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!

Wednesday's Child - Ann Brown

Ann Brown is buried with her grandparents in St. Gabriel's Cemetery, Hazleton, PA

My mother, aunt, and uncle knew that they had a sibling named Ann who died in 1950 and was buried with their grandparents, Edward and Alice Quirk nee Blanchfield. Still seeing the details in a death certificate can also make you realize just how lucky the mother was to have survived the birth. A premature breech delivery isn't optimal even today and Mary's mother died shortly after childbirth so I'm sure that was a concern. In fact my mother tells me this Mary (her mother) was obsessively worried about childbirth. When my mother had her first child they deliberately didn't let her mom know she was in labor so she didn't freak out.

You can see that Ann was not stillborn. She was born on November 20th, 1950 and lived for 2-1/2 hours. It had to have been heart-breaking. How could it not be?

Ann Brown, child of Edward and Mary Brown nee Quirk

I can't make out all the details in the cause of death, but I'm curious. If anyone else can make it out or even has an idea, please comment below. This is all I can make out and some may very well be wrong:

"Premature (8 mos) breech - (unknown) - spontaneous pressure on chord - utra uterine (unknown) to (unknown) resperatory (sic) movements no bronchial obstruction"

Ann Brown - Cause of death

It's always heart-breaking when a little life is cut short. I take today to remember my Aunt Ann. She will never be forgotten by our family.

Tombstone Tuesday - I Danced on My Ancestor's Grave

Thank you for adding your copyright to MY photo BillionGraves!

But it was all in the name of genealogy! I swear they would have approved! The dancing was unintentional. I've been stomping on the grave of Edward and Susan Lee nee Philips for years without results...I guess that doesn't sound much better.

OK. Take a look at the photo to your left. Ignore the BillionGraves copyright at the bottom right because that is MY DAMN PHOTO they copyrighted and I'll use it when and where I like! Grrrrr. Oops...sorry...back to my point. So you can clearly see the birth and death years for Edward. For Susan you can only see that she was born in 1821. The death year isn't particularly visible in the photo, but it's there and it says 1883.

This tombstone and those of my ancestors neighboring it are being eaten by the earth. Hazleton was a coal mining community back in it's heyday, but this isn't due to a subsidence. This is due to ants and lots of them! There is apparently one heck of an ant mound (or multiple mounds) right there and it has made the ground too soft for this heavy tombstone. In past years I've visited and tried pressing down the earth (ahem...stomping) with my foot to no avail. This summer my mom and I went out prepared.

I don't know why I hadn't thought of bringing a small shovel with me before. Perhaps I didn't want to look like a grave robber, but this was a hand shovel so there was no chance of anyone thinking that. This time we brought one and gloves. So I went in for what needed to be a quick operation, but there's no such thing as quick when you trod on an ant mound. That's where the dancing came in. I'd lean in and dig at some of the grass and dirt and then I'd be dancing and stomping around making sure that the ants never made it farther up my legs than my sneakers. It took a few tries, but I managed it. I snapped the photo after and made note of the year in case the photo didn't turn out well. I'm delighted I did since it didn't. I'm sure I looked quite odd to the few people in the cemetery that day, but I was finally able to get a year for Susan's death and that made it all worthwhile. Now if the tombstone sinks more or disappears entirely the picture and information will be preserved on BillionGraves, FindAGrave, in my family tree, and on my blog. Susan and Edward would approve!

Medical Monday - William Barrett's Cause of Death

William Barrett's Death Certificate

William Barrett died at the age of 36 and left behind his wife, Carrie Barrett nee Bittenbender, and three little children: Marie, William Jr, and Thomas.

The first thing that came to mind when I saw "regurgitation" was that he drank too much and vomited in his sleep. I never realized that regurgitation could be associated with the heart. Vomiting was all that I thought of. The contributory cause "ordema (sic) of lungs" seems to me like it should be edema which is fluid in the lungs.

I searched ordema of lungs just in case and Google promptly guided me to edema. That doesn't make it right, but I then decided to type in "regurgitation with edema of lungs secondary cause of death" and I got a top hit of "Mitral regurgitation." Mitral certainly looks like the first word under the cause of death here. So his mitral heart valve wasn't working properly for three months causing blood to leak back into the heart thus causing it to work harder. From what I've read on pulmonary edema it seems that it can be brought on by heart problems so the connection isn't surprising. Small leaks caused by the mitral valve not working properly aren't supposed to be a problem, but larger ones are and will weaken the heart resulting in heart failure if not treated. From the website I was reading it seems that aside from monitoring a person's condition treatment involved to repair or replace the mitral valve. Just a guess, but I don't really think that was much of an option in 1915.

As I've mentioned before with these medical posts, I'm no doctor so it's difficult for me to make even an educated guess as to what happened, but it would have been nice to know what caused the heart problem to begin with. He was being treated for it for just over three months but did he have it for much longer and it was just diagnosed late? Possible, but that's terrible luck to live with something for 36 years only to die from it right after diagnosis. A heart attack, calcium build-up, and infections such as rheumatic fever could have weakened the heart and caused the problem with the mitral valve. This certainly seems more feasible and could account for the death a few months down the road. What bothers me is that no infection or previous heart issue was listed as a contributory cause of death. To me it certainly would have been, but I don't know what they knew about the heart in 1915.

I know there is little point in wondering why the mitral issues occurred. It occurred and no amount of wondering changes that. It's cases like these when someone was taken at such a young age that I want to know why. Why did it happen and force him to leave behind three children under 5 years of age? I can't change those things, but I do tend to obsess over them and my heart always goes out to the family.

William Barrett was my 2nd great uncle. He was the son of Patrick and Bridget Barrett nee Farley. He was born on June 4th 1878 and baptized in St. Gabriel's Roman Catholic Church. He was 36 when he died as confirmed by the 1880 census and his baptismal record, not 33 as the death certificate states (without a date of birth listed). Tragedy would strike again in another 10 years.

Sunday's Obituary - Gertrude Menges nee Lee

The other night I started trying to unravel the mystery that is my Lee ancestors. Edward and Susan Lee nee Philips and their daughter Mary Quirk nee Lee are the only Lee ancestors in my tree. One newspaper clipping stuck in an old family album (dubbed "The Quirk Album") made me realize that there were other Lees from that family in the U.S.

Clipping from a family scrapbook

"Mrs. David Menges

Mrs. Gertrude A. Menges, aged 42, wife of David Menges of the Philadelphia company, is dead in he (sic) home, at 2701 Leland avenue, North Side. She was one of the oldest members of the Ladies' Catholic Beneficial association, No. 590, of the North Side and was a member of the Annunciation Roman Catholic church. She leaves her husband and five children, Lee, Vera, Hazel, Edward and Estella Menges; two brothers, Frank Lee, special police officer at Allegheny police station and Edward Lee, general manager of the Lutz & Schramm company, and two sisters, Carrie Lee, and Mrs. Grace Laughlin, all of the North Side."

The first time I saw this clipping in the album I got excited and thought that Edward Lee and my Edward Lee were one and the same. There was no date on the clipping so I figured it was possible. What can I say? I was new to genealogy when I made that deduction and was far too excited at the possible connection. My Lees were in eastern Pennsylvania, not Allegheny county. This was not my Edward.

That didn't dash all of my hopes though because the clipping was in my family scrapbook so it meant something to my Lee/Quirk ancestors. There were only a few news clippings glued into that scrapbook of photos so this being saved meant that it had to be a relation. Not a direct line, but a cousin.

Thanks to newspapers.com I was able to find an article that was 99% identical to the clipping I have. So now I know the date of publication. Mine would have been the same date or within a day or two.

Pittsburgh Daily Post, 01OCT1912, pg 2

There's some great information in this obituary. It may be short and sweet and not mention her parents names, but I've got her siblings and children. I can tell you that if you search for Frank Lee in the Pittsburgh newspapers on newspapers.com you'll find so many articles related to his service as a police officer. Not genealogically relevant, but quite interesting.

Knowing this was published in 1912 tells me that I should be looking in the Pennsylvania Death Certificates for her death record. Maybe her parents will be listed and maybe something will be familiar.

I did just that and easily found her, although there was nothing familiar in the information on there.

Parents of Gertrude Menges nee Lee

Thomas Lee and Sarah McCorel don't mean anything to me, but perhaps they will someday and it's great to have the information. I've got her date of birth now as well as her date of death. So I'll be doing some searching on Thomas and Sarah to see if any connection can be found. If it can't, well I'll keep digging.

Gertrude's death certificate lists her place of burial as N.S. Cath. Cem. I searched FindAGrave for all cemeteries in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania and there was one possible match...Christ Our Redeemer Catholic Cemetery. Why is this a match? Well it was also known as Northside Catholic Cemetery which would explain the "N.S. Cath. Cem." on her certificate and we know from the obituary that she lived on the Northside. There is no memorial for her there on FindAGrave at the time I'm writing this post, but I'll be contacting the cemetery and seeing if she is in there. I might as well ask for her hubby while I'm at it for a matching set. You can be sure that as soon as I get a positive response I'll be creating that memorial and requesting a photo of the tombstone!

So, Gertrude, you and your family are being difficult to place, but I know you belong there somewhere. I'll figure it out. Who knows...maybe some of the Lee descendants from the Pittsburgh area will find this post and be able to help me out!

Tombstone Tuesday - Robert and Ethel Turnbach

Robert Turnbach was the third of nine known children of Abraham and Mary Turnbach nee Blanchfield. He is also my first cousin twice removed. I had gotten most of my information on my Turnbach cousins from Bill Turnbach Jr., but as I continue to work through my family tree and add citations and fix errors I  also know that I need to add other sources to the family tree he gave me. I'm sure the information he gave me was correct, but good research is more than just taking what you're given. In doing just that I came across the FindAGrave memorials for Robert and Ethel Turnbach nee McQuilken in Greenwood Cemetery in Allentown. There's also a memorial for Robert in Grandview Cemetery in Allentown....and, yes, it's the same Robert Turnbach (no memorial for Ethel in Grandview, but that doesn't mean she's not buried there).

I didn't find this second memorial immediately. I found it quite accidentally. I was continuing my research on Robert and Ethel on Ancestry and checked out the Pennsylvania Veterans Burial Cards since I knew from Robert's obituary and his tombstone that he served in World War II. That record states that he's buried in Grandview.

So what do I do now? Where is he really buried? Obviously he was supposed to be buried in Grandview, but did that change? Could the memorial have been created accidentally in the wrong cemetery and the pictures placed in there? The cemetery names are similar enough that a mistake could have easily been made, but where? The best thing for me to do is to try to contact Grandview and see if Robert is buried there and if Ethel is with him. Since Ethel doesn't have a memorial in Grandview I'll wait until I get confirmation for where they are before creating one for her.

Either way I'm taking today to remember Robert and Ethel. Separated from each other too soon, but reunited again. Rest in peace.

*A very special thank you to Chuck Schubert for kind permission to post his photos of the Turnbach tombstones on my blog.

Mystery Monday - Died on Voyage

I've mentioned before that I've been working hard during the periods when I'm not in school to get through my family tree and attempt to cite and/or correct the information in there. I was rather sloppy in citing my research when I first started this addiction called genealogy about 15 years ago. While I know I'm not the only one that starts out this way it can be very frustrating when trying to clean that mess up.

So I was reviewing a post on Eugene Villers' tombstone and I included the names of his children in that post. I actually have dates of birth of each of those five children...with no citation for where I got that information. If I only had a time machine I could go back and give my younger self a piece of my mind. I have no idea where I got these dates. None. I can't recreate any search that would give me the information on Ancestry and I know that's where I would have gotten it. I did find the passenger list on the Trumbull in 1856 and it listed most everyone I had in my family tree. It did, however raise a few questions that I hope someone can help me answer.

Trumbull passenger list - Departed Antwerp, Belgium. Arrived New York, New York 22APR1856

You can see where the Eugene Villers family begins at line 113. His wife's name looks something like "Felix" but I'm actually not hung up on that. I've seen other passenger lists from Belgium where the mother's name was given as her maiden name and one where every child had it's mother's maiden name next to it. I'm not concentrating on that today though. I see Martin on line 115 and then two Maries/Marias (apparently twins and they did have different middle names), but no son for Eugene...named Eugene...like I have in my tree.

Now if you look closely squeezed in between line 119 and 120 is another Eugene Villers. At the end of the row for the person above him it says "died on the voyage." My mystery is did they squeeze this other Eugene Villers in there because they missed him by his parents? According to the unsourced information I have Eugene was born on January 19th, 1855 so he would have been an infant on the trip from Belgium. So if they were squeezing him in there and not by his parents was it because he too died on the voyage?

According to the manifest the Villers family's destination was Wisconsin, but so far I haven't been able to find them in the 1860 census. I'm certainly going to keep looking, but so far...nada. In the 1870 census this Eugene wasn't listed with his mom and dad and he would have been around 15. Mom and dad both died in the 1880s and so far the only obituary I could find for daddy-Eugene was a blurb saying he died. Only about two sentences long. I'm not hopeful about finding any other detailed obituary, but miracles do happen.

The other thing about this passenger list is that Pierre Louis Villers is missing. The unsourced information I have has his DOB being November 1853. Could Louis and Eugene be one and the same person? I'm thinking they could be especially since I did such a bang-up job in failing to cite my sources. Louis is in the other census records and they were close in age. Someone could have mistaken them for two different people...or they could have been two different people (sigh).

Either way, little-Eugene seems to have disappeared after the voyage and Louis appears. If this Eugene did die on the ship were death certificates created? If they where would they be found? Eugene (jr) isn't a direct ancestor for my husband and children, but it's still a mystery and researching lateral lines can lead to important breakthroughs...and my OCD side doesn't like a mystery. What do you think?