MY FAVORITE GRANDMOTHER ISABEL CLARE TIERNEY #16 52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS

 

In January 2014, Amy Johnson Crow of the Ancestry blog No Story Too Small issued the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge.

 

 

 

The premise: write once a week about a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, a research problem — any that focuses on that one ancestor. The next week, write about a different ancestor. In 52 weeks, you’ll have taken a closer look at 52 people in your family tree… and maybe learned a little bit more about them in the process.

 

 

Isabel Clare Tierney, my maternal grandmother, was born January 1, 1892 in Brooklyn, New York.

Her parents were John Tierney and Margaret Delaney.  She was one of 6 children, May born 1884, Frances born 1888, John born 1893, Rosalie born 1894, Alice born 1898 and Margaret born 1900.

 

This Grandmother was a favorite of mine.  She stayed with us often.  My father would go to and manage conventions twice a year and my Grandmother would come and stay for the two or three weeks he was gone.  Other times she and Grandpa, John N. Moore, would come and stay for the weekend. 

 

 

 

 

Isabel was always in the latest style clothing and wore very high heels even into her late 80's.  She grew up in the era of proper etiquette, and followed it to a "T".   You wore gloves and a hat when leaving the house even if it were to go for a walk.  She had her hair done every week and had perfect manicures all the time.  My sister and I would go stay with our Grandparents in Brooklyn and would have to have our Sunday best clothes with us in case we went down the block to the stores.

 

It was always fun meeting Grandma coming off the train in Hicksville from Brooklyn.  She would have her round hat box style suitcase and would be calling out "you hoo".  Sometimes she would surprise us and take a taxi to our house.  Isabel would always have a cake from Ebinger’s Bakery with her too.

 

 

 

Ebinger Baking Company, with a chain of stores across the boro of Brooklyn, was founded in Flatbush in 1898 by George and Catherine Ebinger. Famous for their cakes and pies, and especially their Blackout Cake, they closed in bankruptcy on August 26, 1972, "going the way of the Navy Yard, the Dodgers, and Luna Park", said the New York Times.

 

Isabel lived most of her life in Brooklyn but in the early 1960's she and my Grandfather went to live in California.  Grandpa helped open the Paine Webber Brokerage branch office in California.  Then after my Grandfather died in 1980 Isabel went to Texas to live with her son, John and his family.  The following picture is of Isabel in her California apartment.  Isabel died December 7, 1982 in Dallas, Texas

 

 

GENEVIEVE COUNTS/KOUNTZ #15 52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS

In January 2014, Amy Johnson Crow of the Ancestry blog No Story Too Small issued the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge.

 

The premise: write once a week about a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, a research problem — any that focuses on that one ancestor. The next week, write about a different ancestor. In 52 weeks, you’ll have taken a closer look at 52 people in your family tree… and maybe learned a little bit more about them in the process.

GENEVIEVE COUNTS was my maternal great grandmother.  She was born 1 December 1864, in Savannah, Georgia.¹ Genevieve was born right in the middle of the Civil War and just before General Sherman’s march to Savannah.  Her parents were JOHN COUNTS/KOUNTZ and MARTHA PARDUE.¹ There is a wonderful book² about the Civil War through the eyes of a young girl.  It depicts the hardships that Martha Counts must have gone through having a baby during this time.  Her husband was most likely in the Confederate Army and away at the time of Genevieve’s birth.

 

I do not have a lot of information on this woman.  I think I found her in the 1870 census in a boarding school but have not confirmed it is her.  Her mother and father seem to disappear, so maybe they died and she was put in this school as an orphan.  In 1885, Genevieve married Tristram A. Moore.³ My Grandfather said they both worked for the Ludden & Bates Southern Music Company in Savannah.

 

Genevieve and Tristram continued to live in Savannah and had 6 children.  Ann born in 1886, Mary born in 1888, John (my grandfather) born in 1889, Elizabeth (Bessie) born in 1890, Tristram J. born in 1892, and Francis born in 1894.  During this time Tristram continued to work for the South Music Company alongside his father Horatio N. Moore.  Apparently, this was not good enough for him so he quit and got a job on a ship sailing out of Savannah.  Sometime after 1900 Geneveive was told he died at sea.  I have no proof that this actually happened.  He did leave the family, that is true, but I have found no documents indicating his death at sea.

 

All this time Genevieve was taking care of her 6 children by doing sewing.  By 1905 her oldest son was 16 and he told me he was out working doing odd jobs to help the family.  In the 1910 census⁴ the children were older and working to support Genevieve.  Her son, John became a telegrapher operator for the Railroad and made good money but New York was paying more for telegraph operators so he brought the family up to Brooklyn, New York.  In the 1920 census⁵ I find Genevieve with her son Tristram and daughters Annie, and Mary Cosgrove and Mary's son John.  Genevieve’s son Francis died in 1898 when he was 4.  Genevieve’s son John is married by this time to Isabel Tierney and they have a daughter, Ruth (my mother). 

 

Genevieve was taken care of by her son, John, until she died.  They lived just a block away and he was there helping out all the time.  Genevieve died 11 June 1936 in Brooklyn, New York.¹ This is the only picture I have of her, and it was taken about 1933 in Brooklyn.

 

 

 

1. Death Certificate #13037 Brooklyn, New York. Information given by her son John N. Moore.
2. “The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865 by Eliza Frances Andrews
3. Marriage certificate, State of Georgia, dated 4 October 1885
4. 1910 Federal Census of Georgia, image from Ancestry.com
5. 1920 Federal Census of Georgia, image from Ancestry.com

WILLIAM JOSEPH MATHEWS #14 52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS

In January 2014, Amy Johnson Crow of the Ancestry blog No Story Too Small issued the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge.

 

The premise: write once a week about a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, a research problem — any that focuses on that one ancestor. The next week, write about a different ancestor. In 52 weeks, you’ll have taken a closer look at 52 people in your family tree… and maybe learned a little bit more about them in the process.

 

 

William Joseph Mathews was my grandfather.  He was born July 3, 1883 the last child of nine of William John Mathers (52 Ancestors #5) and Mary McCrudden both of Ireland.  William Joseph was born in New York City when the family was living over his father’s shoe and boot makers shop on East 28^th Street, New York, New York.

 

I do not have any pictures of William Joseph as a child with his brothers and sisters.  I don’t think they had the money for the new fangled thing called a camera.  I do have a studio photo that might be him with his parents but it is so faint I can’t be sure.  Older relatives have assured me the parents in the picture are William John and Mary but can’t be sure of the child.

 

William Joseph was about 14 or 15 when he starting working at a hotel in New York City as a hall boy.  This was indicated in the New York Census of 1900. During that time his future wife was also working at the hotel as a maid.  They eventually married on August 6, 1909 in New York City.  I have found William Joseph and his family in the 1910 through 1940 census in New York.  In the 1910 census it indicates he is an elevator operator. On his WW1 draft registration dated 1917 he states he is a timekeeper at Tiffany Studios.  In the rest of the census’ he is a guard in a bank.

 

William Joseph Mathews married Mamie McGuigan and they had 4 children, Thomas in 1909, Catherine in 1911, William in 1915 and James (my father) in 1920.  They lived in Manhattan until about 1933 when the moved in with his sister, Catherine Mathews Morris, whose husband had died.  He lived in Richmond Hill, Queens until his death.

 

 

 

William Joseph was very close to all his sisters and was good friends with all their husbands.  Many of the families lived very close and all the cousins got together all the time.

 

 During WW 11 he was a very proud Dad with all three sons in the service.  Thomas and William were in the Army and James in the Navy.  Fortunately, all three survived the war and came home.  In this picture William Joseph is flanked on the right by his son James and on the left William.

 

 

 

 

William Joseph went to work as a bank guard as usual on September 5, 1946 taking the subway but on that fateful day he had a heart attack on the platform and died.