Solving a Mystery with a Cemetery Receipt

 

Sometimes, it just takes time before the answers we seek to our genealogical questions come to light. 

Two years ago, my husband and I got together for dinner with my cousins Rebecca and Tom on a visit to Cleveland, my hometown. Rebecca is the daughter of the original family genealogist, my aunt Margaret Gilbride Firestone (1947-2004). During that dinner, Rebecca shared with me what I considered at the time as the family Holy Grail—Aunt Margaret's genealogy notes and artifacts. 

My aunt conducted pre-internet genealogy, a time-consuming slog of writing letters and visiting archives and churches in search of family information. And waiting. This cycle resulted in mostly rejection (evidenced in the replies she kept), and occasional success. It was a thankless task at the time, but one she continued to pursue, to my endless thanks today.

She was also the keeper of various artifacts passed down through the family from our Baker/Cassidy and Gilbride/McAndrew lines. Among the amazing items Aunt Margaret's collection contained was a 140+ year-old cemetery receipt dated 20 March 1882. It was for a plot purchased by our great-great grandfather Patrick McAndrew (1838-1892) in Scranton's Cathedral Cemetery.¹ But who the plot was for was a mystery. 

Front of Cathedral Cemetery receipt, noting the purchase of a 1/2 plot in March 1882.

Cemetery staff gave me the information from their records that Patrick J. McAndrew and Bridget Lavelle McAndrew were buried in the plot. But this man was not my ancestor; he died in 1934 and my ancestor in 1892. Also my Patrick was married to Ann Kelly, not Bridget Lavelle. I speculated at the time that perhaps it was a family plot and these individuals were somehow related to my McAndrew couple. But I didn't delve too much further into it, and after a few days I moved on to other mysteries.²

This week, the cemetery receipt was brought to mind as I reviewed some old Facebook posts. Back in 2021 when I first saw the receipt, I shared photos of it on my page, and tagged my cousins so that they too could see this incredible document.

But this time as I re-read the post something clicked, and I recalled that my great-great grandfather Patrick had one daughter Barbara, born in 1878, who died before he did. He had eight children with wife Ann Kelly McAndrew, but his 1892 will mentioned only seven; similarly, his obituary noted that he "leaves a widow and seven children."³

Quickly turning to my records I realized I had found Barbara's Scranton death record sometime in the past two years, but never associated it with the cemetery receipt. A comparison of the two documents confirms that the plot Patrick purchased was for his 5-year old daughter Barbara. She died on 19 March 1882. He purchased the plot the next day, 20 March 1882. It was a "1/2" plot, suitable for a small child.

Death certificate for Pat McAndrew's unnamed daughter, now identified as Barbara McAndrew.⁴

 

I can only imagine the grief that Patrick and Ann faced as they buried their young daughter who succumbed to pneumonia. This is one of the sadder aspects of researching family history—we often come across the tragedies of past generations. 

I consider it an honor and a privilege to tell these stories as I find them, and to stitch back together families who have long since left the Earth. Rest in peace, Barbara.

Until next time...

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This post was chosen as a Friday Family History Find by blogger Linda Stufflebean. Thank you, Linda!

 

IMAGE: McKinney Angel, Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2013.

NOTES

1 Cathedral Cemetery, Scranton, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania, receipt for 1/2 plot, Lot 15, Section M, Division 5, purchased by Patrick McAndrew, 20 March 1882. Private collection of R. Firestone [address for private use], Willowick, Ohio, 2023. Future research will hopefully reveal the relationship between my ancestor Patrick McAndrew, and the Patrick and Bridget McAndrew also buried in this plot.

² Mariellen Donovan, Cathedral Cemetery, Scranton, Pennsylvania [e-address for private use], to N Casey, e-mail, "McAndrew Lot," 25 June 2021, privately held by Casey [e-address for private use], Tioga, Tx. Also: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Health, Certificate of Death #5380, Patrick J. McAndrew, 14 January 1934; database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/5164/images/42342_647680_0921-02121); citing Bureau of Vital Statistics, Harrisburg. Also: Board of Health of the City of Scranton, Death Certificates, Vol. 30, 1892, np, Return of a Death, Patrick McAndrews; database with images FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9YG-P3TY-C : accessed 12 July 2023), FHL film 7700819, Image 1020. Also:  B.S. Shuta, transcriber, Holy Rosary Church (Scranton, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania), Baptismal Register 1860-1887, p. 59, entry for birth of Dominic McAndrew, b.  Aug. 1867, parents Patrick McAndrew and Nancy Kelly; transcribed from digital images, "Teresa M. McAndrew Memorial Catholic Record Collection," Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Nancy is a common nickname for the name Anne. Also: Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Marriage License Docket, Vol. 26, p. 272, #9299, marriage of Patrick J. McAndrew to Bridget Lavelle 10 Aug. 1892; image, "Marriages 1885-Present," Lackawanna Public Inquiries (www.lpa-homes.org/LPA_Public_Inquiries/Views/CAXMLW_Views/MRG460DW.aspx), citing County Courthouse, Scranton.

³ 1880 United States Federal Census, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, page 33 (penned), enumeration district 55, ward 2, dwelling 223, family 236, Patrick McCandraw household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6742/images/4244365-00740 : accessed 2 Feb 2019); citing NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 1138, image 739. Also: B.S. Shuta, transcriber, Holy Rosary Church (Scranton, Lackawanna, Pennsylvania), Baptismal Register 1860-1887, p. 259, entry for birth of Bridget McAndrew, b.  Sept. 1880; transcribed from digital images, "Teresa M. McAndrew Memorial Catholic Record Collection," Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Also: "Register of Wills, Orphan's Court, 1878-1994," Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Entry for Patrick McAndrew, 1893, Estate No. 2680; Lackawanna Public Inquiries (http://www.lpa-homes.org : accessed 31 Jan 2019). Also: "Patrick McAndrew," death notice, The Scranton Tribune (Scranton, Pennsylvania), 23 Sept 1892, p. 7, col. 3; photocopy from microfilm, Albright Memorial Library, Scranton, Pennsylvania.

⁴ Board of Health of the City of Scranton, Death Certificates, Vol. 4, 1882, np, Return of a Death, unnamed female child McAndrew, 19 March 1882; database with images FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9YG-R91L-K : accessed 12 July 2023), FHL film 7700813, Image 2040. Barbara's birthplace of the High Works was a north Scranton neighborhood named for a bridge construction project in the area. The street Rockwell's Hill noted on the certificate matches the family's residence on the 1880 census taken two years prior to Barbara's death. Cathedral Cemetery was previously known as Hyde Park Catholic Cemetery.