Condy and Cecilia O'Donnell

Cornelius O'Donnell, original in possession of author

Hi everyone! I am back with more of the new stash of family photos. Today we have my  great grandparents, Cornelius O'Donnell and Cecilia Fitzpatrick. These two photo cards are side by side on a page from a "wonderful" magnetic album. I scanned the page and then cropped the photos down saving the original image. I now have each of their images as their profile on Ancestry. These photos were such a wonderful find and to have this labled right there as "Grandpop O'Donnell" was fantastic!

So lets get started with Condy. This seems to be what he liked to go by! Condy was born to Manus O'Donnell and Mary McGee, both Irish immigrants. He was born in Hazleton, Luzerne, Pennsylvania. He married Cecilia Fitzpatrick in St. Gabriel's Church, 24 July 1892. According to the marriage record Condy was a coal miner and his birthdate is 12 July 1870. Here is where I have conflicting information! I have a list of Condy and his siblings Baptism records from St. Gabriel's Church. On this record his birth date is 26 October 1871. The dates of his other siblings births match up with the date on their death certificates but I have a problem with his because of course his is the only one that does not have a birth date on it. Condy died 11 December 1909. His death certificate has his age as 37. If he was born 12 July 1870, the date on the marriage record, he would be 39. If he was born 26 October 1871, the date from the baptism record, he would be 38. So there is that dilemma, I have 3 records and each of them are different! So until I can find that miraculous record that matches one of the dates I have, His birth is an uncertainty!

Cecilia Fitzpatrick, original in possession of author

Now on to Cecilia Fitzpatrick. Cecilia was born in Ebervale, Luzerne, Pennsylvania on 10 January 1873. This date is on both her marriage record and her death certificate. I do not have a baptism record for her. Her parents were James Fitzpatrick and Ellen Tracy. Her parents were both born in Nova Scotia Canada with their parents being immigrants from Ireland and Scotland. Cecilia was the first of their children born in Pennsylvania. Her older siblings were born in Nova Scotia before they came to Pennsylvania. Cecilia and Condy had 10 children together. Three had died in infancy and after loosing her husband in 1909, her oldest son died in a mining accident in 1914. She also cared for her mother Ellen until her death in 1911. It seemed after her son Manus died in 1914 she took the rest of her children and left Hazleton and moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I think she wanted to get them away from working in the mines. But between the census records in 1920 and 1930, she moved the family back and forth between Bethlehem and Hazleton. I know my grandparents met and were married in Bethlehem in 1920 but my father was born in 1922 in Hazleton. She kept all the family together until 1930. I mean everyone, single and married, along with the grandchildren! They all moved back and forth between the two towns.  They were still together in the 1930 census in April, but during that year my grandparents moved to Philadelphia and my grandfather's sister moved her family to York, Pennsylvania. Then the other boys got married and left and her other daughter lived with her in Allentown until Cecilia died 11 July 1936. Cecilia and Condy are buried in St. Gabriel's Cemetery in Hazleton along with many of the family.Cecilia was the true Matriarch of the O'Donnell Family! One of the memories my father had told me was that she smoked a corn cob pipe! I think she was a very strong woman and I wish I had known her!

Susan VanBilliard, Obituary

Obituary, Susan VanBilliard (Haas), Allentown Morning Call, pub. 1920 01-Jan 14, pg. 8, col. 2-3, Allentown Public Library.

Last weekend I did a post about Milton Haas, my great grandmother, Susan VanBilliard's brother. The last record I have found for him is Jan 1915 and I have not found him in the 1920 Census. Susan died in Jan 1920 and I had not found an obituary for her. On Monday, during "Mondays with Myrt" we were talking about my post and trying to find a death certificate for Milton. Someone asked if I had an obituary for Susan. I had not found one before this. When the show ended I went back and looked again at the Bethlehem Library but they did not have obituaries for 1920. I know I had looked there before but went back anyway. Then I went to the Easton Library but they did not have it either. They cover that year but all I found was Oliver VanBilliard, already have those obituaries.

So I hadn't thought of it before because they lived in Bethlehem, but I thought I would try the Allentown Library for the Morning Call obituaries. And there it was was! So I ordered it and received it my email today. Well there was no mention of Milton, just saying she had two brothers surviving, David and Benjamin.  So I guess I need to keep looking for that death certificate for Milton or maybe he is going to be that elusive record that just shows up one day! One can only hope!!!!

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!!!