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Visiting History: James Stephen's Texas Land Grant

Last month, the Hubs and I took a camping trip in south central Texas. We stayed in LaGrange and that put us just a short drive to where his fourth great-grandfather owned land back in the 1830s. Field trip time! James Stephen (abt. 1795-1857) received a Spanish land grant in 1831 after settling in the area in 1829. He was granted a league of land ( 4,428.4 acres),  on the Caney Creek in Washington County by the Coahuila y Tejas government on 8 March 1831. 1   James Stevens (sic) land shown on a 1976 map. 2 At the time of Stephen's settlement, witness Samuel M. Williams, swore that Stephen was, "...married and a man of very good habits, much honesty and industriousness." 3 This endorsement met all the criteria of Stephen F. Austin's conditions for settlers, demonstrating that Stephen had "the most unequivocal and satisfactory evidence of unblemished character, good morals, sobriety, and industrious habits..." and "...sufficient means to pay for their l...
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GENEALOGY CHALLENGE 2021 - DEATH RECORD


 

GENEALOGY CHALLENGE JANUARY 2021
 
Death Record - January 2nd entry of a 31-day challenge to post a document, photo or artifact on social media every day in January.
 
By Nancy Gilbride Casey
 

This "Return of a Death to the Board of Health of the City of Scranton," was an important find for my research into my 2x great grandmother Catherine Ryan Gilbride, as it contained many important clues to her mysterious life.1
 
First the location of the doctor who certified her death was located in Danville, Pennsylvania. She married in Scranton, and the undertaker and cemetery listed were in Scranton, so this helped confirm that she was the same Catherine Gilbride I found living at the asylum in Danville, Pennsylvania. Danville is also noted at the bottom, and the word Ward is crossed out; typically that would refer to the ward in Scranton where the deceased lived.
 
The place of birth is also curiously noted as "Ireland, County Me-O," most likely a phonetic spelling of County Mayo, located in the west of Ireland in the Connacht province. This was the first and only clue I have so far of Catherine's birthplace, though who gave this information to the certifying doctor is unknown.
 
There is also an 11-day interval between her death on 17 January 1881 and her burial on 28 January 1881 in Scranton — an unusually long time. However, Danville was located about 75 miles from Scranton. It's likely that her husband Michael Gilbride would have had to hire a livery/undertaker service to travel to Danville and bring her body back for burial. The undertaker noted, D.D. Jones, had such a livery service. On 21 January 1881, Michael paid for a plot at Cathedral cemetery, a date conveniently midway between Catherine's date of death and her burial at Cathedral Cemetery (then Hyde Park Catholic Cemetery).
 
COMING TOMORROW - Favorite Family Photo
 
 
1 Pennsylvania. Lackawanna County, City of Scranton, City of Scranton Department of Public Health, death certificate for "Catharine Gilbride," 27 Jan 1881; "Record of deaths, 1878-1905, in the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania," digital image, FamilySearch, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9YG-R95K-X? : accessed 27 Jan 2019); FHL film 007700813, image 1411.

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