Sunday's Obituary-Captain John VanBilliard

Captain John VanBilliard

7 April 1803-12 Sep 1875

I am posting about two of the obituaries published about one of my Paternal 3rd Great Grandfathers. The first, from Bethlehem's Daily Times, was published the afternoon after he died. It is only the first paragraph of what went on to be his entire life story. I just think the language is so noteworthy. The second one I just found on Genealogy Bank. It was published 14 Sep 1875 in the New York Commercial Advertiser. They seemed to publish the obituaries of "Prominent Men" from everywhere in "The Death Roll"

Obituary.

Capt. John Van Billiard.

It becomes our painful duty to day to announce to our readers the death of Capt. John Van Billiard, one among the oldest and highly esteemed burghers of the borough of Freemansburg. The event, which will be unlooked for, and the sad intelligence will be received by hosts of acqnantances with mingled feelings of sorrow and regret, took place at the old homestead, the well known hostelry, The Eagle Hotel, Freemansburg, At 7:15 last (Sunday) evening.

Captain John Van Billiard, a prominent citizen of Freemasburg, died at his residence at a quarter past seven o'clock P.M. Sunday. The deceased was injured six years ago by a spirited horse and never thoroughly recovered.

Tombstone Tuesday-Susan Haas VanBilliard

Susan Haas VanBilliard

31 May 1866 - 10 Jan 1920

On Saturday I wrote about my Great Grandmother, this is her headstone

Surname Saturday-Susan Haas

Susan Haas is one of my paternal greatgrandmothers. She was born 31 May 1866 in Altoona, PA to Henry Haas and Sarah Nuspickle(how is that for a name?). She was the 8th of 9 children and the only girl. I don't know how long the family stayed in Altoona but the 1870 census has them in Bethlehem, PA. In the 1880 census she is 16 and "at home". I am sure she is very busy because this says that her mother and younger brother, Milton, have scarlet fever.



In 1885 Susan marries George VanBilliard. The notice in the paper was very simple:


"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"



The 1900 census has George and Susan living in Easton, PA, a neighboring town to Bethlehem. Living with them is Susan's widowed Mother, Sarah. Susan's father, Henry, had died 11 Feb 1888.They have 7 children at the time of the census, with Irwin being the youngest. My grandmother, Elizabeth, was born 1 Nov 1900 so they had 8 by the end of the year 1900. Irwin died 24 Jun 1902. In 1903 Margaret was born.



In 1910 they are back in Bethlehem, South Bethlehem to be exact. They have have 5 of the children still at home.



The 1920 census was enumerated on the 6/7 of January. They were still in South Bethlehem with 4 of their children at home. They also had a 4 year old grandson living with them. But this was a sad time. Susan was sick with Lukemia and she died 10 Jan 1920.

Wordless Wednesday-out in the snow

I thought this picture would do today with the snow falling outside. My Grandfather, James J. McCarry, Sr, out in the snow in Saranac Lake, NY

SNGF-Your Very Best 2010 Research

It's Saturday Night again(I know, you just celebrated New Years Eve - are you home for the night?-- Time for some Genealogy Fun (what else is there?)!!

Your mission, should you decide to except it, is to:

1) Decide which of your (many?) genealogy research adventures was your "very best" (your definition).

2) Tell us about it in a blog post of your own, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Status report or comment on Facebook.

Here's mine:

It has to be one of the two "brick walls" the I have broken down in the last part of the year.
My great grandfather, Emil Gunther, has been like the invisible man to find anything about. Along with his wife. I started checking around in Family Search and the records they recently microfilmed from Philadelphia, PA. My grandmother had always said that her mother died when she was little, so I thought it might have been before 1915. The death records they had are up to 1915. So I started looking and I found her death certificate. She died in 1914. This gave me her parent's names and her death information. I found that she is buried in the same cemetery as her daughter. So I went to the cemetery with the hope that in the records I would find that her husband, Emil would be there also. My grandparents were married in 1920, so I figured that he died after that. Well I lucked out big time! Not only did I find that Emil died in 1924, but also buried with them is my grandparents' first child that had died in 1922 at 10 months old. I had known about him but had no information until now. I have ordered and am still waiting for death certificates from PA for both Emil and "Baby James". So I would say this was a great research adventure for 2010!

Wordless Wednesday-Day in the Park, Bethlehem, PA

David W. O'Donnell (my grandfather) in a park in Bethlehem, PA in 1920

Blog Caroling

Christmas music is my favorite music. When I was growing up and going to Catholic School, my favorite time was when we started singing the Christmas Carols. I think my favorite was " Come all ye Fathful" or the Latin, "Adeste Fideles". the best part was singing the chorus and getting louder with each verse.

This is from Google:The text to the Carol O Come All Ye Faithful was originally written in Latin (Adeste Fideles) and was intended to be a hymn, it is attributed to John Wade, an Englishman. The music to O Come All Ye Faithful was composed by fellow Englishman John Reading in the early 1700s. The tune was first published in a collection known as "Cantus Diversi" in 1751. In 1841 Rev. Frederick Oakley is reputed to have worked on the familiar translation of O Come All Ye Faithful which replaced the older Latin lyrics "Adeste Fideles".

O Come All Ye FaithfulJoyful and triumphant,

O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.

Come and behold Him,Born the King of Angels;

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,Christ the Lord.