Sunday's Obituary - Sarah Jane Lee nee McConnell

The Pittsburgh Daily Post, 12MAR1902, pg 5

I'm continuing on with my Lee family posts. I've got a number of them in the works and hope that by preparing and sharing them I'll find that piece that links them in my tree. Even if I don't find it now I'm sure it will present itself at some point.

"LEE - On Monday, March 10, 1902, at 4:20 p.  m., Sarah Jane Lee (née McConnell), wife of Thomas Lee, in her 70th year.

Funeral from her late residence, 42 Melrose avenue, Allegheny, on Thursday morning at 8:30 o'clock. Requiem high mass at Church of the Annunciation at 9 o'clock. Friends of the family are respectfully invited to attend."

The Pittsburgh Daily Post, 11Mar1902, pg 3

"Mrs. Sarah Lee

Mrs. Sarah Lee, 73 years old, died yesterday at her home, 73 Melrose avenue, Allegheny. For some time she had been troubled with slight ills, owing to her advanced age, but was not taken seriously ill with pneumonia until Thursday. Mrs. Lee was born in Blair county, near Altoona, and came here about 50 years ago with her parents, settling in Allegheny at the time. She was soon married to Thomas Lee, who survives her besides five children."

Her obituary starts out pretty well, but then it fizzes out. We start to get a lot of information about her early life (although the names of her parents would be nice) and then she's married and has five kids. End of obit. It's like it was hurried. I know her surviving children are Frank, Edward, and Carrie Lee, Gertrude Menges, and Grace Laughlin. I know that Charles isn't mentioned here either but was in the 1880 census and then dropped off the planet. I'm assuming he died, but I haven't found anything to confirm that yet.

Another thing I noticed about the obituary is that it says she was 73 when the death notice says 70 (and her tombstone confirms 70) and it has 73 for her address when the death notice has 42 (and if memory serves me correctly this was the number in her hubby's obit too). It really adds to the sloppiness of the obituary, but I won't complain too much. I'm glad to have one at all!

Tombstone Tuesday - Thomas and Sarah Jane Lee nee McConnell

Photo taken by Bill Bodkin and added to FindAGrave by Liz Freeman.

When you've got ancestors with a surname like Lee you don't hold much hope for easy discoveries. You generally get too many results. I've been lucky recently because between the Pennsylvania death certificates going online and subscribing to Newspapers.com I was able to narrow down my search parameters enough to find the death certificates and obituaries for Thomas (past post) and Sarah Jane (future post). In those gems I saw that they were buried in Calvary Cemetery, Pittsburgh, PA. I was not only surprised to find there were memorials for both of them in the cemetery on FindAGrave, but there was a photo for their tombstones.

I was so happy when the memorials were transferred to me for care by Liz Freeman. She really made my day with that. As for the photo credit, Liz was helping Bill Bodkin to get his tombstone photos on FindAGrave and hasn't been able to get in touch with him for awhile. So I thank and credit Bill with this photo and Liz with her help getting it on FindAGrave and I hope that despite his email silence that all is well. Both of their efforts have helped this researcher with a very difficult line in her family tree.