52 Ancestors Challenge Week 26: "Identity" - Great Grandpa Almond Desjardins or Albert Gardner

In general my family lines possess rather short surnames, easily pronounceable by those of English extraction. Hell, most of them are English in origin. I don't see a lot of Anglicizing in my family tree. 

Looking at my great-great grandparents and their surnames, most of them don't even have more than 6 letters to them. There is Earle, Samms, Losee, Henry, Hinch, Sauer, Gray, Smith, Sharp, McLean, Fay, Joyce, Prince. Oh, ok, there is Krantzel! 8 letters in that one. Through generations Krantzel was cut down from Krantzlein. I guess that is Anglicized but then there is Desjardins. 

Desjardins became Gardner. Yeah, not even close in spelling but rather its Anglicization was based on its meaning. If you have taken high school French you can probably tell Desjardins means "from the gardens." Likely that means that somewhere back in time I descend from some Frenchman with a green thumb. 

Any of you reading this who are Canadian will probably associate the name Desjardins with different green stuff - - money! Although, Canadian money comes in an array of colors really. The Desjardins Group is a Canadian federation of financial services and credit unions, the largest in North America. It was founded in 1900 in Lévis, Quebec by a man named Alphonse Desjardins. I have Alphonse Desjardins in my family tree. That was my great grandfather's brother's name. Likely no relation to bank founder though. I mean not close enough a relation to think they are just going to give me money without expecting it to be paid back with interest.

My great-great grandfather, Damas Desjardins, came to the United States from Montreal, Quebec, Canada in the early 1880s. I don't have any information about his immigration but according to my great-great grandmother's naturalization papers, the couple married on May 14, 1884 in New York City, so Damas was in New York before then.

In Damas's obituary from the Patchogue Advance in October of 1911 it states that "Mr. Desjardins was known to his friends here by the name of Gardiner, an Anglicization of his French family name."

His son, my great grandfather, also used Gardner as his surname. However, I do believe my great grandfather used his names to play with his identity. 

Great grandpa was born Almond Desjardins in Long Island City, Queens County, New York on September 21, 1891. He died on February 11, 1946 in the same county but known as Albert Gardner. 

There seems to be no official documentation of a legal name change for him which, based on the time period is not surprising. Names could be pretty fluid back then before Social Security. Lack of official documentation of the name change has also resulted in lots of confusion including a fellow genealogist who handing me a photocopy stating, "This article is about you great grandfather." Well sure the subject of the article, dragged into court for abandonment of his wife and children, had the same name as my great grandfather but my great grandfather died 2 years before that newspaper article was printed.  She whipped that paper out of my hand and tore it up with a besmirched look on her face. Sorry, not my Al.

The first record I have for great grandpa is the 1900 U.S. Federal Census in which he is recorded as Almod Desjirdins living at 332 Hopkins Avenue in Queens, NY. The street no longer exists by that name but I believe it was in the Astoria section of Queens.

I discovered several newspaper articles from 1906 & 1907 in which great-grandpa's early brushes with the law are described in detail. Here he is identified as A. Gardner, Almond Gardener, and Almond Gardner.

December 19, 1906

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Astoria Pastor Robbed

Sneak Thieves Raided the Parsonage and Stole All the Children's Christmas Gifts

With the rounding up of gangs of hoodlums in the Astoria section of Long Island City comes the news of the robbery on Sunday night of the home of the Rev. W. L. Darby, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, in that place. It was while Pastor Darby was conducting services in his church, a short distance from his home, at Franklin street and the Boulevard, that the culprits got into the house through a kitchen window. All the family were at church and the intruders were free to ransack the house.

Among the articles carried off was a bundle of Christmas presents which the pastor and his wife had purchased for their children, relatives and friends. In their search, however, they overlooked $20 in cash which was in a bureau drawer which they rifled.

More than a dozen robberies have occurred throughout that section within the past month, and they all bear the impress of the sneak thief. In consequence sundry gangs that loiter around the village with no visible means of support are gradually being placed out of the way of temptation for the winter, and five more suspects were added to the bunch yesterday when police rounded up and captured A. Gardner, 16 years old, of 92 Sanford street; James Kidney, 16 years old, of 50 Mills street; Frank Donnelly, 15 years old, of 140 Broadway; James Sullivan, 20 years old, of 137 Ridge street, and Nicholas Donato, 15 year old, of Ridge street. This crowd had quit their homes and were living in an old building owned by the Joseph Wild Rug Company. They were charged with trespassing ad were held until their recent prowlings can be investigated.

November 8, 1907

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Patchogue Lad in Trouble

He is Charged with Stealing Brass from Vacant Houses in L.I. City

Almond Gardener, 16 years old of Patchogue L.I. was arrested by the Long Island City police last night, and back of his arrest is an interesting story.

Young Gardener comes of a good family. He has an industrious brother living in Long Island City, and when he left Patchogue several days ago, he took up his residence with that brother. On Wednesday night two unoccupied frame houses, 86 and 88 Main street, Long Island City were broken into and damage done to the extent of $200. The damage was due to the desire of the marauders to get possession of certain pieces of brass in the plumbing work.

Unfortunately for the guilty parties, their first visit to the buildings resulted so successfully that they returned last night, and one of them was caught. The prisoner described himself as Almond Gardener of Patchogue. As Detectives Hufman and Ebbers of the Astoria Precinct have discovered where the brass pieces were sold for 55 cents, they expect to arrest Gardener's companion.

The police say that about a year ago Gardener and another boy names James Kidney were found sleeping in buildings near the rug works in Astoria. They were arrested and committed to the Catholic Protectory. Mrs. Gardener finally got her boy out of the institution and also succeeded in having his companion released. The Gardener family had resided in Astoria but moved to Patchogue before the boys were let out. They were taken to Patchogue from the Protectory, but after behaving themselves for about four months, the pair cut loose. Kidney was the first one to incur the displeasure of Mrs. Gardener and he was sent away. In three weeks young Gardener packed up his grip and started out to find a place with more life and go in it, and now he awaits the action of the courts.

November 8, 1907

Brooklyn Daily Star

Gardner Fell From Grace

Patchogue was too Slow so he came back to L.I. City

And got into trouble again - charged with burglary in Astoria

Tale of a big-Hearted Mother who tried to reform two bad boys and what came of her efforts

 

About thirty cents in cash and the prospect of a term in some penal institution is the reward Almond Gardner gets for taking the leading part in a burglary in Astoria on Wednesday night that resulted in theft of over $35 worth of lead pipe and plumbing fixtures and damage to the building which $100 will not pay for.

 

Gardner is the lad who was sent away to the Catholic Protectory in Manhattan about a year ago because he and another boy, James Kidney, persisted in sleeping out night in the stables and outhouses, rather than stay in the soft, warm beds that their homes provided

 

Gardner comes ...illegible... the good influence of a comfortable home, and seems to prefer the excitement of the under-world to obeying his parents.

After he had been in the Protectory for a few months, his folks moved from Astoria to Patchogue, and his mother, thinking that life in a country village would offer fewer temptations to evil doing, managed to ensure his release from the institution.

 

Took Both Boys Home

 

When she went over to Manhattan to get her boy, her attention was attracted to young Kidney, who looked pale and emaciated as the result of his confinement. Her mother heart was touched and she begged to be allowed to take Kidney home with her too. Kidney has no mother having been living with an aunt.

 

She took both boys with her to Patchogue and set to work to reform them. Kidney lasted about four months before he fell from grace. He could not stain the strain any longer, so he stole from his benefactor and fled out into the alluring world.

 

Gardner Lasted Longer

 

Gardner clung to the paths of rectitude with commendable tenacity up to about three weeks ago. Then he begged to be allowed to come to Long Island City to visit his brother who lives on Eighth street. Once here he became fascinated with the old life again, and began to consort with evil companions.

 

The climax came when he and another boy, wo has not yet been arrested, tore boards off one of the rear windows of the houses at 86 and 88 Main street and forced an entrance. They tipped out all the lead pipe they could carry and took away six sewer traps. This stuff they sold to a junk dealer for fifty-five cents, It cost new about $25. A plumber will probably charge over $100 to repair the damage.

 

Not content with this escapade, the boys came back later on to get more loot but they were frightened away. Detectives Hufman and Ebers were put on their trail with the result that Gardner was caught Thursday evening.

 

He readily confessed to the part he played in the burglary and said that it was no use for him to try to be good, anyway. He was arraigned in the Fifth street police court this Friday and held for the Grand Jury at $1000 bail.

 

December 21, 1907
Brooklyn Daily Star

 

Sing Sing for John Miller
Long Island City Man who Swindled Magnus Larsen sent up on Suspended Sentence - Five Other Given a Chance to Reform

 

County Judge Burt Jay Humphrey was very lenient with all but one of the six men who were brought before him this Saturday for sentence. Suspended sentences were handed out as Christmas presents to Henry Purse, Frank Schowsky, Almond Gardner, Joseph Daley and Joseph Casenza, and it may be safely said that few Christmas remembrances found in stockings of Santa Claus' large array of friends will be appreciated more than these tokens of judicial leniency.

...

Almond Gardner, a former Astoria boy whose folks now live at Patchogue took a quantity of lead pipe and brass sewer traps from a house belonging to George B. Ruthman on Main street last November. He is only seventeen years old and promised to behave.

... 

 

As mentioned in the above articles, by the 1910 census, the family has moved out of the city to Patchogue, Long Island in Suffolk County, New York. Here with the household, great grandpa is listed as Elman DesGardin.

On June 5, 1917, great grandpa registered for the WWI draft out in Kansas City, Missouri where he is registered as Albert Gardner. I know it is him because the birthdate matches, it states he was born in New York, and he was known to be a painter. Also by 1917, his father, Damas, was deceased and thus he would have likely been financially supporting just his mother.

After finding his WWI Draft Registration, I went looking for other military documents and I came across one that is out of sync with this timeline I am building but perhaps significant to understanding of his character and development of identity.

This record is from the U.S., Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914 on Ancestry.com. It shows an Albert Gardner who enlisted in the U.S. Army on November 19, 1910 who was from New York and was 21 years and 1 month old at the time of his enlistment. My Albert would have been 19 years and 1 month on November 19, 1910 but I still think it may be him in this record because it indicates he was in the 3rd Calvary which is what I think it says on his WWI Draft Registration Card above. However, this record shows he was dishonorably discharged from Ft. Sam Houston in Texas on July 17, 1911. I don't know what all the notations below mean but maybe someone reading this does.

During the enumeration of the1920 census, I think he may have been residing in Oklahoma City, OK as I have found an Albert Gardner of the appropriate age listed as a printer at an office. The penmanship is rough and perhaps he was still actually working as a painter.

By September 1922 he is back in New York where he marries my great grandmother, Mary Elizabeth "Mayme" Sharp on September 5.

If you examine the above image closely, great grandpa reports his name to be Albert Gardner. His father was recorded as Thomas, not Damas Desjardins. Damas sounds like Thomas. Albert's mother is listed as Mary Desjardine although her real first name was Malvina and her maiden name was Ethier. I wonder if these errors are a result of the clerk's confusion or was it that Albert/Almond was reporting what he thought would be easiest for the clerk to record. I mean really, what did the clerk need to know. The couple did not have to produce documentation to verify these details. So it says Mary. Whateve...

From that point forward, including the 1925 New York State Census, and 1930 & 1940 U.S. Federal Census records, I only see him recorded as Albert Gardner. In all those records he is, married with children, living in Queens County, New York.

I discovered that at the time of his death on February 11, 1946 he was a resident of Creedmore Hospital, an institution for the mentally ill, in Queens, New York. He died of a heart attack but according to his New York City Death Certificate he was a resident of the hospital due to a diagnosis of schizophrenia. 

Schizophrenia is a very serious disease that involves far more than just hallucinations and talking to people that aren't there, which is so often how it is depicted on television and in movies. However, I wonder if the fluidity of his name throughout his lifetime was really just a result of the family's interest in Anglicizing their names to sound more American or if the name changes had something to do with his brush with the law or his general mental well-being. 

Often with the fluidity of name comes the question of how to record someone, by their birth name or by the name they went by. Personally, I believe a person should be recorded by the name they chose to go by with the researcher's awareness that their subject may appear with different names in their records.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 25: "Broken Branch" - Intergenerational healing and mental health

If a "broken branch" has anything to do with estrangement, I guess I'd have to look at my maternal side of my family tree. Generation after generation of my mother's lines have siblings lobbed off the tree and excommunicated for a number of real or imagined transgressions.

My mother does not speak to any of her daughters. Neither of her sisters, my aunts, speak to me. My grandfather's sister excommunicated him for reasons I am unsure of. My mother's maternal grandfather had little to nothing to do with his sister because she married a man who was of Chinese extraction. 

All of these behaviors are completely the opposite of what I see historically on my father's side of my tree. There, in almost every census, some wayward relative is lodging with my direct ancestors; unwed brother-in-laws, cousins, nieces, nephews, cousin's cousin's kids, etc., etc., etc. For awhile, my father housed my mother's niece. I suppose she was his niece too, he certainly considered her his niece, but at the time she lived with us my parents were long divorced. Dad took her in without a second thought.

Now one might think, surely I have followed my father's unquestionable, more loving example or that at the very least that I have acquired some balance between these behaviors in my own life but instead, I feel as though I live at both extremes. Hell, I don't speak to my step-brother from my father's second marriage. I have my reasons. And, yet several of my cousins I count among my very best friends. I am both "Sure, you need help with X, Y and Z, here is my last nickel. Let me drive you there" AND "I've had enough of your bullshit, go fuck yourself." 

Is is because I am a Gemini? Perhaps.

Or is this learned behavior from my upbringing? Could be.

Or something I've inherited in the genes? That, I don't know.

I do know that I am seeing more and more written about intergenerational and transgenerational trauma. Ya think we inherit the damage done to the generations before us? I'm not sure. I tend to lean towards the nurture side of the nature vs. nurture debate. I think we learn how to treat people from the examples around us.

Transgenerational trauma, slightly different from intergenerational drama as I understand it, is a psychological effect caused by a collective traumatic experience suffered by a group of people because of their cultural identity, ethnicity, nationality, or religious identity. The damage carries down through generations as part of the group's collective memory and shared sense of identity. For example, events like the Atlantic Slave Trade, Apartheid in South Africa, the Holocaust, colonization, etc. The list goes on and on and on. Without denial, these experience have had lasting effects on the descendants of those who experienced the event first-hand. 

Intergenerational trauma is the term applied to a single family or individual parent–child relationships, like child abuse may cause intergenerational trauma. 

Whether there is collective trauma, like the Holocaust, or interpersonal trauma, like multi-generational molestation, scientists have begun to study how both direct survivors and members of subsequent generations may develop complex post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSDs). Perhaps trauma is passed down socially through learned behaviors or perhaps, as some claim, it is passed down through stress-induced genetic modifications.

I have read all sorts of things about ancestral work or what one might call ancestral healing work. As I see it, that is a practice of spirituality in which the practitioner seeks guidance from their ancestors and honors them in return for healing between the generations. Yeah, it is a little strange to me, as is blaming my astrological sign for my behavior, though.

However, I have both experienced and witnessed some sort of healing in doing genealogy research; in learning who your ancestors were, how they lived, and the experiences they had.

I have had clients I have worked with who discover through their DNA results that they are adopted or their father is not their biological father, or perhaps that those conditions applied to a parent or grandparent, and upon pronouncement of this fact, the client produces a long, soft but audible "oh" as if it all of a sudden it all makes sense.

For example, I learned through my genealogy research that my great grandfather was schizophrenic. I found it out from his death certificate. He died of a heart attack while he was a patient in a mental asylum. 

Mental illness still has quite the social stigma about it. Maybe that is why my maternal grandpa never told me anything about his father. Discovering that detail made me better understand my grandfather's private nature. Grandpa would probably be upset with me for sharing such details but I really see no shame in it. 

I am not sure if I will reconvene with my grandpa in an afterlife or perhaps his spirit is already truly watching over me or is in my presence right now. If he is, I hope he forgives me for sharing that detail because I certainly forgive him for not sharing it.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 24: "Popular Name" - Mistaken Identities

My Mistaken Identity

I never thought of myself as having a common or popular name, April Earle, until someone reached out to me on Facebook accusing me of bullying her in high school. I have never bullied anyone in my life, well, maybe a younger sibling or two but - NO! When I asked the accuser where she went to high school she told me in Canada.

Um, je suis Américaine. 

I had never even been to that part of Canada at the time which made me wonder how many April Earles are out there? 

And then I got an email with a receipt for curtains purchased in Arizona or Colorado or Texas, I don't remember where exactly but from somewhere far away from where I live. At first I thought my credit card had been stolen. As it turns out, No, just another April Earle shopping who has an email address similar to mine thus I received her receipt. 

I thought to myself that this must be how John Smith feels all the time but it has to be more shocking for me because, again, it must happen to John Smiths all the time.

I do have Smith ancestors. Who doesn't? But in general, I don't have relatives with very common or popular names.

According to the Social Security Administration (SSA)

Looking at the statistical data provided by the Social Security Administration (SSA) in relation to baby names (https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/), I see my mom's first name was ranked 16th in the decade in which she was born as was her mother's name, Marilyn, in the decade grandma was born. Grandpa Clarence came in 30th. Dad's first name and his parents were not as popular as those on my maternal line; Dad was 111th, Grandpa Edwin was 57th, Grandma Clare was 158th but not with her spelling. 158th was Claire. Clare does not even appear on the list when spelled the same way as grandma's first name. My name was ranked 34th in the 1970s. Sorry Sister Blythe, you do not make the list. Surprise, surprise. Not a popular name ever. 

These statistics are interesting but genealogically, my family doesn't have popular names. Unlike that scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding in which the Greek father introduces all his nieces and nephews to the soon-to-be in-laws, (this is my niece Nikki, my nephew Nico, and my other niece Nicki, nephew Nico, and Diana), my family is not heavy into recycling names or naming our children after an elder. Traditionally, we don't even subscribe to traditional naming patterns.

Genealogical Statistics

Genealogically speaking, the most popular names in my family is Mary which is, according to the SSA, the most popular female name in the last 100 years. I had 2 out of 4 great grandmother named Mary. In total there are 135 Marys in my present Ancestry family tree comprised of 4002 people total. That's over 3% of my family tree.

The most popular male name in my family tree is, SURPRISE, John. I have 160 of them. That's just about 4% of my family tree. Surprisingly though, the SSA lists John as the 3rd most popular male name in the last 100 years. James and Robert out rank John. I thought for sure John would be #1.

More Mistaken Identities

Perhaps you have seen it on Ancestry as I have, someone linking your person's records to their person who happened to have the same name but it's not the same person. It doesn't necessarily mean the name was popular, though. This has happened with my grandpa, Clarence Gardner. Now again, Clarence only ranked 30th in popularity in the 1920s. It is not a totally "unheard" of name but not everyone has a Clarence among their kin. Gardner is also a fairly common surname though. Thus, I am certain Grandpa Clarence had contemporaries, unknown to him, who had the same exact name as he did; just like I have my Canadian bully. 

This logic, however, eludes the Ancestry user who I have contacted multiple times stating that they have records for their uncle that are actually my grandpa's records and my grandpa is not their uncle. Even though the email is marked read, to date no response has been sent to me, and no changes have been made to their tree. However, if they really looked and read those records they would probably come to the conclusion that there was more than one Clarence Gardner born in the mid-1920s walking around the U.S. 

Moral of the story, people, read your records. Just because they have the same name, doesn't mean it's the same person.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 23: "Mistake" - 3rd great grandparents, Lawrence & Bridget Fay

For awhile I had a cousin who lived in Saugeries, New York. Around the same time she lived there, I discovered that my maternal grandmother's family lived in Saugerties from the mid-to-late 1800s. It was a bit of surprise to me really. My maternal grandmother died before I was born. Thus, I have little family lore regarding this branch of my family. I think of them as my Irish immigrants who settled in New York City, though. But oh contraire mon frère. 

My 3rd great grandfather, Lawrence Fay (About 1829 - December 23, 1879), settled in Saugerties, Ulster County, New York, probably in the 1840s. He may have been a pre-famine Irish immigrant. I'm not sure as I have not been able to confirm his immigration date or where in Ireland he was born. 

The Great Famine occurred in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. During that time more than 1 million Irish died of starvation caused by phytophthora infestans, the fungus that invaded the potato plant; a staple of the Irish diet.

Lawrence was absolutely living in Saugerties at the time of the 1850 U.S. Federal Census. Pre-children, here Lawrence is listed with his wife, Bridget, living with a group of people that I don't know as being related.

The couple had 7 children. The oldest of which was my great great grandfather, Michael Fay (October 1852 - January 13, 1915).

I can't find much about Lawrence and Bridget's lives in Saugerties but I did find Lawrence listed in the 1880 Mortality Census, meaning he died before May 31, 1880.

If you find a relative in a Mortality Schedule you get so much information.

I have underlined my Lawrence in red but will transcribe the information as well below.

Fay, Lawrence. 
Age: 60. 
Sex: Male. 
Race: White. 

Marital Status: Married. 

Birthplace: Ireland. 

Father's birthplace: Ireland. 

Mother's birthplace: Ireland. 

Occupation: Blacksmith

Month in which the person died: December. 
Cause of Death: Chronic Bright's. 
How long a resident of the county?: 1
Place of Death: 445 W 40
Attending Physician: H.D. Joy

This information led me to a death certificate for Lawrence in the City of New York, not in Saugerties. However, his Manhattan death certificate indicates he is buried in Saugerties. In the red circle below I think it says Saugerties Ulster Co. He died on December 23, 1879 and was buried on Christmas Day. I didn't think Catholics buried on Christmas Day but the certificate says buried 25 Dec.

This find prompted me to look for his wife's, Bridget's, death certificate in the City of New York. She too is buried in Saugerties. She died on March 3, 1892.

Okay so we got this right? 

Lawrence Fay, age 60, died December 23, 1879.

Bridget Fay, age 60, died March 3, 1892.

Lookie here though. Their headstone at St. Mary of the Snows Roman Catholic Church in Saugerties, New York. That says Lawrence Fay Died 1880 aged 65 yrs Bridget Fay Died 1890 aged 60 yrs.

Mistakes were made people. Mistakes were made.

How these mistake were made I am not sure. I figure someone loved them enough to put up a stone long after this couple died and just gave the stone carver whatever information they thought they knew. Still...its a gesture of love and I am grateful there is a marker there, even if it isn't accurate.