More photos~David O'Donnell & Elizabeth VanBilliard

David and Elizabeth O'Donnell, original in the possession of author

Back again with photos and stories about my family. This is a photo of my paternal grandparents, David O'Donnell and Elizabeth VanBilliard. We have very few photos of my grandfather and I knew there was a resemblance to my dad from the other photos, I did a real double-take when I saw this for the first time the other day. I thought it was my dad at first it looks just like him! I am not sure but I think my dad could be the baby my grandmother is holding. 

David William O'Donnell was born 8 March 1898 in Hazleton, Luzerne, Pennsylvania to Cornelius O'Donnell and Cecilia Fitzpatrick. He was baptized 13 March 1898 in St. Gabriel's Church. David was 19 in May of 1917 and I remember my grandmother saying that he had lied about his age to serve in WW1. The first indication of this was when I took a photo of his military headstone and noticed that his birth year was 1889 instead of 1898. Looked like they had a dyslexic engraver. I asked my dad about it and he said he had never noticed it. I even called the veterans association. They said they get the information from the death certificate, but the death certificate had the correct date! When the applications for military headstones and compensation files came on Ancestry I had my answer. He had lied about his age and it was different on all these forms. His age on entering the Army was anywhere from 21 to 28. But he did serve and he was discharged 28 Feb 1919. This photo always hung in my grandmother's living room.

David O'Donnell, original in possession of author

After the service he drove trucks for a living. On 6 November David married Elizabeth VanBilliard in Bethlehem, Northampton, Pennsylvania. In 1930 David and Elizabeth and their 4 children moved to Philadelphia.  Living in Philadelphia David drove truck for The Bulletin, a Philadelphia newspaper. The family had 2 more children after moving to Philadelphia, the last in 1941. David died 26 April 1947 and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Pennsylvania

Elizabeth VanBilliard, original in the possession of author

 This is Elizabeth VanBilliard. Elizabeth was born 1 November 1900, to George VanBilliard and Susan Haas. She was second to the youngest of 9 children with her sister Margaret born about 18 months after Elizabeth. Her brother Irwin was a couple years older than she was but he died the same month Margaret was born, he was 3 years old.

VanBilliard family, original in the possession of author

This is a photo of George VanBilliard with his daughters Elizabeth and Margaret. In this copy of the photo Elizabeth wanted all to know which one was her having put an arrow and"me" printed over her head.

When Elizabeth married David William O'Donnell it was in the rectory of Holy Infancy Church in Bethlehem. David was Catholic but Elizabeth was not and in those days the wedding could not take place in the church which is why it took place in the rectory. Elizabeth did convert to Catholicism and she was a very devout Catholic.  They moved to Philadelphia in the later part of 1930. While taking care of her family she did take on extra jobs. I have a ledger of her's where she kept track of Laundry she did for people. She also did house cleaning for people after David died. She later worked for Merkel Medical Supply, a store in Center City Philadelphia, cleaning the store. They loved her there and she worked there into her 70's. Another strong woman, like her mother-in-law, who took care of her family. Elizabeth died 15 May 1985, a little over 5 months from her 85th birthday. She is buried with her husband in Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Pennsylvania. I would like to close this with a funny story my Aunt Marie told  a few years ago. We all heard the stories growing up that our grandfather made beer in the bathtub but Aunt Marie told of the time that Elizabeth was mad at David for something and she threatened to pull the plug in the tub! I just love that. She was little but mighty!

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!!!!

The Ever Elusive George VanBilliard

This past weekend was going to be a busy one. On Saturday I was going to the Family History Event in Luzerne County Pennsylvania. It was a joint event by the Genealogical Society of PA and Northeast PA Genealogical Society. So I thought I would go up on Friday and get some research done. I mostly wanted to get a marriage record for my Great Grandparents, George VanBilliard and Susan Haas. I have a transcription of their newspaper announcement in the Bethlehem newspaper.

  "Bethlehem Daily Times: Name[Van Billiard, George Name[Haas, Susan Beckel_Index[George Van Billiard of South Bethlehem MARRIED Miss Susan Haas of Bethlehem, September 19, 1885 in Bethlehem by Reverend Isaac K. Loos"

 I called the Northampton County Orphan's Court in Easton last week to see if I needed to order the record ahead of time but was told that I could just look for the record when I got there. Problem was that when I got there on Friday, I was told that they were having computer problems and they were going to be shut down in 15 minutes for 2 hours so we had to hurry. So the person helping me went over to the index book to see if they had the record but they did not. When I told her about the newspaper announcement saying they were married in Bethlehem she said that maybe they went to Lehigh County since a part of Bethlehem is in Lehigh County. She gave me their number to call them. I told her that I wanted to see if they had my grandmother's birth record. She pulled out the book it should be in but did not find her in 1900. She did find her sister that was born in 1902. So she took the information to put that in the computer quickly so I could get a copy of that. While she was putting it in the computer I did a transcription of the record. She was able to get it in and get me a copy before the computers went down. The transcription is:

  "book 2 page 276, Register of Births of Northampton County. Date of Record: December 11, 1902, Name of Child: Margurette VanBilliard, Date of Birth: June 14, 1902, Female, White. Place of Birth: South Bethlehem, Father of Child: George VanBilliard, Mother of Child: Mrs. George VanBilliard"

Well it is good that I did the transcription because when I got the record home and looked at it real well, in her hurry she put the year of the recorded date as 1903 instead of 1902.

 So after the court house I stopped at the Signal Museum in Easton. The Northampton Genealogical Society is in the Museum. I wanted to see what information they might have on the VanBilliards. As it turned out I had lots more information then they have and it was decided that I should write up what I have and get it to them for their family files.

 I still have so much more I need to find out about all my VanBilliards and like George, they do not make finding things easy! So I will keep on hunting down the facts.

Finding More Family in the 1940 Census

So last week I found both of my parents families last week in the census. What next? I have been doing some indexing, but I wanted to find some more family!

I went looking for my grandfather's aunt, Aunt Katie Taylor. I knew where they were in 1930 and I thought that was the house that I remembered. But when I went there in 1940, someone else was renting that house in North Philadelphia. And I could not find them in the 1950 directory. So that one will have to wait. I have ordered the death certificates for Aunt Kate and Uncle Joe from Pennsylvania. That should give me the address I need, I hope!

So then yesterday I looked for my grandfather's uncle, Uncle Patrick McCarry. I thought he and his wife Fanny would still be in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia. They were still at the same address 149 and 1/2 Walnut Lane. Patrick is found working with sea food in a private business.

Then I remembered my Dad's notebook from when he was in the army(WWII). I knew that he had some address in there so he could write to some of his aunts and uncles. Well this took me to looking in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I had not been looking outside of Philadelphia before this. So first I found Aunt Jane and Uncle Joe O'Leary. He was a Fuller Brush Man. I remember when we were little going there and he would give us samples of things. It was cool!!!! They were living at the same address as Edmund O'Leary and his family. It looks like this is Uncle Joe's younger brother that I did not know about before. Also Aunt Jane had the supplementary questions. She was a weaver in a silk mill and this was her first marriage. She was 36 when they were married and she is 38 at the time of the census so they were married 2 years in 1940. Some more info I did not have.  Then still in Bethlehem, I found Aunt Jane and Grandpop's youngest sibling, Charles. He and his wife had her parents and brother living with them, so this gave me info for her. Charles was working at Bethlehem Steel. Then just a few streets over I found my grandmother's sister and her family, Aunt Margaret and Uncle Bill Martin. I found that he came from England. He was also working for Bethlehem Steel.  The last address was my grandfather's brother James and his family. This took me back to South Philly. James' wife, Margaret was from Austria, did not know that before! James worked as a clerk for the street railway. I do not know if that means city transit that was PTC at that time, now is SEPTA.

So I hit a goldmine of information for my O'Donnell/VanBilliard line with my finds in the 1940 census yesterday! This is so much fun! What are you finding????