Thursday, June 11, 2015

Obituary find


Last week I found an online index for a Pennsylvania newspaper that I didn't know about. It is the Allentown Morning Call and the index is at the Allentown Public Library. I was really excited about this. I knew that my great grandmother, Cecilia Fitzpatrick O'Donnell was living in Allentown when she died so I gave it a look. I found one for her in the index and for 5 other people. So I ordered them and asked for them to be emailed. And there they were this morning. I was so excited with this. With information that I didn't have and was able to verify that I had the right info on other things. It said that "she was the mother of 10 with 4 preceded her in death". That verified that I had not missed any, I had figured using the census records that she had two children before 1900 that had been born and died. then I know about the other 2 that had died. A little girl that was under a year old I had found when the death certificates came on line at Ancestry and her 21 year old son, Manus that died in a mining accident.
Something that was new was the married name of her sister Jane. I had not been able to find anything about her because I did not know who she married, so I had nothing after the 1880 census. But there she was, Mrs. Jeannie VanWert. so I was able to find more about her. I had found her other sister, Elizabeth, before and also her two brothers that were mentioned, Robert and John. There is still another sister and brother that I have not found anything after that 1880 census. So I will just have to keep on looking. But this was a great find!!!