Visiting Cemeteries

Well, today was a day off due to the holy day, and, as such, I spent a good portion of it in a cemetery. However, first stop was to the local Home Depot, where I picked up 15 small Christmas trees for some of the family graves.


First stop was to Mount Hope Cemetery, in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. This cemetery is quite old, going back to the mid-19th century and is non-sectarian. Inside the cemetery, there are large plots that have been sold to certain Jewish organizations, but are still cared for by the cemetery. The two exceptions to this are Temple Israel of New York City and the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, which run Temple Israel Cemetery and Westchester Hills Cemetery, respectively.



The office staff at Mt. Hope are usually very friendly; however, they request that you limit your research to 3/persons a visit. You can also write to them for information on as many people as you like; the only catch is that it costs money to write.



But, I was looking for information on two graves today, so I was safe. The first gravesite was for Albert Knapp, who was my great-grandmother Gertrude O'Connor's 2nd husband. He was a 30+ employee of Anaconda Wire Co. and died May 10th, 1950. Unfortunately, the cemetery told me that a stone was never put in for his grave and that there were no stones even around his plot to guide me. That was a bit disappointing. I also requested the grave location of Harold and Gertrude Jacobus. My great-great-grandmother, Katherine Tator Maund, had a sister, Grace Tator, who married Roswell Jacobus from New Jersey. Roswell and Grace had seven children, of which Harold was one. Harold died May 13th, 1976 and Gertrude died November 29th, 1993.

After walking around for 10 minutes in Section 100, I found their headstone and was quite suprised.

Not only are Harold and Gertrude buried there, but a John Jacobus is buried there as well. According to the stone, John was born in 1933 and died in 1998. Harold and Gertrude did have a son John (Jack) and I have come to the conclusion that he is the only person that this could be.

Most of my family is buried in Sec. 97, which is only a few rows down from this stone, and no one had ever seen this stone. Amazing to think that this has been overlooked for over 30 years!

I also traveled to Oakland Cemetery in Yonkers today; the writeup on that trip will be up soon.

Bryan

Stephen Johnson

Stephen Johnson was one of my maternal great-great-great-grandfathers. From the information that I have gathered about him, he was born around 1834-1835 in New York state. He grew up in Cortlandtown, New York, and married Catherine Connors/O'Connor sometime between 1860-1868. He lived in Cortlandtown until at least 1870, when he moved to Newark, New Jersey, where my great-great grandmother, Anna Johnson, was born in 1874. In 1875, the whole family moved to Yonkers, where he lived until he died.

He was a stone moulder and, I believe, he served in the Civil War. While I was just beginning this research, I came across the obituary of my grandmother's aunt, Anna L. O'Connor (my great-grandmother Gertrude Knapp's sister). In the obituary, it mentioned that she belonged to the Ewing Circle of the Ladies of the G.A.R. After doing some research, I found out that to be a member of the Ladies of the G.A.R., you had to be a blood descendent of a Union veteran. After getting more obituaries and other paperwork, I found out that Anna Johnson, Elizabeth Johnson (her sister) and Elizabeth (Waldron) Powers Linehan (the daugther of Elizabeth) were all members of this same circle.

One day over the summer, I was walking in St. Mary Cemetery when I came across a government stone. There was a G.A.R. flag holder in front of the stone and the name on the stone was "Stephen W. Johnson." Below is a photo of the stone:

For this stone being 107 years old and most likely not having people coming to visit it in 70 years, it has faired quite well. While I was at the Archives on Wednesday, I got his burial card for the Works Progress Administration and it had some valuable information. For one, it showed his date of death as April 10, 1900, not April 12 as his stone says. April 12 was actually his burial date. I went to the Library today and was able to find this write-up on his death (This is from the April 10, 1900 edition of the Yonkers Statesman):

Stephen Johnson, a member of Kitching Post, G.A.R., died at his residence, 137 New School Street, this morning of pneumonia.

Unfortunately, it isn't as long as I would have liked it to be, but it is better what I had, which was nothing. I then looked up the Kitching Post of the G.A.R. and found out that their papers are held at the U.S. Army Military History Institute in Carlisle, PA. I sent them an e-Mail request on Thursday and have yet to hear back.

That's it for now on Stephen Johnson. Unfortunately, I have almost no information on my great-great-great grandmother, Catherine. Hopefully, I can find something out on her soon.

Westchester County Archives

Well, today was another research day. I spent over three hours at the Westchester County Archives in Elmsford. The staff there was very helpful and I was able to get a lot accomplished.

I received:
- 2 WPA Cemetery Veteran Cards
- 1 Letter of Administration
- 21 Marriage Licenses

I was also able to find out 2 dates of death from the information I got at the Archives: Stephen Johnson, my great-great-great grandfather and Christine O'Connor, my great-grandmother's sister-in-law.

I wanted to look up many more wills, but did not have enough time, unfortunately. I was able to find marriage licenses for Elizabeth Johnson WALDRON, my great-great grandmother's sister, 3 siblings of my great-grandmother and many other cousins.

More later.

St. Mary Cemetery

St. Mary's Cemetery is probably the best office I have had dealings with. Before I went to the Yonkers Public Library, I was able to receive a list of interments for the three plots I was interested in. For the first plot, the O'Connor plot, I found there were 10 persons buried there, plus 2 cremeted persons. The plot was bought December 23, 1922 by Annie O'Connor:

John Edward O'Connor, Jr. (burial: December 26, 1922)
Anna J. O'Connor (burial: July 17, 1930)
John Edward O'Connor, Sr. (burial: February 8, 1938)
Anna L. O'Connor (burial: April 24, 1939)
Joseph L. O'Connor (burial: October 21, 1957)
Harold E. O'Connor (burial: June 3, 1964)
Rocco Bevilacqua (burial: November 4, 1964)
Kathleen O'Connor Bevilacqua (burial: July 27, 1977)
Gertrude O'Connor Knapp (burial: March 4, 1980)
Evelyn O'Connor Coughlin (cremeted: July 1988)
Dorothy O'Connor Johnson (cremeted: September 1994)

Now, if you counted correctly, you notice that there is only 11 people listed above. The 12th person listed in the interment list is listed only as "child." From what I gathered, this child was the infant son of Dorothy Johnson, who died in the hospital. This was sometime in the early to mid 1930s.

The O'Connors are the family of my maternal great-grandmother, Gertrude O'Connor Knapp. She was born October 11, 1904 and was married September 20, 1923, in New York City, to Roy Maund. They had two children, Doris and, my grandmother, Audrey. They were divorced sometime in the early 1930s and Gertrude remarried in 1938 to Albert Knapp. They had two children, Patricia and John. Albert died May 12, 1950 and Gertrude was a widow until she died.

Gertrude's parents were Anna Johnson and John Edward O'Connor. They were married in 1891 and had 17 (yes, 17) children. Four of those children are believed to have died shortly after birth. The children were, oldest to youngest, John, Joseph, Ella, Anna, Kathleen, Edna, Elizabeth, Harold, Gertrude, Evelyn, William, Dorothy and Rita.

Library Research Yesterday

Well, today I was unable to get any research done, but yesterday I went for a trip to the Yonkers Public Library. The Reference Dept. there is great, with their microfilm collection a great resource for those with family in the Yonkers area.

The newspapers they have include:

Yonkers Gazette (1857-1893; not fully complete)
Yonkers Statesman (1864-1932; early issues were a weekly publication)
Yonkers Herald (1891-1932)
Herald Statesman (1932-1998)
The Journal News (1999-present)
New York Times (1862-present)

They also have a rather large collection of Yonker City Directories, ranging from the 1860s.

I will be posting my findings from the library later today. Check back!

First Post

Hi everyone, welcome to my blog about my family genealogy. My name is Bryan Healy and I am currently researching these family lines: Johnson, Ball, Waldron, O'Connor, Schmidt, Maund, Bloomer, Brettel, Lutz, Tator.

Most of my family lived in Yonkers, Manhattan, Nassau County and Brooklyn, so if you think that you have information that could help, please let me know!