52 Ancestors: Week 9: Conflicting Clues - The Sauer Women

I love this image. It holds considerable personal and genealogical significance, as it is said to depict three generations on my paternal grandmother’s maternal line. However, despite its sentimental value, upon closer scrutiny its labeling raises significant questions of identification. I especially question who the identity of the eldest woman on the far right.

My grandmother Clare labeled the back of this photo for me.

The three children standing in the front row are left to right: 

• William J. Sauer (February 5, 1901 - March 16, 1926)
• Joseph Sauer (May 6, 1902 - December 18, 1968)
• Anna Marie Sauer-Henry, my great grandmother, (July 19, 1899 - May 8, 1986)

The woman in the center of the photo is my great-great grandmother Agnes Frances Gray-Sauer.

The back row from left to right are as follows:

• Raymond Fitzpatrick (June 10, 1906 - October 15, 1977)
• Margaret M. Gray-Fitzpatrick (January 25, 1875 - June 20, 1968)
• Mary "Mamie" Gray (July 22, 1869 - May 24, 1929)
• Agnes Frances Gray-Sauer (October 27, 1871 - December 30, 1941)
• Elizabeth Gray (July 9, 1875 - June 9, 1970)
• Anna Hughes-Gray (November 1843 - April 17, 1904)
• Baby (unidentified)

I question the identification of the eldest woman on the far right because I know for certain that Anna Hughes-Gray died on April 17, 1904 and Raymond Fitzpatrick, the child being held on the far left was not born until June 10, 1906. If both dates are accurate, they could not have appeared in the same image. I am confident in the accuracy of these two dates, which suggests that the woman identified as Anna Hughes-Gray may be another relative.

One possibility is Catherine Hughes, a sister of Anna Hughes-Gray. However, I don't have much information about her beyond her existence. I don't know if she married, when she died, or where she lived. Perhaps further research into Catherine’s life may clarify if she could possibly be the eldest woman in the picture.

Additionally, I have problems with the dates I have recorded for the sisters Margaret Gray-Fitzpatrick (January 25, 1875) and Elizabeth Gray (July 9, 1875). A six-month interval between the birth of sisters is biologically impossible, meaning at least one of these birth dates is likely incorrect. 

Finally, I believe the unidentified infant may be Cecilia Sauer (July 14, 1906 – August 7, 1907), my great-grandmother’s younger sister who died at a year old. Given Cecilia’s short lifespan, her presence in the photograph would help establish a probable date range for when the image was taken and may help me resolving some of the questions of identification.

If Anna Hughes-Gray wasn't alive to see baby Cecilia, was there another Hughes, or Gray, or Sauer woman of that generation who was?

Nonetheless, I think the photograph is a valuable intergenerational artifact. My grandmother Clare certainly knew many of the individuals in the photo during her lifetime, but toward the end of her life her memory had begun to fade. She passed from Alzheimer's Disease in 2023. So I need to take a closer look now at the records I can find to sort out these inconsistencies and figure out who everyone really is in the photo.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 19: "Food & Drink" - Strange Favorites

This topic brings to mind a few things; my grandpa Earle's strange favorite foods, my family's bread stuffing recipe, liverwurst and jelly sandwiches, and poutine.

I know what you're thinking, how are you can you just sneak liverwurst and jelly sandwiches into a list like that and not start off with discussing that disgusting concoction first. Well, I can because it's my blog. You'll just have to wait for that monstrosity because first I have to tell you about my grandpa's weird meals.

Grandpa Earle's Strange Favorite Foods

Grandpa Earle enjoyed burning his bread over the gas stove. Oh, how awful. It must have tasted like gas, right? I don't know for sure. I am not brave enough to try it. He would take a fork, pierce a piece of white bread from the side and stand there toasting his bread over the stove. 

He also enjoyed himself a bowl of salt-less Saltines in milk. He'd eat it like serial. I thought, why on earth is he eating that when we have shredded wheat, corn flakes, and rice crispies for him to choose from. He loved it!

Bread Stuffing

Grandpa Earle also enjoyed a post-Thanksgiving bread stuffing sandwich. Yes, that is correct a bread stuffing sandwiches. Talk about carb overload. 

First I should say though that my family's bread stuffing is amazing. It is simple recipe of stale white bread moistened with plain old water, butter, onions, salt, pepper, and thyme. That's it. It is a recipe that has been passed down from my great-great grandmother, Agnes Frances Gray-Sauer (October 27, 1871 - December 30, 1941). She is the pretty lady in the center of this picture. 

Agnes was born in New York of Irish descent. Her husband, William George Sauer (February 11, 1870 - December 23, 1932)  was also born in New York but of German stock. I'm not sure if Agnes got this recipe from her mother or her mother-in-law but I have had two older women tell me that they have a similar recipe. One woman was Irish and the other's mother was from Germany. Either way, it is freaking delicious and I know my second cousin, Kelly, makes it for her Thanksgiving dinners as well. Cousin Kelly calls it her grandma's recipe. Her grandma and my grandma were sisters, dishing up the same recipe. Grandma told me it was the stuffing her grandma made so for Kelly and I that would be great-great grandma's recipe. Again, pretty Ms. Agnes above.

Grandpa Earle would cut off a thick slice of that stuffing and put in between two slices of bread, sometimes with turkey or cranberry sauce, but usually just on its own. Now that I could get on board with. Liverwurst sandwiches however, not my bag. 

Liverwurst & Grape Jelly Sandwiches

My dad loves liverwurst. I can't even bring myself to look at it. To each his own though. That is until we talk about Cousin Ernst. His real first name is Tom but my dad just calls him Ernst, which was his last name.

I don't know where Cousin Ernst is or even if he is still with us but Cousin Ernst is my father's second cousin. Ernst's mother, Flora Lou Childres-Ernst (October 3, 1926 - March 14, 2010), lovingly called Aunt Sis, was my grandpa Earle's first cousin. Their mothers, Ethel Losee-Earle (February 14, 1896 - May 27, 1960) and Marion Losee-Childres (July 1900 - December 3, 1949) were the only sisters among their parents' six children.

There was a brief time when Cousin Ernst lived with my grandparents and my dad when dad was in his teens. One story that stands out, of course, is that Cousin Ernst like liverwurst and grape jelly sandwiches. Oh. My. God. I can't. Ugh. 

Poutine

Now, it's not a road trip unless Cousin Kelly and Cousin Pete and I are chowing down on some poutine. 

If you are not familiar with the dish, here on Long Island it is similar to what we call Disco Fries; French fries with cheese and gravy. Oh it's so good. Poutine emerged from Quebec and there they use cheese curds and brown gravy. The dish has really become a symbol of Québécois culture and the province of Quebec itself, but man, we have eaten it all over Canada. Some of the best I've had was at the Canadian Potato Museum & Antique Farm Machinery Museum in Prince Edward Island. Yeah, I've been to the Potato Museum. 

Second Stop, part 1: St. John Cemetery, Middle Village Queens - William and Agnes Sauer

The second cemetery Cousin Pete and I visited in our marathon of cemetery visits on Saturday, April 24, 2021, was St. John Cemetery on Metropolitan Ave. in Middle Village, Queens, NY. What a truly beautiful and well maintained cemetery. 

This is the location of the graves of more than a few of my Grandma Earle's people and thus ancestors Peter and I share. Pete and I are second cousins. My Grandma Earle and his grandma were sisters.

My plan was to visit the burial locations of these 5 individuals:

1. Our great-great grandfather on Grandma Earle's mother's side; William Sauer (11 February 1870 - 23 December 1932) Section 24, Row K, Grave 106

2. Our great-great grandmother, William's wife; Agnes Gray-Sauer (27 October 1871 - 30 December 1941) who is buried with her husband in Section 24, Row K, Grave 106. 

3. Our great-great grandmother on Grandma Earle's father's side; Annette "Anne" Hinch-Henry (22 February 1868 - 2 March 1952) Section 18, Row O, Grave 78

4. Our 3rd great grandmother, Anne's mother-in-law; Mary Carrillion-Henry (October 1855 - 8 January 1907) Section 13, Row O, Grave 7

5. Our 3rd great grandfather, Mary's husband; Victor Henry (March 1838 - 9 November 1896) Section 16, Row A, Grave 403

In addition to these 5, several of Peter's mother's relatives are buried in St. John Cemetery and so we also ventured to find some of his family graves. 

We got to St. John at about 11:20 and left a little after 1 p.m. It was certainly the longest of our stays inside any one cemetery that day. We probably also got our most steps in there wandering about trying to find the grave numbers etched into the bottom right corners of headstones.

Because we visited so many graves in St. John, I am going to blog about one gravesite at a time. The first of which is the grave of our great-great grandparents, William Sauer (11 February 1870 - 23 December 1932) and Agnes Gray-Sauer (27 October 1871 - 30 December 1941) in Section 24, Row K, Grave 106. 

You might wonder why we didn't start at the lowest numbered section. Well, the way the numbering of sections are laid out, 24 is actually closest to the entrance we came through. This is an enormous Catholic Cemetery; nearly 190 acres. You need a map. However, we didn't need to go to the office. Signs people! Signs.

You can kind of see Peter and I reflected in the map sign. We came in through the gate between sections 1 and 2. It took some navigating but we found William and Agnes in section 24 in Row K which runs perpendicular to the red road way parallel to Woodhaven Blvd. Their headstone faces towards Furmanville Ave. And yes! They have a headstone.

The stone on the right is for our great-great grandparents as well as their daughter, also named Agnes. The stone on the left is for their son, also named William. Not real creative with their name choices. You can see in the background the Christ the Redeemer Mausoleum which helps to give one a sense of the location within the cemetery

William Sauer the younger was the father of our grandmothers' cousin who we lovingly called "Uncle Billy." I just recently learned Uncle Billy passed away last year on January 16, 2020 at the age of 95. His father had a rather short life though. He died of pneumonia at the age of 25.

Great-great grandpa William Sauer was an ambulance driver back when the ambulance was a wooden wagon. Below is a photo of William and his horse evidently hitched to a wagon of some sort.

My grandma also talked about their monkey. Yes, great-great grandpa had a monkey. One of her earliest memories was of her grandfather William holding her and feeding buttered crackers to the monkey who would lick off the butter and throw the crackers on the ground. I don't know who the people are in the photo below but I know that is the monkey.

I also have a beautiful image of my great great grandmother, Agnes Gray-Sauer, in a family group photo. That is Agnes right in the middle. In front of her are 3 of her 5 children. The child standing on the left is William Sauer (1901-1926) and the young girl is my great grandmother, Anna Marie Sauer-Henry (1896-1986). The little boy in the middle is Joseph Sauer (1902-1968). 

The woman on the left holding the baby is Margaret Gray-Fitzpatrick (1878-1956). She is holing her son, Raymond Fitzpatrick (1906-1977). The woman in the back on the left is Agnes & Margaret's sister, Mary "Mamie" Gray (1869-1929). The woman on the right in the back not holding a child is Elizabeth "Eliza" Gray (1879-1970). I am not sure who the woman on the far right is, the one holding the sleeping baby. I suspect the baby might be Agnes's 4th child, Cecilia Sauer (14 July 1906 - 9 August 1907) which provides a pretty narrow window of time in which this photo was taken; sometime during Cecilia's lifetime. Cecelia was buried in Most Holy Trinity Cemetery which was part of my cemetery marathon. I'll write about that visit soon.

Counting Them Visited: Thomas Gray (abt. 1844 - 27 March 1899) & Anna Hughes-Gray (Nov 1843 - 17 April 1904)

In my first wave of attempting to locate gravesites I had yet to visit, I took a cursory glance at my records on Ancestry. I store the bulk of my printed documentation in my office which is inaccessible to me right now due to the COVID pandemic. Yes, I keep my print records at work because I used to spend the bulk of my time there and I just didn't have the shelf space for the multiple large binders. So I just looked at what I had on Ancestry for my 3rd great grandparents, Thomas Gray and Anna Hughes-Gray - - no plot location. 

I did a few searches and still I could not come up with a plot location. So I sent an email to Aunt Ro. Aunt Ro is really my father's cousin but we grew up calling his cousins aunt & uncle out of respect. That can make for confusion when you grow up and try to research people who were called "aunt" and "uncle" but weren't really that relation but I digress.

Aunt Ro has been doing genealogy research my whole life and this is our shared line so I thought for sure she would have plot locations for this couple. 

She did! 

And so did I. Yeah, somehow I had overlooked that I had acquired their plot locations in Calvary Cemetery some years ago when I was researching Anna's brother, Edward Hughes. 

I wrote multiple big long blog about the circumstances surrounding his murder: Edward Hughes Murdered??? and Revisiting Edward Hughes Edward is interred with his sister Anna and her husband Thomas along with several other family members. I have even previously written about my experience of trying to find Edward's plot in Calvary Cemetery: Headstone Hunting I really did not recall having visited Anna & Thomas there though. I think that is  because, like so many of my relatives, they do not have a headstone.

In Calvary Cemetery, cemetery 1, section 3, graves 1-4 there are 4 small square tiles that are flush with the ground. They mark the perimeter of graves 1-4. And that is it! No marking of the corner stones, no names, no dates, you can hardly even see them. I never even bother to photograph them. That is, however, the resting place of at least 10 of my relatives:

1. Terrence Hughes, my 4th great-grandfather (born about March 1800 - died 22 September 1873)
2. Ellen Sweeney-Hughes, my 4th great-grandmother (born about October 1802 - died 12 March 1884) 
3. Edward Hughes, their son (born about 1849 - died 24 March 1874)
4. Patrick Henry Hughes, another son and purchaser of the plot (born about 1844 - died 25 June 1883)
5. Mary Gray, also known as Mamie, daughter of Anna Hughes-Gray and Thomas Gray (born 22 July 1869 - 24 May 1929)
6. Margaret Gray-Fitzpatrick, another daughter of Anna Hughes-Gray and Thomas Gray (born 25 January 1875 - died 20 June 1968)
7. Michael Fitzpatrick,  Margaret's husband (born about 1878 - died 25 January 1956)    
8. Elizabeth V. Gray,  another daughter of Anna Hughes-Gray and Thomas Gray (born 9 July 1875 - died 2 June 1970)

AND my 3rd great grandparents Anna Hughes-Gray and Thomas Gray.

• Anna Hughes-Gray, my 3rd great-grandmother who sometimes appears as Anna M., Mary Ann, or Mary A. (born about November 1843 - died 17 April 1904)
• Thomas Gray, my 3rd great-grandfather (born about 1844 - died 27 March 1899)

Interestingly, I have Anna's memorial card and I've written about that in the past too: Speaking of Memorial Cards...

The curious thing is that I was just at Calvary Cemetery with Aunt Ro's brother, Uncle Charlie, his daughter Cousin Kelly, and granddaughter Meri looking for the burial location of their great-great grandfather on their maternal line; not our shared ancestry. And guess where their great-great grandpa, Thomas J. Moore, is buried. Cavalry Cemetery, Cemetery 1, Sec 3. Different row and grave but in the same section as the Hughes-Grays. It is a small, small world and a really big freakin' section of an enormous cemetery.

Edward Hughes Murdered??

So many novice family history researchers think that Ancestry.com is the end-all-be-all of online genealogy research. 

Ugh. 

Don't get me wrong, Ancestry.com is wonderful! It has revolutionized the field of genealogy. I would credit it with making genealogy the ubiquitous past-time that it is today. It has tons of resources but it is not all there. Real genealogy research still requires visits to libraries, archives, cemeteries, and churches. AND there are also many other free and subscription-based databases available besides Ancestry.com. I recently tried a free 30-day trial of GenealogyBank.com; which is primarily digitized U.S. newspaper articles. I found a lot of interesting things.

Years ago I discovered the death certificates for my 4th great-grandparents; Terrance Hughes and Ellen Sweeney-Hughes. The certificates didn't tell me much more than their ages and dates of death. Both death certificates did reveal, though, that the couple was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. A simple call to Calvary Cemetery directed me to their unmarked plot in Cemetery #1, Section 3, Range 1, Plot A, Graves #1-4.

I knew from census records the names and approximate dates of birth for some of their children; Patrick, Anna, and Edward. Anna Hughes-Gray was my 3rd great-grandmother.

A simple search in GenealogyBank.com for last name: Hughes, first name: Terrance, limited to New York (where he died), and then limited further by his death (1873) kicked back an obituary for him from the New York Herald.

Hughes - On Saturday, September 20, after a long and painful illness, TERRANCE HUGHES, a native of Lincolman [Liscolman], parish of Connmare [Connemara], county Wicklow, Ireland in his 73d year of age.
The relatives and friends are invited to attend his funeral from his late residence, 603 East Ninth Street, on Monday afternoon, September 22, at one o'clock.
Dublin and Carlow papers please copy.

What a find right? It's very difficult to do Irish research without a parish and county. So that's very nice.

Then I found an obituary for Ellen Hughes; like her husband, Terrance, it was also in the New York Herald. The obituary was posted on March 12, 1884 and reads as follows:

Hughes - On Monday, March 10, ELLEN HUGHES, mother of the late Patrick Hughes, in her 81st year of age.
Funeral from the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Gray, 535 East 11th St., Wednesday, March 12 at half-past one P.M. Internment at Calvary Cemetery.

Mrs. Gray, again, was my 3rd great-grandmother. There was no mention of a son Edward though, who like her son Patrick could have predeceased her.

So then I tried to look for Edward whom I know nothing about except his name, approximate date of birth, and a guess at the date of death I gleaned from the NYC death record index; March 22, 1874. Now keep in mind that his date of death is just from the index, I did not actually see the death record and so I may have the wrong Edward Hughes. My Edward Hughes had a lot of contemporaries of the same name living in the same city; New York City. However, I found these headlines which coincided with the date of death for an Edward Hughes:

New York Herald - March 22, 1874 - "Coroners' Cases"
New York Tribune - March 23, 1874 - "Two Probable Homicides"
New York Tribune - March 27, 1874 - "Supposed Homicides"

Was MY Edward Hughes Murdered???

A simple call to Calvary Cemetery answered my question. I asked the woman who answered the phone if she could give me the plot location for a man named Edward Hughes who died in March 1874. Sure enough he is buried in Cemetery #1, Section 3, Range 1, Plot A, Graves #1-4. That is the same plot as my Terrance and Ellen Hughes; Edward's parents.

March 27, 1874 - New York Tribune 

Supposed Homicides

Coroner Woltmann held and inquest yesterday in the case of Edward Hughes, who was found dead on the 20th inst. at his home in Thirty-third-st. near Tenth-ave.
James Cory, residing at No. 787 Tenth-ave., testified that he had seen Hughes and a man named Cain fighting near Tenth-ave. and Thirty-third-st. on the day previous to Hughes's death. He did not know that either of them was drunk. James Goss testified that Cain struck Hughes several times in the face, holding him in the back of the head, while Hughes was so drunk he could not stand nor get up when he was knocked down. Dr. Shine testified that death apparently ensued from alcoholism, there being no signs of any bruises on the body. The jury rendered a verdict that Hughes died from alcoholism, death being accelerated by the beating received, and Coroner Woltmann committed Cain to the Tombs to answer in default of $5,000 bail.

So according to a jury of his peers, James W. Cain did not murder Edward Hughes; Edward succumbed to alcoholism in a very sad and dramatic scene. 

I tend to have a very soft spot in my heart for those relatives who, like Edward, leave no heirs. No heirs theoretically means that there are no relatives to visit the grave, to remember who he was, to keep the memories of him alive. Edward's story reaches me very deeply, though. Today I pray especially hard for those who suffer from the same affliction as Edward, and for those who judge them, and for those who beat them down.

Headstone Hunting

After a successful visit to the New York City Municipal Archives and uncovering my 4th great-grandmother's maiden name, I thought I'd try my hand at finding her burial location. I know Ellen Sweeney-Hughes is buried with her husband, Terrence Hughes, and several other family members at Calvary Cemetery. 

Calvary, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is the largest cemetery in New York City. It is the final resting place for over 3 million New Yorkers. It is divided into 4 sections, the oldest being "Old Calvary" which was opened in 1848 and is the cemetery where my Hughes relatives are interred.

Now, if you have read some of my posts you may have heard me rant about how rare it is to find a relative with a headstone. I come from a poor, working-class stock. Headstones are expensive. And let's just face the facts, we're either broke or cheap. Cheap out of necessity - - but nonetheless cheap.

This morning I traveled to Calvary with hope in my heart though. With my head held high I drove into the pack cemetery with camera in pocket. 

The Hughes Family is buried in Section 3, Range 1, Plot A, Graves 1 through 4.

Now what does that tell you? That sounds to me as if they are going to be right up front in Section 3. They might very well be the front absolute first spot in a corner of Section 3.

This quality is also quite common among my relatives' plot locations; they are often right near the curb. Not only are we poor, I guess we know we're lazy...or maybe just super tired from all that working to maintain poor. ("Give us your tired, your poor"...no wonder my people came to America). Ain't no one gonna come visit your grave if we have to trample all over the cemetery to find you. However, that is exactly what I did. 

Despite being pretty sure the plot would be in the first, foremost corner of the section I walked up and down those ranges. I also drove around and around that section trying to read the few headstones which had cemetery location numbers chiseled into them. 

Well guess what, people. I did not find a headstone for my Hughes family. Surprise, surprise, surprise. The very corner of Section 3 has 4 small square tiles that are flush with the ground; that mark the perimeter of Graves 1-4. And that is it! No marking of the corner stones, no names, no dates, you can hardly even see them. I didn't even bother to photograph them.

According to my Cousin Roseann and some of my own substantiating research we know that corner to be the resting place of:

1. Terrence Hughes, my 4th great-grandfather on my father's most maternal line; died 22 September 1873.
2. Ellen Sweeney-Hughes, my 4th great-grandmother, bearer of my father's mitochondrial DNA who died 12 March 1884 at the age of 81. 
3. Edward Hughes, their son who died 24 March 1874 at the age of 25.
4. Patrick Henry Hughes, another son and purchaser of the plot who died 25 June 1883 at the age of 40.
5. Anna Hughes-Gray, my 3rd great-grandmother who sometimes appears as Anna M., Mary Ann, or Mary A., died 17 April 1904.
6. Thomas Gray, my 3rd great-grandfather, who died at the age of 55 on 30 March 1899.
7. Mary Gray, also known as Mamie was a daughter of Anna and Thomas Gray. She died 24 May 1929 at the age of 55.
8. Margaret Gray-Fitzpatrick, another daughter of Anna and Thomas Gray who died 24 June 1968 at the age of 91 .
9. Michael Fitzpatrick,  Margaret's husband, died 25 Jan 1956 at the age of  81.    
10. Elizabeth V. Gray,  another daughter of Anna and Thomas Gray, who died 2 June 1970 at the age of 90.

Finding a Maiden Name

Well it is that point in the semester when things start to become a little overwhelming and so I have not been able to find the time to post or research lately. However, working for a Catholic university provided me with a much needed day off yesterday (Holy Thursday) and today (Good Friday); thank God for Jesus, I always say.

Yesterday I ventured into Manhattan and had the opportunity to visit the NYC Municipal Archives. I have written about my experiences there before in this blog. It is one of my most favorite research facilities because one can view primary resources of vital records at a much discounted rate than ordering them online. And if you don't want to order a copy of a record your welcome to view and take notes from as many records as you would like for FREE.

I went with a list of a dozen records I wanted to see. Right now I am poking around on my Irish ancestors; some on my dad's side and some on my mother's side. The Irish are probably the most elusive of all my ancestors.

In any case, these dozen records were partly guesses. After combing through the NYC death record index online. I found some records that could potentially be related to me; siblings of my great-great-great grandparents. Some of my guesses were right, some were not. And why would I through away money on ordering documents for guesses? I wouldn't. That is why I look at guess in person for free at the Municipal Archives.

Lately, I have become quite interested in my 3rd great grandmother, Anna Hughes-Gray. My paternal grandmother, Nanny, has passed down to me Anna's memorial card. Anna was born in Ireland in 1843. She died in Queens County, New York on April 17, 1904. Her parents were Terrence and Ellen Hughes. I want to know more about the Hughes family.

From information provided by father's cousin Roseann, I know that a lot of the Hughes-Grays are buried together in a plot in Calvary Cemetery. Gratefully, I have dates of death for many of the family members but still, I wanted to look at their death certificates. 

Just because someone hands me information does not mean that I shouldn't verify that information with my own research. I am so very glad that I did look up the death certificates! I looked at Anna Hughes-Gray's mother's death certificate; Ellen. Ellen Hughes, my 4th great grandmother, died on March 10, 1884 in lower Manhattan - 535 West 11th Street to be exact. Ellen died in a time period when NYC began to collect the deceased's parents names and there - - there it was - - Ellen's maiden name which I had never seen before. Ellen was the daughter of Denis and Mary Sweeney. 

Holy Thursday, I'm a Sweeney!!

I love, love, love to find maiden names! I do realize women received their maiden names from their fathers and that it's still a patriarchal thing but a woman's maiden name connects you further into your roots. It leads you to her life before she took someone's name. It gives you another generation to search for. I love, love, love to find maiden names.

Happy Women's History Month

I know that it is already March 7th and I have not yet wished you a happy Women's History Month. That is because, honestly, Women's History Month kind of pisses me off though. I mean, women are half the population; aren't we half the history? Shouldn't we have half the months? I know the month is supposed to bring focus to a portion of history that has long been neglected but still, I refuse to let just March be my opportunity to focus on women. I write about the women in my family all year long.

I do, however, have one family photo that jumps to mind whenever Women's History is mentioned. This photo:

Look at all those women and their children.

There is some debate in the Henry family about when this photo was taken and if everyone in it has been properly identified. I do know for certain, though, that the young girl standing in front in the white dress is my Great-Grandmother, Anna Marie Sauer-Henry-Stoothoff. She was born in 1899 and so it has been estimated that this photo was taken in 1909.

The women at the center of the photo is my Great-Great-Grandmother Agnes Gray-Sauer who was born in 1871 which means if this was indeed taken in 1909 that Agnes is about 38 here. That is how old I am today. I have to say, we look pretty good for our ages.

The boys to the left of Great Grandma Anna are most definitely her brothers, William Sauer and Joseph Sauer. William on the far left was born in 1901, Joseph Sauer, in the middle, was born in 1903.

I will not go on to further identifying the individuals in the photo because, again, I am not absolutely certain if I have the information right.

I just really like that I have a photo that dates back so far in my family's history. I like that the women and children are gathered together. And I like that most of them, especially my Great-Great-Grandmother in the center looks, look pretty happy.

Speaking of Memorial Cards...

This is the oldest memorial card I own; Ann Gray died April 14, 1904. Two or three years ago my paternal grandmother, who everyone calls Nanny, gave a bunch of memorial cards to me. This was among them.

Now my Nanny was born in 1929. Her mother was only a very small child in 1904; great-grandma was born in 1899. Therefore this memorial card had to have come from my grandmother's grandmother, Agnes Gray-Sauer (my father's mother's mother's mother - for those of you drawing charts). Agnes Gray-Sauer was born in 1871 and died in 1941. I believe this to me the memorial card for Agnes Gray-Sauer's mother; Anna Hughes-Gray.

Note that these women never really hyphenated their last names. This is a modern day convention that I use to keep track of my female ancestors.

According to Ann's memorial card she was 68 years old when she died in 1904 placing her birth in about 1836. According to her death certificate though, Ann was 60 years old at the time of her death. I am not sure which date is correct but for my records I use the later, 1844, as her year of birth. 

I do not own a copy of Ann's death certificate; #14429 Manhattan 1904 from the City of New York. I have, however, observed the document at the New York City Municipal Archives at 31 Chamber's St. in Manhattan. 

The New York City Municipal Archives is a treasure for anyone who had ancestors who lived in New York City; and not just Manhattan but all of the boroughs; Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. My next entry will be on how to use this research facility; for now though, more on Ann Gray.

From her death certificate I have noted many facts. Ann died after having suffered from pneumonia for about a week. Her parents names were Terrence and Eleanor Hughes; no maiden name was given for her mother. Ann lived at 542 East 11th St. in Manhattan but was born in Ireland. According to the death certificate she had lived in the U.S. for 54 years placing her date of immigration at about 1850. She is interned at Calvary Cemetery which I have visited many time but have not yet seen her grave-site. I will soon...I promise.