Sunday's Obituary - Thomas Lee

Pittsburgh Daily Post, 26APR1906, pg 12

Last Sunday I shared an obituary for Gertrude Menges nee Lee. In that post I also shared the discovery of her parents' names. As I'm trying to discover the connection between the Lees of Pittsburgh and my Lees of Jeanesville, Pennsylvania I figured tackling her father, Thomas, this week would be a great way to continue.

Searching on Newspapers.com for "Thomas Lee" and narrowing it down to Pennsylvania and the Pittsburgh papers I was able to quickly find a death/funeral notice as well as an obituary.

"LEE - On Wednesday, April 25, 1906, at 5:30 a. m. at the family residence, 42 Melrose avenue, Allegheny, Thomas Lee, in his 78th year.

Funeral on Friday morning at 8:30 o'clock. Solemn high mass of requiem at the Church of the Annunciation, Charles street, at 9 a. m.  Friends of the family are respectfully invited to attend."

Short and sweet and it gives me his death and burial dates and locations to add to my tree...when I can add him to my tree. The death notice was nice, but the obituary was better.

Pittsburgh Daily Post, 27APR1906, pg 4

"Thomas Lee, 78 years old, of Allegheny, is dead at the family residence, 42 Melrose avenue, after a short illness of pneumonia. Mr. Lee was born in the parish of Drumgool, County Cavan, Ireland, and came to Allegheny in 1844, where he had since resided. He was married to Miss Sarah Jane McConnell, who died several years ago. Mr. Lee was a charter member of the Church of the Annunciation, Charles street, Allegheny, and a member of St. Vincent De Paul society, and also of the society's church committee.

He is survived by two sons, Frank and Edward Lee, and three daughters, Miss Carrie, at home; Mrs. James Laughlin, of Washington, D. C., and Mrs. David Mangis (sic). The funeral will be held this morning at 8:30 o'clock. High mass of requiem will be celebrated at the church of the Annunciation, and interment will be made in Calvary cemetery."

The obituary was broken into two columns in the newspaper so I had to merge them together to look all pretty. Some things of note in the obituary was that Thomas and Sarah's son, Charles, is missing. He was in the 1880 census, born between Edward and Gertrude. He also was the best man at Gertrude's wedding to David Menges (that's in a future post). I'm assuming he died before his dad, but I haven't been able to find any obituary yet. There could be other reasons for him to not be mentioned, but death is the most obvious.

Thomas Lee's death certificate

I didn't know that Grace Laughlin and her family were in Washington D.C. This obituary will make it a little easier to try to find them in census records. I don't know if they stayed there or not, but it is a starting point. Also from this obituary I get a better maiden name for Sarah than I did from Gertrude's death certificate. "McCorel" just didn't look right and now I know it was McConnell. I have a possible year of emigration as 1844, but in the 1900 census he lists 1846 which I'm more inclined to believe because my Edward Lee listed 1846 as well. It's not confirmation, but it's one heck of a coincidence!

That last glorious tidbit..."parish of Drumgool, County Cavan, Ireland" is enough to really excite me. My mother had mentioned that she thought some of her Irish ancestors were from County Cavan, but couldn't remember which ones. If this Thomas and Edward Lee are related (and right now I'm thinking brothers) then Edward was from the same place. Now that parrish records for Ireland are going online I may be able to find them. Edward's death certificate listed his parents as "unknown" so I'll have to try to find other records to connect them as brothers.

On Thomas' death certificate I see his parents listed as Michial (sic) Lee and Catherine Brody. Those names aren't familiar to me, but hopefully I'll come across them again in the future as I try to figure this out!