, Merih, Maryland; and James and wife, Catie, Delaware.  Eight grandchildren and several nieces and nephews also survive.

Friends are invited to attend a Mass of Christian Burial on Saturday at 11 a.m. in Holy Annunciation Parish at St. Gabriel's Church, Hazleton.  Interment will follow in the parish cemetery.  The family will receive guests in the church from 10 a.m. until the time of Mass.

Fierro Funeral Service Inc., Hazleton, is handling the arrangements.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Heartland House Hospice in Wilmington, Del."

Published in the Hazleton Standard Speaker 30SEP2011

Wordless Wednesday - A Repaired Grayscale Photo

 

This is a picture of Mary Laurent nee Dart (my husband's great grandmother).  The original that I scanned has some discoloration so I used my software and used the grayscale tool to re-grayscale the entire image.  Then I used the cloning tool with various degrees of opacity (depending on what blemish I was working on) to fix the rest of the photo.  My auto-correct feature brightened the image after all was done (although this could be done first if you prefer).

After using the grayscale tool

As wordless as I can be!

Amanuensis Monday - A Great Reason to Transcribe...

Last Tuesday I posted about the Rt. Rev. John Brown.  I had wondered who he was, came to some conclusions and vowed to continue my research.  I had a feeling that he was a relative.  As it turns out, I was right.  How did I discover it? 

My mom emailed me because of the John Browns I listed in that post, she recognized the city "Southern Pines, N.C." as being a place many priests were sent on missions.  That made me laugh!  Probably sent to convert the South to Catholicism!  Too funny. 

But even before my mom emailed me with this tid-bit I had already performed another search for John Browns on Ancestry and came up with the following result from the North Carolina Death Collection:

This John was born in Pennsylvania at the right year, never married and was then buried out of state.  Sounds right for my priest, but it wasn't a confirmation, but then the church in Hazleton, PA that buried him responded to my email and told me that the Rev. Brown in their cemetery was buried in September 1986.  So of the John Browns I had found in the SSDI, the Southern Pines John was the right John.  This didn't tell me that he was a relative though. That's where I credit transcribing and taking part in Amanuensis Monday for (once again) saving the day (and an awful lot of time).

I was going to transcribe an obituary.  I knew that.  I wasn't sure which one though.  I had gone through so many this summer while back home and I wanted to start getting them online.  I was a bad girl though and didn't give many of them more than a cursory glance when I first found them.  The trip back home was crammed with family time and genealogy spread in between...not to mention my 10 and 5 year olds.  So now I get to transcribing the obituary for Charles Brown, Sr.

21SEP1935 - Hazleton Standard-Sentinel

"Deaths

Charles B. Brown, Sr.

Charles B. Brown, prominent resident of Hazleton, died at his home, 531 Arthur street, at 2 o'clock on Sunday afternoon after a two months' illness, due to complications.  He was born in this city, where he spent his entire life.

Mr. Brown was bottom foreman for the Lehigh Valley Coal Co. at the Hazleton Shaft colliery for 35 years.  He was a member of St. Gabriel's church and of the Holy Name Society of that parish.  He was a third baseman of the old Hazleton Athletics' team of many years ago.

His wife, formerly Anna LeGrande, died eight years ago.  Surviving are the following children:  Mrs. William McLaughlin, Washington, D. C.; Charles Brown, Jr., of Hazleton; Leo Brown, Cumberland, Md.; Mrs. George Cassidy, Elizabeth, N. J.; Esther and Marian, at home; Mrs. John Hooper, Elizabeth, N. J.; John of Mt. St. Mary's Seminary, Emmittsburg, Md.

Three brothers also survive, Thomas and Neil Brown, of Hazleton, and Patrick Brown of West Hazleton.

The funeral will be held on Wednesday morning at 9 o'clock.  Solemn high mass of requiem will be offered u pin St. Gabriel's church at 9:30, and interment will be made in St. Gabriel's cemetery."

Published in the Hazleton Standard-Sentinel, 21JAN1935

Charles Bernard Brown Sr was my 2nd great uncle.  The brother to my great grandfather, Thomas Brown Sr., and the father to Rev John Brown, which makes John my 1st cousin twice removed.

Of course, his son, John, isn't a priest as of his death, but was going through the seminary.  That's enough to confirm it for me.  Yes, I'll be requesting John's death certificate from North Carolina as well as checking to see if I can get any of the seminary records or find out where he served as a priest.  I'm not overly familiar with all that, so I may be talking to my priest to find out how the Church keeps it's records.

What I will be doing when I go back home next year is looking for the burial/funeral notice for Charles Sr...and John.  It's on my Research Calendar.  I look forward to seeing what else is out there!

Sunday's Obituary - A Little Bit of the Luck o' the Irish

Uncle Tommy's tombstone

Benjamin putting flowers at Uncle Tommy's grave

A few months ago I posted a Tuesday's Tall Tales about my great uncle, Thomas Brown Jr.  There were many rumors about uncle Tommy including one that he was run out of Hazleton, PA during prohibition for gambling, that he eventually settled in Elmira, NY and ran a whorehouse.

During my summer vacation I went up to Elmira to look for his obituary in the local papers (hoping to find scandal in his death) and visit his gravesite which I was fairly certain hadn't been visited in a long time, if ever.

That morning I packed my little ones up in the car making sure that their DSi's were charged, DVD players working, and we drove north from Greentown, PA to Elmira.  I had offered to take some pictures for a fellow geneablogger at a location on my way to Elmira.  I had the absolute worst luck that morning.  I found the cemetery (or at least I thought I had), but there was no caretaker.  The cemetery was a pretty good size, but the boys and I started looking.  We eventually figured that we should head down to what appeared to be the older section of the cemetery since the graves we were looking for should have been there.  After 45 minutes of not finding even one surname (let alone the right person), I jumped on my iPhone and went to FindAGrave.com.  The picture of the cemetery sign didn't look like the one out front and the map was slightly off.  I cursed my Garmin and jumped back in the car with my boys just as it started to rain.

I enlarged the map that was posted on FindAGrave and plotted the nearest intersection to the cemetery.  Good.  It was only about 5 miles away.  I let my Garmin lead me to what I hoped was the correct cemetery.  I ended up in an industrial park.  Now I not only cursed the Garmin, but FindAGrave's map.

OK, I thought.  This kind of sucks.  Looks like the cemetery isn't going to happen, so I figured I'd find the old stomping grounds for her.  She had wanted a picture of a sign for the place and I was hopeful, but had no luck finding anything on Google before my trip.  I tried my cursed Garmin and hoped that it would do better this time.  I did several different searches to no avail and then at least found a road that matched.  It was a long shot, but I set my Garmin to get to the road and I hoped that I would find a sign that matched what she was looking for there.  It was absolutely beautiful farm country and the drive was enjoyable, but I never found the sign.  The road was only a few miles long and the best I got was a picture of the street sign.

By now I was feeling more than a little disappointed.  I know that sometimes searches don't work out, but I had made the offer and thought that I would at least come back with something.  It was almost noon and I knew I needed to head to Elmira if I was going to research my great uncle at all that day.  The sun was starting to come out, but it didn't reflect my mood at that point.  We were hungry by now and the kids were starting to get grumpy without food so I set the Garmin to the Elmira library and hoped it would take me there.

We arrived about 30 or 40 minutes later to a construction filled area.  I missed the library entrance and was just in such a foul mood by now that I did something that my straight and narrow mind wouldn't normally conceive of...I parked in a neighboring parking lot, ignoring the signs that it was for their use only (I know...I'm just sooo bad!).  It was time to forage for food and there was supposed to be a pizza joint a couple blocks away.  New York and pizza...I had to go.  I grabbed the kids and we headed down the street.

I saw the pizzeria...a hole in the wall.  That's not a bad thing when were talking pizza in New York so I wasn't deterred at all.  As I crossed the street I noticed that the strip mall-ish building that it was in had a marker in front of it.  Apparently Mark Twain's house used to stand on this site.  Oh how depressing!  Seriously?  Mark Twain and Elmira, NY?  I had no idea...but the thought that his historic (or should have been, historic) home was now a strip mall.  Holy heck!  OK.  This day was just...well...not what I had been expecting or hoping for.  I wasn't feeling as hopeful at what I would find in the library.

The only thing left to mark the Twains' home!

Strip mall where Mark Twain's home used to be

We sat down to some Cokes and our slices of pizza and ate.  We had finished our pizza and were just relaxing and sipping our Cokes when I heard one of the guys at the pizzeria ask a co-worker, "Hey you latched the back door, right?  Because that doesn't look good."  I followed his gaze.  He was staring out the front door.  I turned and saw a rather ominous sky.  I whipped out my Weather Channel app and opened it up.  Yep...Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Elmira.  Checked the radar.  Crap!

Severe weather added to the day

I live in Texas.  It's been nasty-hot for the entire summer and I was happy to be visiting up north, but when I came it got 100+ degrees nasty hot up there too.  Today wasn't quite at 100 degrees in Elmira, but it was in the upper 90s.  As a result of the heatwave, the a/c was broken in the library and it was pretty unpleasant in there.  I was in luck in finding an obituary, a funeral notice and burial notice in the Elmira Star Gazette.  I checked the paper during that time frame for anything sensational about uncle Tommy and didn't find it.  I made copies of the information I did find, but it wasn't a lot.

Elmira Star Gazette, 07DEC1957, pg 2

"Thomas J. Brown of 114 W. First St., Friday, Dec. 6, 1957.  Survived by brothers, Edward Brown of Hazleton, PA., Walter of Philadelphia.  Body at O'Dea Funeral Home.  Funeral announcement later."

Elmira Star Gazette, 08DEC1957, pg 10

"Thomas J. Brown of 114 W. First St. Today at O'Dea Funeral home.  Funeral there Monday at 11:45 a.m., the Rev. Eldred Simpkins.  Woodlawn National Cemetery."

Elmira Star Gazette, 09DEC1957, pg 9

"Thomas J. Brown of 114 W. First St. Funeral today at 11:45 at the O'Dea Funeral Home, the Rev. Eldred Simkins.  Pallbearers:  Abe Mills, Toni Turchio, Charles Forgensi, Russell Hamilton, Charles Lawrence, and Donald Tarantelli.  Woodlawn National Cemetery."

Talk about a whole lotta nothin'.  I knew that uncle Tommy was the black sheep of the family, but not much had been put in the paper.  Heck, they were barely complete sentences.  It was disappointing.  I packed up my stuff and let my boys play with the huge floor chess set on the ground floor of the library.  I hoped I would find something more in the Hazleton, PA paper where he was born.  I consoled myself that way.  Maybe even figure out who the pallbearers were.  They weren't family.  Why weren't they family?  Not a single family member.

Boy the trip felt wasted.  As the boys and I went back to the car it was only drizzling out.  They buckled up and I sat there for a minute...114 W. First Street...what the hell, "Boys we're going to see where uncle Tommy used to live."  They didn't really care one way or another, but I wanted to see if it was still standing.  I wanted to try to salvage something out of the trip and it was too late to head to the courthouse for records on the property.  A picture (if it was still there) would have to do.

I plugged the address into the Garmin as I sat in my illegal parking space.  It thought for a moment and then it showed me the map, asking if I wanted to go there.  I selected "GO" and watched as the highlighted map to uncle Tommy's appeared on the screen...I was sitting across the street from it!

Well, not directly across the street.  That was a fire station.  It was technically the house next to the fire station...and it was still there.  All brown and big.  I was seeing the back entrance to the building (although I didn't know it at the time).  I saw that most of the windows were boarded up and painted green.  Was it abandoned or was this just how it was supposed to be?  Why would you board up windows?

My first glimpse of Uncle Tommy's residence

I took some pictures and then decided to drive around to the front.  There really was nothing else on this entire street block except the fire station, 114 W. First Street and a CVS Pharmacy, so I cut through the pharmacy parking lot.  I realized I had been in the back of the building and that the front of the building had a business sign in front of it...

The sign in front of Uncle Tommy's house

Holy cow!  The Green Derby Cafe...an Irish pub/cafe.  I was tickled!  Had it been like this when uncle Tommy owned it?  I didn't know and it was too late for the courthouse.  More to do next year.  I went home elated.  A pretty disappointing day felt better somehow just because I had found that the place where the "whorehouse" would have been was an Irish pub.  Yeah...that sounds like a good front.  Or maybe it wasn't a whorehouse at all and he was just into gambling and booze.  Sounds like it would fit with the stories.  Maybe I should look for some arrest records.  Hmmm.

A few days later I went to Hazleton to see the Greater Hazleton Historical Society and visit the library for some microfilmed newspapers.  I found most of the obituaries I was looking for and a better one on uncle Tommy.

The Plain Speaker, 07DEC1957, pg 10

"Thomas J. Brown

Thomas J. Brown, 53, 116 West First Street, Elmira, N.Y. died yesterday of complications following a six-week's illness.

He was a native of this city and lived in Elmira for the past 30 years.

Surviving are two brothers: Edward J. Brown, vice principal of Grebey Junior High School, and Walter H. Brown, a teacher in the Philadelphia public schools.

The funeral will be held Monday morning from the late home in Elmira."

The address was a bit off, but I wasn't too concerned about it.  I knew from my mother that uncle Tommy actually owned the building he lived in and I doubted it was the CVS pharmacy.  Being the Irish pub just makes too much sense.  Could I be wrong?  Sure.  I won't know for sure until I can find other information to fill in this bit of family history.  Now I knew approximately when he moved to Elmira.  This will undoubtedly be helpful.

Sometimes, even when your day seems to suck, you get a little bit of Irish luck!

The front of the Green Derby Cafe

The side of the Green Derby Cafe where Uncle Tommy lived

The back of where Uncle Tommy lived

Wordless Wednesday - Granny was a Flapper?

Mary Ann Brown nee Quirk

OK, so I don't know if she was a flapper, but hubba hubba!  My grandma Brown was so gorgeous.  I wish I knew her!

(Don't worry Uncle Ed...I haven't forgotten about you...I still have those great yearbook photos to post!)

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!