Tombstone Tuesday-Gallagher/Hanf

This is the third plot at Westminster Cemetery that I found when I last visited there. this plot was owned by Timothy Gallagher. He was the father-in-law of my great grand uncle Patrick McCarry. This plot has 4 graves and this stone is across the top of the two middle ones. Rose Gallagher Hanf was another Gallagher daughter and John was her husband.

Tombstone Tuesday-Another Westminster Cemetery Grave

This is another of the graves I visited on my last trip to Westminster Cemetery a few weeks ago. I was unable to find it the first time I was there. This is a plot consisting of 8 graves. This is the only stone which is over the first two graves. It would seem that the John Carroll purchased this plot and then 6 of the graves were bought from different people and his family kept the first 2. Grave 8 was purchased by Bridget Niland and my 2nd great grandparents, John and Catherine Carr Welsh are buried there. John Welsh's mother was Catherine Niland but I do not know how Bridget and the other Nilands I have found are related to Catherine and John.  Gee what a surprise, another mystery!

Tombstone Tuesday-The Gallagher's and the McCarry's

A couple of weeks ago I received the death certificate for my great grand uncle, Patrick J. McCarry. I found that he was buried in Westminster Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. So I went there last Wednesday to find his grave and I was hoping that I would find his wife, Fannie (Frances) Gallagher, also. I had been there last year and found the plot that Fannie's father had purchased. But Patrick and Fannie are in a different plot. The other plot contained 4 graves, this one has 10 and it's owner is Sarah Kelly. The family doctor that had signed Fannie's family death certificates was J. V. Kelly living at 138 Rector Street, Manyunk, Philadelphia and the informant on the father's certificate was Mrs. J.V. Kelly of 138 Rector Street. I had suspected that one of Fannie's sisters had married the doctor and this told me more so.
This plot's graves contain of course Fannie and her husband, but also one of her brothers and also some of her sisters,  brothers in law, a sister in law and nieces and nephews. There are only stones on two of the 10 graves, this is one of them for her niece, Mary J. Gallagher. Patrick and Fannie are in the grave next to this one.
I have gotten caught up in the last week with sorting out the Gallagher's in these two plots and they are not even my direct family, just the in-laws! But I get so involved with the stories and have figure it all out before I can stop. These two families came together in Manyunk. The other McCarry siblings left that area, his older sister joined the convent, his younger sister moved to California, his brother James, my great grandfather moved to South Philadelphia. Patrick and Fannie stayed in Manyunk, most likely because of her family, but they stayed and they are all buried just across the river from where they lived.

Catherine Carr Welsh

Last week I wrote about finding the maiden name of my second great grandmother Catherine Welsh. Well I have had another week of Genealogy Happy Dances with finds for John and Catherine Carr Welsh!

I had found John's death certificate on Family Search early this year and I knew by the 1900 Census that Catherine had died prior to 1900 but could not find a death certificate for her that I could say was it. I had one contender but the address was not one I had seen so I could not prove it. But it did say she was buried in Westminster Cemetery and that is where John's said he was buried. A few months ago I found John's burial information on Ancestry using the PA Town and Church records. They include the book, Record of Interments, Westminster Cemetery Co., Philadelphia, PA. So this past Wednesday I took a ride up there to see what I could find.

I found this to be a large cemetery on Belmont Avenue in Bala Cynwyd, just on the border of Philadelphia. So I found the office and went in with my information. I also had found information that the in-laws of my great uncle Patrick McCarry, the Gallagher's, were buried here also. So I wanted to find them. the lady in the office found the card for the plot owned by Timothy Gallagher in section Eleven first. This is a lot consisting of 4 graves and it listed all the burials for the parents and some of their children. I was shown on the map that their graves were about in the middle of section Eleven. The information I had about John was that he was in section Delta. She started to show me where I could find the grave in Delta when I asked her if there was anyone with John ( since I was hoping to find Catherine). She went to find the card for that plot. it was found but there was no John Welsh in there. When I read her the information I had she said that she would look it up with the permit number. She comes back with a record of a plot with 8 graves owned by John Carroll. This was also in section eleven. I found out later that I had mistaken the 11 for ditto marks under Delta that was above. In the book they go back and forth between writing the section as Eleven and 11. Well John was in grave 8 and with him is Caroline Walsh. She thought the Walsh instead of Welsh was a misprint, I also said that his wife's name was Catherine. She said that she wanted to check something else and came back with an index card with the same grave information but the name was Catherine Walsh. She said that since I knew her name to be Catherine that I should go with this. So I found where she was buried but this only gave interment and grave numbers and I was told that she had no way of finding out the dates. And there were no markers to look at! I thanked her for her help and the information and left. Before going home I went to section Eleven and looked around but there was nothing to find.

Last night I decided to look in the Cemetery record book page by page to find her and I did. Catherine died 21 Jun 1896 and it gave her address as 2441 Cresson St., Manayunk, Philadelphia. Looking at the death certificate I had, Cresson St. was the address but the number was 4441 not 2441. There are some other differences like her age but the death date and burial date, 24 Jun 1896 match. So I now finally have her death information.

On to the next problem to be solved!

Searching for John and Catherine Welsh

Last week I was working on my ProGen assignment and was considering using my great grandmother, Bridget Welsh McCarry for the subject. It really had nothing to do with the assignment but I thought I would once again search for her father, John Welsh's death certificate. I knew that he most likely died between 1900 and 1910 because he was with Bridget and her family in the 1900 Census. They were living in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia, PA. John we listed as widowed. I have no information on his wife, Catherine's death either. I only know that she died after 1880 and before 1900. Blast that missing 1890 Census! But I was hoping that I would have the same break with them that I had in finding Catherine and Emil Gunther.

I started searching the Philadelphia Death Certificates in Family Search. There are so many John Welshs in there. I had it narrowed down because he was not with the family in the 1910 Census and also they had moved to South Philly by then. Not knowing when they made that move, I was thinking it was after he died. Well much to my surprise I found a John Welsh that was a widower that died in 1907. I opened the certificate to view so I had more information. Well he was from Ireland, good.. then I saw the street address, 1827 Manton St. Ok, check the 1910 Census quick...yes! it is the same address that Bridget and her family were living in 1910! I found him. I also had the fact that James and Bridget McCarry and family moved to South Philly before April of 1907. Don't you love when you can get some other pieces as a bonus? And I had another bonus with this. It listed his parents! John Welch and Catherine Niland. I was in Genealogy Heaven!!! Well the death certificate also told me that he was buried in Westminster Cemetery. This is located in Montgomery County, just across the river from Manayunk. I continued to search the death certificates to see if I could find Catherine. I did find a Katie Welsh. It did not say if she was married or single, but she died in 1896 so I opened it up to view. Well this did not help much. She was from Ireland, good. Of course it did not list her parents, but the address was 4441 Cresson St, Myk ( Manayunk) and she was buried in West-Minster ?Cemetery. So I have nothing to connect this Catherine Welsh to my Catherine Welsh. So my next step was to call the cemetery to see what I could find out. I gave a nice young man all the information I had and he said he would give me a call. And all week I wanted to post about this but I wanted to wait for my happy ending!!!!! Well that nice young man called me back today and I am sorry to say he could not give me my happy ending:( He told me with John Welsh being such a common name and the records from back then are so hard to read and are not indexed that he was not able to find my John Welsh. And to top it off he does not have a record of a Catherine of Katie Welsh being buried there. I thanked him for his time and help and hung up very disapointed.
So I guess I am going to have to search some more. I know I have to try connecting John with this Catherine. See if I can find him at this Cresson St address. Moving forward with the past!!! Oh also, I decided to go with someone else for my assignment!