Several years ago, I came across a record at the Find-A-Grave website that listed a William Yerks being buried at “Potter’s Field” in Valhalla.  It gave no date of birth or date of death.  So, stuck at a brick research wall,  I decided to write to the Westchester County Archives to see if they would have any additional information about the people buried at Potter’s field.

There is a William yerks buried in Potters Field in Valhalla.  Can you tell me whether there are any records for Potters Field that might provide me with date of death or other info? Apparently he is buried in Row I , a double grave that is shared with Isaac Stokes .

If you think you may have records, I will come down from Connecticut  to research him if necessary.

Thanks.

Phil Hayes

A short time later Jackie, from the County Archives, wrote back to me.

Hi Phil,

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. We have very little on Potters Field, unfortunately. As it was connected to the county Almshouse, that would be the place to look. From the index, I see there was a William Yerks who passed away in the Almshouse in 1876. He was from Mount Pleasant, and was 75 years old. If that sounds like your man, you are welcome to come in to see the record; we’re open Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 9-4. The amount of information is in these Almshouse records varies, some are very sketchy, and some have a decent amount of detail. It depends on who was keeping the records.

Jackie

I was already interested in the Almshouse because Armenia Yerks, daughter  of the William Yerks that I was looking for, showed up in the 1900 Census there. Now I also had a William Yerks who was within the same age range as the one I was looking for.

So yesterday, I once again made the trip to the Archives in Elmsford,NY.  Jackie immediately remembered me and my request.  She quickly guided me to an index that was compiled by a volunteer that lists the names of “inmates” of the Almshouse Institution. I immediately recognized several names in the index.

Some of the microfilms that held the records were missing, so Jackie brought out the original ledgers for the first couple of records I wanted to looked up.  I was allowed to photograph the records I was interested in.  I printed the others from the Microfilm viewer/printer.  Here is a summary of what I discovered.

William Yerks.

William Yerks was a 75 year old male who was admitted to the Almshouse on May 5, 1876.  It lists him as a widower, but I believe that is simply an error.  He and his father were listed as being born in Mount Pleasant which would be consistent with my research.  The “habits” of him, his father and mother were “temperate”, meaning they were not big drinkers.  His father’s occupation was a farmer.  He has three living children who were all “self supporting”.  His existing cause of dependance is listed as “Destitution.  He has been receiving public “out-door” support for about three years prior to being admitted.  It goes on to indicate that a brother and daughter have also been aided.  William died on September 17, 1876, just four months after entering the poor house.

Summary: William’s age would make him born in 1801, which is the exact year we have recorded in our research. In my opinion, there is no doubt that this is the William Yerks I have been looking for and that he is most likely the one buried at Potter’s field.  His destitute situation explains why I have not found him buried at any of the normal Yerks burial places.  A death date of 1876 would explain why he does not appear in the 1880 US Census.

Mariah Yerks

Mariah (Maria) Yerks is a 76 year old female who was admitted to the Almshouse on May 12, 1878 because she was sick and most likely could not afford care at the nearby hospital.  She was born in Greenburg, New York and is now listed as a widow.  Her occupation was a housekeeper and her father was a farmer. This Mariah supposedly has six living children, which would make it inconsistent with the information we have about her.  This information could simply be a mis-interpretation of the question.  Apparently she was so sick that she was unable to perform any manual labor.  But according to the records, she was discharged just six days later.

Summary: I am pretty sure that this Mariah is the Maria, wife of the William Yerks mentioned above.  Since there are no other “Maria” Yerks found anywhere in the Census prior to 1878, the likelihood that this is her is 99%. The age of this Mariah, places her birth year directly inline with other research I have performed. However, there is some more research that needs to be done. For instance, I have found a  Maria Yerks in the 1880 US Census, b. circa 1806, living in Staten Island with a Charles and Mary Yerks.  This 1880 Census record indicates that Maria is the mother of Charles. As far as I know, our Maria Yerks did not have a son name Charles.  But this move to Staten Island, would explain the May 18, 1878 discharge from the Almshouse.

Ezra Yerks

Widower Ezra Yerks, 57 years old, was admitted to the Almshouse on September 18, 1893.  The reason for his admittance was that he was sick. He was born in Pleasantville, NY.  He was able to read and write and his occupation was a shoemaker.  His parents are listed as deceased and he had one living sister.  Ezra Yerks died on November 12,1893.

Summary: I believe this Ezra to be the fourth son of William and Maria Yerks.  His age matches +/- 2 years to the Ezra I have been researching.  He died in 1893 which explains his disappearance from the Census after 1880. The things that makes me wonder is about his marital status.  The Almshouse record indicates that he was a widower.  According to the 1880 Census, he was single at the age of  43.  Again, this could simply be a clerical mistake, or maybe he got married at a later age.

Ethel Armenia Yerks

Ethel Armenia Yerks is a young child who was originally admitted to the Westchester Almshouse on September 4th, 1896 because of “Destitution”.  She was born in Eastview, NY.  Both parents are living and she has no brothers or sisters.  The record also indicated that her mother is at the same facility.  In fact, a comment in the remarks section indicates that she is the child of Theresa Yerks, above.

Summary: I was initially very excited because I thought I had found the Armenia Yerks that was mentioned in the 1900 Census.  But after closely looking at the age of this person, it was clear they were not the same person.  But the story does not end there….  see the summary for Theresa below.

Theresa Yerks

Theresa Yerks is a twenty year old female who was married when she was admitted on 26 Aug 1896.  She was a house wife that was able to read and write.  Her father was a shoemaker.  The reason that she was admitted to the Almshouse was that she was destitute and pregnant.  There are two interesting notes made on her chart. The first is “Notify Richard Nolan of Bedford Station”.  The second is in regards to her discharge on July 6, 1899.  This note indicates that she was “Taken to home of Refuge for Woman at Hudson”.

Summary: I couldn’t figure out who this Theresa was.  I had never heard of her before.  So I decided to see if I could find a Theresa Yerks in Census records at Ancestry.com.  Within a few keystrokes, I quickly came up with a Theresa Yerks in the 1910, 1920 and 1930 Census married to an Edward F Yerks (b. abt 1875).  William Townsend Yerks, son of the William Yerks mentioned above, had a son “Eddie” who I lost track of after the 1880 Census.  It is now clear to me that Eddie Yerks married this Theresa and got back together with her when he could.  This would explain why the daughters middle name was that of his fathers sister.  With a quick query at Fulton Postcards New York Newspaper web site, I found the disturbing story behind Theresa’s admittance to the Almshouse which confirms my research above.

Conclusion

It looks like this branch of the Yerks family tree fell on hard and desperate times between 1870 and 1900.  The family had begun to spread out throughout Westchester County, away from the traditional Yerks homesteads located in Mount Pleasant, New York.  Remembering that there were no telephones and mail took days to be delivered, I believe it was difficult for family members to know about their relatives needs.  And even if they did know, the distances between locations and travel times made it extremely difficult to help each other out.  It is sad to know that a Yerks family member is buried at Potter’s field, but I am relieved to know finally what happened to the family as a whole back then.  All this being considered, there are still numerous questions which may never be answered.

Jonathan Beattie is my great great grandfather on my mother’s side. He was born in Kirkcudbright, Scotland in 1829 and is the second child of Robert Beattie (b. abt 1804) and Elizabeth Gordon (b. abt 1807). He left Kirkcudbright for the United States in 1842 at the age of 17 and was the only one of nine brothers and sisters that came to the United States.  This family surname has always been a favorite of mine to research.  I have had tremendous success mapping out all the branches of Jonathan’s descendants and have even become good friends with some of the new found cousins.

Well, today the Beattie family tree just got much bigger.  I queried for a “Robert Beattie” born in 1804 in Kircudbright (Jonathan’s father).  Shoot… no direct matches found.  But the third listing from top was a Robert Beaty, born 10 Feb 1804 in Kircudbright to Robert Beattie and Ann Cameron.  Could that be him?

There was no real way to tell for certain based on the info in the record.  So I opened up my “Beattie” research folder and began looking around for clues.  One of the first things I looked at is the old letter of Beattie birthdays, marriages and deaths that was handed down through the generations.  The letter is in rough shape and is clearly missing several parts.   But at the top of what I believe to be the first page, it reads “…Feb 10th, 1804 in Kirkcudbright.  Elizabeth Gordon born Feb 25th 1804 in Gatehouse Fleet Parish…”

In my humble opinion, there is not a chance in the world that the “Feb 10th, 1804” date in the letter could be referring to anything other than Robert Beattie’s birth date. So Robert Beattie’s birth date is no longer “abt 1804”.  It is 10 Feb 1804! Armed with this information, I headed over to the scotlandspeople.gov.uk website and downloaded a copy of the actual records (below).

So the reason I was stuck at this “road block” for the last couple of years was a spelling issue.  Interesting!

Armed with some new motivation and the new records at beta.familysearch.org, I quickly discovered ten other brothers and sisters, including a a set of twin girls named Agnes and Ann, born in 1810.  It  appears that the twins did not survive as those names were later reused on subsequent children.  Because of the initial spelling issue I discovered, I changed my search strategy to find the eleven children.  This time I searched for all children born in Kircudbright who had a “Robert” as a father and and an “Ann* Cameron”as a mother.  Notice that I did not define the last name and used a wildcard search for the name “Ann”.  Good thing I did.  The children were found using three different spellings of “Beattie”.  Ann is also seen as Anne and Annie.

• John Beatie born 11 Mar 1802
• Robert Beaty born 10 Feb 1804
• Jonathan Beatie born 13 May 1806 (spelled as Jonathon on the original record)
• Mary Beatie born 27 Aug 1808
• Ann Beatie born 08 Oct 1810
• Agnes Beatie born 08 Oct 1810
• Ann Beatie born 09 Oct 1811
• Joseph Beaty born 02 Aug 1813
• Janet Betty born 09 Sep 1814
• Agnes Beaty born 12 Mar 1817
• Barbara Beaty born 02 Sep 1819

All names and dates of birth have been verified at the scotlandspeople.gov.uk website and have been added to my Family Tree at Ancestry.com. I have now begun to research this new generation of Beattie family members and already discovered some interesting facts.  For instance, Ann Cameron Beattie appears to have separated from her husband sometime between 1820 and 1841.  Ann is seen in the 1841 Scotland Census living alone and then with her single daughter Barbara on High Street in 1851.  The 1851 Census lists her occupation as housewife, so maybe there is another reason for them living separately. Ann’s husband Robert is found on High Street in the 1841 Census living with his single twenty year old daughter, Janet Beattie.

I have not been able to find a death record for Robert yet, but I did find one for Ann.  She died 2 Jun 1869 in Kirkcudbright.  Daughter Janet was listed as the informant.

This brings the known Beattie Family Tree back to 1776 with many more new cousins to look for.

Frank Edward Smith was born February 27, 1893 in Humboldt, Iowa to Hiram Gregg Smith and Julia Geeslin Smith.

1900

For some reason Frank was not listed with or not living with his parents in 1900 when the Census was taken.

1910

We next see him in 1910 living with his divorced mother Julia and brothers Ben, Sumner (Summer) and John.  Sometime between 1910 and 1920, Frank enlisted in the United States Navy and moved to New York.

1920

Then in 1920 we see him in two places.  In the first census record he is with his new bride Jean Louise Baron, her mother and her siblings on 81st Street in Brooklyn, NY.  For some strange reason, he is listed as a salesman for a chemical company, yet we know he was serving in the Navy.  I tend to think that  Frank was not present at the time of the census interview because his birthplace was listed as California.  California is where father and various siblings were living at the time, but not where he was born.

Then in another census record for the same year we find him at the Bay Ridge, Brooklyn US Navy Receiving Ship. A receiving ship, is any vessel, that serves as a point of induction into the service for new recruits. Vessels were not built for the purpose of serving in this role, rather, vessels were appointed. His occupation was listed as Water Tender.

1930

In 1930 we see Frank living with his first wife and three daughters on Culloden Road in Stamford, CT.  His occupation is listed as a stationary engraver in the lock manufacturing industry.  At this point he seems retired from the Navy. He is 37 years old.

Between 1930 and Present

We know Frank abandoned his wife and three daughters by suddenly disappearing, but we don’t know why. Sometime between 1930 and 1976, he married Almira Moore and settled in New Milford, CT. He was working as an auto mechanic.  He died of an Acute Myocardial Infarction on November 5, 1976 at New Milford Hospital and was buried at Reynolds Cemetery in Cross River, NY. Reynolds Cemetery is literally just down the street from where his great granddaughter Colleen and great grandson Jimmy were living at the time. Frank was 83 years old when he passed away.

Click To Enlarge
Photo By Kirk Beaty

His grave identifies him as a CWT with the US Navy.  CWT stands for “Chief Water Tender”.  In the Navy, it’s the highet ranked petty office charged with maintaining boiler pressure in a ship’s propulsion system.

Death Certificate For Frank Edward Smith

Click to Enlarge

New Milford Home Of Frank and Almira Smith

Click To Enlarge
105 Wellsville Avenue
New Milford, CT

I am looking for any information on  Hiram Gregg Smith. He died sometime before 1913 in Iowa and was married to Julia Ann Geesline in 1884 in Humboldt Co., Iowa. They are reported to have had at least 5 known children including my great-grandmother Leta Ethel Smith. E-mail me directly. Shawn Butler

I was very excited.  I finally found another Smith relative.  Shawn had actually posted another similar query at the Ancestry.com forums on March 9, 2001.

Looking for any information on Julia Ann Geesline born in Johnson Co. 5 DEC 1868 and later married Hiram Gregg Smith

The bad news is that the email address attached to his postings is no longer valid.  Unfortunately there are just too  many Shawn Butlers out there to try to find him without more info.

Today, Martha wrote the following email to me:

“Hi,

I checked birth, marriage & death records at the Court House yesterday. Hiram Gregg Smith and Julia Ann Geeslin were married 17 Dec. 1884 at Rutland, Iowa.

The births of Leta Ethel (30 May 1887), John William ( 3 Aug. 1889), and Franklin Edward ( 27 Feb. 1893) are at the Court House. The family was living in Weaver Township where Gregg was a farmer. His parents were nearby.

In 1895 they were living in Gilmore City as were his parents. The humboldt newspapers are digitized which means there is a name index. In 1898 there was something in the South Weaver column about Gregg Smith as a former resident being in Fort Dodge. In 1903 he visited someone in Gilmore City.

I didn’t find any deaths on the death index at the court house. I checked 3 cemeteries: one in Weaver Twp., one at Gilmore City and one at Humboldt. I didn’t find any Smiths from these families. There is a Sumner Smith at Humboldt, but he was much older than yours.

If you want copies of the court house records, I can hand copy them for nothing. A genie copy is $5 a piece.

Martha”

“Anna Roche was born in Brooklyn, but her mother came from Dublin, Ireland, where she was educated to become a doctor at the University there. If it was not that she was your great, great grandmother, we would not be writing this today. Your grandfather (Thomas) was about 4 pounds when he was born and she kept them alive in a little cigar box in the back of one of those old-fashioned coal stove’s. She kept him for one year, until he was a very strong baby.

Your great great grandmother had other children besides Anna Roche. She had Rose, Anna and another daughter and a son. I do know the boy moved to Cleveland Ohio and had seven sons. Rose married a man named Booth and had no children. Rose moved to Port Chester after her husband died and lived with one of her sisters who married a man named Gackstetter. They had David, Walter, John, Harold and Mabel. They were the ones I visited for many years and enjoyed very much. At one time Mabel and I, and one of her brothers came to visit you at your home in Larchmont. That it that is what you remember. No one in the family kept up with them but myself and now I have not heard from them in years. The other sister, Anna, lived up in Port Chester too, and had six girls and one boy. Their name was Hickey, bur all are married with different names. At one time they had a family gathering and there were 15 members of the family. Many more did not come. I do not know anything more about them today.”

But as I began gathering evidence of Anna and her children, I found that close to 100% of the researched documents cited Anna’s maiden name as Roach, not Roche. These records include death certificates from New York City and Census records. For example, the 1860 Census record which clearly shows Anna’s mother Margaret living with them, has Margaret’s last name spelled as “Roach”. Anna’s Death Certificate has her maiden name listed as “Roach” also.

In hopes of putting the name issue to rest , I decided I would visit Anna’s grave at Greewwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. But when I saw here grave stone, it had her name spelled as “Roche”. So at this point, I had believe that my relatives didn’t know how to spell her last name and,and just guessed that it was “Roche”. Since no legal documents pointed to the “Roche” spelling I could only go with the “Roach” spelling.

So moving on and using Aunt Grace’s letter as a base for my further research, I was able to track down those relatives in Port Chester, mentioned in the letter. I thought by solving this branch of the family tree, it might give me some useful clues in solving the mystery of the Roche/ Roach spelling issue. It took me a while because Aunt Grace was a bit confused. She thought that Anna’s sister, Rose, married “a man named Booth”. In fact, Rose did marry a Samuel Booth, but Rose was the daughter of Anna’s sister Bridget, not Anna’s sister.

Bridget married a man named David Reekie. Bridget and David had at least 7 other children, in addition to Rose. One of Rose’s sisters, Susan, married John Gackstetter and eventually wound up in Port Chester as told to us in the letter of Aunt Grace Lewis. Using Census records for the majority of my research, I was able to track down two living descendants of the relatives in Port Chester. We have exchanged addresses and telephone numbers and converse occasionally via email. It took some time, but I eventually tracked down the death certificate for Bridget Roach. She died in Dover, NJ on 29 June 1908. The Reekie’s spent about 10 years in Dover, before two of the surviving descendants moved to Port Chester, NY. The death certificate revealed Margaret’s husband’s name for the first time. It was Andrew. But it still cited their last name as “Roach”.

As a result of this research, I am now regularly in touch with cousin David Feser, another descendant of Bridget Reekie. He is also an avid genealogist. He is the great grandson of Robert Reekie, brother of Rose and Susan Reekie. He now lives in Chesapeake, VA.

When I first started the research on Anna Roach way back wehn, I made a half baked attempt at querying for a Roach connection in the Cleveland area using Ancestry.com’s Census Collection. It returned hundreds of possibilities. I quickly gave up. Without some basic information, I figured trying to find the Cleveland relatives would be impossible.

But several things changed recently. First, Ancestry.com began something called lifespan filtering. This simply removes results that are outside the possible lifespan of the person you are querying. So I decided to take a guess and enter the birth year of Bridget Roach as the birth year of someone with a last name of Roach who lives in Cleveland, Ohio. I also asked for results that only fall within 10 years, either way of that birth day. I figured a brother of sister would most likely be within 10 years of Anna. Then I also asked for an exact match birthplace of “Ireland”.

The very first match in a set of 168,373 records, showed a Patrick Roach in the 1880 Census. Patrick was born in 1835 in Ireland and was married to Elizabeth, also of Ireland. Together, they has one daughter AND SEVEN BOYS! Could this be Anna and Bridget’s “brother who moved to Cleveland and had seven boys?” It look promising, so I built a separate research tree to investigate this line of Roach’s. I spent hours looking for him and his kids in the 1870 Census without success.

From the 1880 census, I learned that Patrick was the Sexton of a Catholic Cemetery. The 1880 census also indicated that they lived at 928 Woodland Avenue. So with a quick Google, it was easy to figure out that they managed and resided at St. John’s Catholic Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.

I immediately found an online form for the diocese and asked if they could help me with any information about the Roach Family. The same evening I also sent out an email for help on the Cuyahoga genealogy mail list and requested assistance from a RAOGK (Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness) volunteer. I asked RAOGK volunteer Norm Davis if he could possibly find a death certificate for Patrick. I had hoped that the death certificate would name his parents as Andrew and Margaret Roach.

The next day, Norm wrote back…

“Here is the obit. Unfortunately there were no death certificates in 1882. They started in Dec.1908 but there was a death ledger in place at the time and I will get a copy of it for you early next week.  The ledger will not give much info but sometimes it will verify some facts for you.  Being he died at such a young age I will see if there is a coroner’s report available.  I will keep you posted.”

Norm Davis
RAOGK

Id#: 0297665
Name: Roach, Patrick
Date: 11/15/1882
Source: Cemetery record;  Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #068.
Notes: Age 47. St. John’s Cemetery Cleveland, Ohio.

What a major set-back I thought. Without a death certificate, how could I ever prove that he was the long lost brother I was looking for? I had tried searching the Cleveland Necrology file before, but without a clue on what to search for, it returned hundreds of results. So I decided I would try to learn more about Patrick and his family. I also wanted to track down the descendants of the children of Patrick and Elizabeth.

I soon began receiving responses from people on the Cuyahoga Mail List. The first came from LAS500.

Footnote.com has the Cleveland Directories- There is a Patrick Roach listed
as Sexton at Woodland Ave Cemetery. I looked at the 1871 directory because
that  info was probably collected in 1870.  There are several other Roach
families listed with home addresses.

So that confirms that Patrick was in Cleveland in 1870 and that for some reason he is either not in the 1870 Census or there is a gross error in the recoding of information about him and his family.

Holly Timm wrote:

Below is something of a timeline for Patrick Roach using the known census
plus the available Cleveland city directory information from Footnote.com

1860 CENSUS living in the 6th Ward, carpenter
1861 not listed
1862 (not on site)
1863 (not on site)
1864 2 listed: one as hostler, Franklin House, w.s.
the other as joiner, h. Wheat
1865 carpenter, h. 5 Forest
1866 (not on site)
1867 carpenter, h. 28 Harper
1868 not listed
1869 not listed
1870 CENSUS not found
1870 sexton, Woodland cemetery
1871 sexton, Catholic Cemetery, res 923 Woodland
1872 carpenter, res. 30 Pier
1873 sexton, r. Catholic Cemetary [sic]
1874 sexton, Catholic Cemetery, r. 923 Woodland av.
1875 sexton, r. 923 Woodland av.
1880 CENSUS Supt Catholic Cemetery, res 928 Woodland Ave

Looks like he *may* have been gone from the city in the late 1860′s and
returned in time to be listed in the 1870 directory but missed in the 1870
census, either not in residence or missed by the enumerator.

The title page for the 1870 directory states it was published in 1870 for
the years 1870-71

This provided me with a work history for Patrick. I also soon received a response from Janet Tomaro at the Cleveland Dioceses.

Dear Mr. Hayes,

In reference to your recent request on Patrick Roche. I can confirm that he was the Sexton of St. John Cemetery in Cleveland and that he is buried there in a family plot. Unfortunately, I do not have any family history, but following is a list of all those buried with him.

This is all the information available to you.

*Margaret Roche age 63 4/25/1875 abt 1812
*Patrick Roche age 47 11/15/1882 abt 1835
Clarence Roach age 6 mos 12/27/1891 abt Jun 1891
Joseph S. Roach age 7 days 12/3/1899 abt 26 Nov 1899
Julia Roach age 34 yrs. 1/29/1900 abt 1866
Margaret Roach age 46 yrs 3/28/1901 abt 1855
Lillian Roach age 28 yrs 5/28/1901 abt 1873
John Roach age 73 yrs. 2/25/1902 abt 1829
George Roach age 2 mos. 8/12/1902 abt Jun 1902
Mary v age 65 yrs 12/8/1904 abt 1839
Catherine Hull age 40 yrs 2/4/1905 abt 1865
Valorie Hull age 15 yrs 7/7/1910 act 1895
Elizabeth Roach age 81 yrs 11/25/1912 abt 1844
Elizabeth Long age 43 yrs 8/22/1925 abt 1882
*Andrew Roche age 73 yrs 1/13/1934 abt 1861
*Patrich Roche age 70 yrs 3/5/1934 abt 1864
*Margaret Roche age 88 yrs 9/9/1950 abt 1862

The lot is in Section 7 row 5 Lot 2 Part 9/10.

It has been my pleasure to assist you in your genealogy search, and I hope this information is helpful. We usually provide 4 names at no charge and gladly accept any monetary donation.  Your contribution will help maintain the cemetery grounds, and provide a place where meditation and reflection can be enjoyed by all visitors. Should you have any questions please contact the cemetery by email, or (216) 641-7575. Sincerely

Janet Tomaro

WOW! Interesting! Some of interments are listed as Roach, others as Roche. This brought me closer to the idea that I had found the family of the brother I was looking for. This group of Roach/ Roche had conflicting name issues too. Using the Cleveland Necrology File, I quickly began piecing together who was who. The necrology file is a database of obituaries from the Cleveland area, dating back to the early 1800’s. It soon became apparent that there were members of two families here. One line came from Patrick’s family (d. 1882). The other came from what appears to be another brother named John (d. 1902). I was able to match all but two internment’s with a listing in the Cleveland Necrology File. And then there is a Margaret Roche who appears to be the mother of Patrick and John. She is about the same age as the Margaret I was tracking in New York. So now it appears that Anna and Bridget’s mother, Margaret, may have come to Cleveland to live with her son Patrick in her final years. Wow… everything seemed to be falling in place.

Using Ancestry.com’s Census Records, I quickly began building on the descendants of Patrick and John. I easily found members for the next 3 – 4 generations of family members along with numerous death records and obituaries.

THE BIG MYSTERY SOLVED

Over the last several weeks, Norman has slowly been sending me a variety of interesting documents. These included:

• The Last Will of Patrick Roach and associated Probate Records from 1885.
• A Death Ledger for Patrick Roach who died Nov 14, 1982.
• A Naturalization Record for a James Roche

Then just today, I receive the absolute confirmation I was looking for… from a surprising source… A second Death Ledger. Norman Davis, the very dedicated and generous ROAGK volunteer who first responded to me weeks ago, retrieved some additional records form me. He scanned them in and sent them to me via email. One of them was an additional Death Ledger from another source which gave many more details than the first one he sent many weeks ago. This one provided me with the following information.

• Namer: Patrick Roach
• Date of Death: November 14, 1892
• Age: 48 years, 4 months old
• Address at Death: 923 Woodland Avenue, Cleveland, OH
• Born: Dublin, Ireland
• Cause of Death: Dropsy ( An old term for the swelling of soft tissues due to the accumulation of excess water. Usually caused by Congestive Heart Failure)
• Burial Location: Woodland Catholic Cemetery
• Father: Andrew
• Mother: Margaret

That was the confirmation I needed. He was born in Dublin and his parents were Andrew and Margaret. That is consistent with the research of the New York Roche / Roach’s and makes him the perfect fit for Anna and Bridget’s brother.

So now that I have the confirmation I was looking for, I will try to make contact with some of the cousins related to the Cleveland Roach / Roche’s to see if they can contribute any additional facts.

Also,stay tuned for some additional news concerning the name issue. Some recently discovered documents may help explain things.

We had a wonderful conversation, exchanging stories of what we knew of the Tierney’s.  Then she dropped the bomb. She has a picture of her great grandfather… AND HIS FATHER!  “His Father” is James Tierney (b. 1835 in Ireland, d. Feb 1888 in Manhattan) and is our shared relative.

Today I received color copies of the photo’s. In my humble opinion, no further relationship validation is needed.   Just look at the photo’s (especially the nose’s).

	Father James Tierney b. 1835 in Ireland d Feb 1888 in New York City
James F Tierney b abt 1860 in New York d. 4 Nov 1896	Thomas W Tierney B. Nov 1856 in New York	Frank A Tierney b. 24 Sep 1864 in New York d. 12 June 1936  in New York
James F Tierney Younger years

She also sent me several other pictures and a different newspaper article about the death of Police Captain Frank A. Tierney.  Below is a picture of Mary Tierney, wife of Thomas W. Tierney.

Mary Jane Tierney (nee Kinneary )

I have been deeply curious about the Roach’s because of the mis-spelling of her last name on Anna’s grave. Initially, I though the grave was correct and that the Census record keepers were just sloppy. But as I collected various death records, I became convinced that “Roach” is the proper spelling of her last name.

Back in 1977, my Great Aunt, Grace Lewis, wrote a letter to my Uncle telling him what she knew of Henry Lewis and Anna Roche Roach. She indicated the Anna’s mother, which I later determined to be Margaret, “was educated to become a doctor in Dublin at the University there”.

Now Grace, left out an entire generation of people when describing one of the sisters of Anna, but she did mention one VERY interesting point which appears to have panned out. She stated that Anna Roach had at two sisters and a brother. She said her “brother moved to Cleveland, Ohio and had seven sons”. In Anna’s obituary, there was an editor’s note for “Cleveland, OH papers please copy”. This confirms at least this part of Aunt Grace’s history of the Roach’s.   There was a boy who went to Ohio. But how do we find him?

When I used Ancestry.com last year to see if I could quickly figure out who it could be, I was overwhelmed with results. I quickly gave up that battle and decided to save it for another day.

Well… that day has come. With a clear head, I took a fresh attempt at trying to figure out who the boy was that went to Cleveland, Ohio. I started by once again looking at the Cleveland Ohio’s necrology file which had “paid obituaries” from the early 1850′s to the mid 1900′s. I carefully paged through all records starting in 1850 and found nothing in the text that clued me in to a New York connection.

Then I went to Ancestry.com again and did a bare bones search using the folloing criteria:

Birth range: 1828 – 1848 (based on the ages of the known children of Margaret)
Lived In: “Cleveland, Ohio, USA” (Using the exact data feature)
Sex: Male
Birthplace: Ireland

Now because Ancestry.com has recently changed their search results criteria to filter out results outside the possible lifespan of the date ranges provided, I only got a handful of results. Most of the results came from the 1880 Census in Cleveland. Next I looked for someone who had seven boys… BINGO.

I found a Patrick Roach (b. abt 1835 in Ireland), married to an Elizabeth with one daughter and seven boys. When looking even closer, it turns out that Patrick’s first daughter, Margaret Roach ( the same name as his Anna’s mother), was born in New York circa 1856. Then when looking at Patrick’s first Boy born, I see that his name is Andrew, which is what I believe to be the name of Anna’s father.

So finally, I have something to work off of. Just when you think all trails are going cold, you make a break through. That is why this hobby is so much fun! Now lets see where this takes us.

Patrick lived on Woodland Avenue and was a Superintendent of a Catholic Cemetery.  That should be enough to get me going!

Click to enlarge census image

Today, John followed up with some very exciting information about the Beattie’s, including pictures of the gravestone belonging to Elizabeth and Robert Beattie in Kirkcudbright I’ll post them separately. The picture also explains another mystery which I will explain when I post those pictures.

John Beattie (b. 1884 in Birkenhead), son of Charles, had three sons; Jack, William, Edward (b. Dec 28 1910); and three daughters; daughters Peggy, Ann and Ivy. All are now deceased. Edward was this John’s father.

This John was born in 1951 in Birkenhead and emigrated to Toronto after he was married in December of 1976. John and his wife Gill had two sons who are living in Toronto also.

The Beattie family keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.  How exciting!