Toner Family, 1875

When I was at the NYPL a few weeks ago, I found the 1875 NYS Census of the Toner family. 

This is important, because it's the first time that I've actually been certain I was seeing young Julia (my great-great-grandmother) as a member of her family. Though I've seen plenty of records connecting my Julia Toner to this Toner family, I had yet to find her listed as a member of this family on a census. Given that she's 8 years old here in 1875, I also find it likely that she is, in fact, the same person as the 2-year-old Judith listed on the 1870 census. The Toner family has a strange relationship with the names Judith and Julia, each of which often pops up where it isn't expected, and disappears from places where it should be. They are sometimes used interchangeably, and sometimes flat-out incorrectly. Here, the family is listed as
Thomas Loughlin, 34, caulker
Eliza Loughlin, 18

Richard Toner, 49, painter
Julia Toner, 46
Mary A. Toner,  21
Louisa Toner, 17
John Toner, 15
Julia Toner, 8

The apparent errors here are Julia Toner, 46, and John Toner, 15. The wife/mother of this family was Mary, not Julia - but I've ceased to be surprised when one of the Toners is incorrectly called Julia. Pretending to be named Julia must have been their favorite hobby - unless this name is a clue to something bigger that I'm just looking right past? The son who would have been 15 in 1875 - indeed, the only son who had survived to 1875 - was named William.

Elizabeth Toner married Thomas Loughlin in 1874. Both here and in 1892, the Loughlins are living with Elizabeth's parent(s). In 1875, they live with both Toners and all of Elizabeth's siblings; in 1892, the Loughlins and their children living with Elizabeth's mother, Mary Tonner.

The Toners have a reliable presence in census records as well as newspapers from 1860 to about 1875, and then everything goes wacky. I can't find anyone but the Loughlins in the 1880 census. In the 1892 NYS Census, the Loughlins are back, this time with Elizabeth's mother Mary Toner living with them - but no mention of any of her other children. I can find Mary Ann Toner married to Thomas Murphy and living with their children, but that's all. Richard is presumably dead. Julia is gone until 1900, and her soon-to-be-husband is single when he's enumerated with his relatives - they didn't marry until the next year. Louisa never again appears in census records that I've seen, but doesn't die until 1918, at which point her death certificate indicated that she had been living uninterrupted in New York City for her entire life. William doesn't appear to show up in 1880 or 1892, but was also apparently a life-long resident of NYC when he died in 1899. Where did they all go?

1905 NYS Census - Loughlin/Renehan

This is the 1905 NYS Census of the Loughlin-Renehan family. Julia Mulvaney's sister Elizabeth Toner Loughlin Renehan lived at 213 Conover St., with her (second) husband, Thomas Renehand and several of her children (from her first marriage), Thomas, John E., William, and Kate Loughlin. Thomas is 52, Elizabeth is 48, Thomas Loughlin is 23, John is 21, William is 19, and Kate is 11. Thomas Renehan is a day laborer, Elizabeth does housework, Thomas and John E. Loughlin are "Machinist Help," and Kate is "at school." I wonder whether Thomas and John E. are "help" for their uncle, Julia's husband Patrick, who was a machinist. (It appears that there were several machinists on their block as well; it wasn't necessarily Patrick they were working with.) There's a 9 in parentheses next to "at school" by Kate's name. When I saw numbers in parentheses on the census return for the Mulvaneys, I assumed they referred to the grade the child was in; the numbers over there matched up to what grades the kids would have been in. There, the 11-year-olds (James and his cousin Thomas) have the number 4 in parentheses. Eleven-year-olds in 4th grade is appropriate, but 11-year-old Kate certainly wasn't in the 9th grade. What do you think these numbers mean?

Elizabeth Toner m. Thomas Loughlin

Some time ago, I met - via Ancestry - my third cousin once-removed, Elaine, who's related through the Toner side of the family. She sent me this marriage certificate of Elizabeth Toner and Thomas Loughlin. (Elizabeth is Julia Toner Mulvaney's older sister.) They were married 23 August, 1874 at St. Stephen's Church, Brooklyn. Their witnesses were James B. McCaulay and Mary Lynam, and the ceremony was performed by the Rev. EJ O'Reilly. This particular certificate was filled out in October, 1892.

Interestingly, the wedding took place not 10 days after the death of Elizabeth's paternal grandmother, Judith/Julia Toner, who died 14 August 1874.

Revealing 1892 NYS Census Record

Another 1892 NYS Census record, this one of the Loughlins. Thomas P. is 56 and Elizabeth is 34 (he's 22 years her senior!). They have four children - Thomas, 11; John E., 8; William, 6; and Michael, 5 m. Michael is a new name to me, and I wonder if he died young, before the 1900 census was taken. Thomas Loughlin looks like he was a "ship calker" (caulker?), and he was born in Ireland, while his wife and children were all born in Brooklyn. Significant is the name listed next, after Michael's. The 1892 Census isn't divided into households, but I imagine that this Loughlin household includes the Mary Tonner listed just after them. This is almost certainly Elizabeth's mother Mary Cullen Toner. If the baptismal date we have for her is correct, she should be about 75, not the 69 she lists, and of course their name was spelled with 1 'n', but I'm sure this is her.

It appears that Richard had died prior to 1892, thus Mary living with her children without him. We also learn that Mary was still alive in 1892. Interestingly, she no longer has her own household, but is living with her children, despite having at least one daughter still unmarried, Julia. I have no idea where Julia is, but hope to find her as I continue looking through these unidexed records. I wouldn't be surprised to find her living with one of her other sister, Mary Toner Murphy [we think] or Louise Toner Deegan. I still have never seen records of her before 1900, so I'd really like to find Julia in this census.

We interrupt this broadcast. . .

I've been concentrating on the O'Haras for a few days, because I have lots of records stored up that I haven't ever uploaded. However, I noticed today that the 1865 New York State Census was up on FamilySearch's Pilot Site. I've been traveling and moving and unpacking all day, but I've tried to page through (since the records are unindexed) in every free moment. Finally, at 9 at night, success! I've found the Toners! They're on the right-hand page of that image, the only family listed on the top part.

A few interesting things, bulleted because I'm short on time this evening:

• They live in a brick house worth $2,000. (If I knew more general history of the time, I'd perhaps be able to shed some light on what that said about their general material well-being.)
• Both Julia and Mary Ann, at ages 15 and 13, are employed, "sewing."
• Mary has given birth to 8 children. Only 7 are listed, and James Thomas is one of them. That means someone else died young, someone we haven't yet discovered.
  
• James Thomas is listed as James T., which I assume means he was actually called James Thomas. That's kind of cute.
  
• James Thomas was 1 and a half years old when the census was taken, which means he was about 2 1/2 when he died in August of 1866.
  
• Infuriatingly, this census lists an older woman, named Julia Toner, age listed as 60 (um, she was 63 five years ago!), who is listed as the mother of the head of household. I THOUGHT RICHARD'S MOTHER WAS JUDITH! Why, when Richard died, was she listed in her death notice as the mother of Richard Toner? I am increasingly convinced that, for some reason, the Toners used the names Judith and Julia interchangeably. Argh argh argh argh argh. Who was Richard's mother?
• Anyway, this Julia, supposedly Richard's mother, is listed as widowed, the mother of 4 children. So it seems possible that Richard had 3 siblings.
  
• Richard has been naturalized. Early naturalization records rarely had much information (later ones can be treasure troves), but there's another record I'd like to see one day.
  

That's what I've got. I'm excited, but quite frustrated by this constant Judith-Julia conflation.

Bet that got the gossips talking!

This is the 1900 Census of Elizabeth Toner Loughlin Renehan's family. Let's review a little history, shall we? Elizabeth was born in Brooklyn, circa 1855; married Thomas Loughlin by 1876; had an as of yet undetermined number of children, among them Charles Thomas, who died at 8 months, Thomas, Katherine, and John; was widowed; married Thomas Renahan; had little Willie Mulvaney live with her for an undetermined period of time.

Click on the above census image, so you can see it full-size. Peruse it. The Loughlins are about 3/4 of the way down the page. Let's see if your reaction was anything like mine.

Mine went something like this:

"Oh, there's Elizabeth. Oh, there are her kids, Thomas, John, William, and Catherine. William's new to me. Oh, and there's the boarder. . . Thomas Renehan?! What's he doing there? They're not married yet!"

Now, I think we have to consider the time, and the fact that Elizabeth had 4 young children, and assume that she was not, in fact, living in sin with her boyfriend before they made it legal. I think we can safely - though not definitely - consider that the situation was one in which Elizabeth, was a respectable widow taking in boarders to make ends meet, one of whom was the equally respectable Thomas Renehan, a good provider who could take care of the family. Still, would it have been scandalous to get engaged to your boarder?

According to this census, Elizabeth was born in February 1860. That can't be true, if she was 5 in 1860. She has given birth to 11 children, 4 of whom are still living. Her son Thomas is 18, born in August, 1881. He's a coachman. John E., 15, was born in 1884. He's a day laborer. William, 13, was born in July, 1886. He's attending school. Catherine, 6, was born in March 1894. Thomas Renehan, the boarder, who would be the husband within 4 years (according to the 1910 census), is 40 years old and was born in 1860. (The month looks like it says "Afer," and I have no idea what it is supposed to be.) He, too, is a day laborer. He was born in Ireland, and immigrated to the US 29 years ago (I'm having trouble reading the year of immigration). He's a naturalized citizen.

Elizabeth rents the house.

Elizabeth Toner Loughlin Renehan, November 5, 1925

State of New York
Department of Health of the The City of New York
Bureau of Records
Standard Certificate of Death

Register No. 20307

1. Place of Death: Bklyn
Name of Institution: St. Peter’s Hosp.

2. Full Name: Elizabeth Loughlin Renehan

3. Sex: Female
4. Color or Race: White
5. Marital Condition: Widowed

6. Date of Birth: [blank]
7. Age: 65 yrs

8. Occupation
Trade, Profession, or Particular kind of work: Housewife
General Nature of Industry: [blank]

9. Birthplace: US
9A. How long in US (if of foreign birth): [blank]
9B. How long resident in City of New York: Life

10. Name of Father: Richard Toner
11. Birthplace of Father: Ireland
12. Maiden Name of Mother: Mary Cullen
13. Birthplace of Mother: Ireland

14. Special information required in deaths in hospitals and institutions and in deaths of non-residents and recent residents: 221 Conover St.

15. Date of Death: Nov. 5, 1925

16. I hereby certify that the foregoing particulars (Nos. 1 to 15 inclusive) are correct as near as the same can be ascertained, and I further certify that deceased was admitted to this institution on Oct. 5, 1925, that I last saw her alive on the 5^th day of Nov 1925, that she died on the 5^th day of Nov. 1925, about 5:45 o’clock P.M., and that I am unable to state definitely the cause of death; the diagnosis during her last illness was: Pernicious anemia.

Duration: [blank]
Contributory: [blank]

Witness my hand this 5^th day of Nov 1925
Signature: J. Pamerantz, M.D.
House Physician

Filed: Nov 6 1925

18. Place of Burial: Calvary Cemetary
Date of Burial: November 9^th, 1925
19. Undertaker: Henry J. Flood
Address: 297 Van Brunt St.

To Undertakers

1. No burial permit can be obtained without a proper certificate
2. Certificates must be written throughout in black ink.
3. No certificate will be accepted which is mutilate, illegible, inaccurate, or any portion of which has been erased, interlined, corrected, or altered, as all such changes impair its value as a public record.

I hereby certify that I have been employed as undertaker by Thomas Loughlin, the son of deceased. This statement is made to obtain a permit for the burial or cremation of the remains of deceased Elizabeth Loughlin Renehan.

Signature Henry J. Flood

This is the death certificate of Elizabeth Toner Loughlin Renehan (so far winning the "longest name" contest in our family). She's listed as being 65. Given that she was listed as 55 in 1910, 15 in 1870, and 5 in 1860, she should actually have been about 70. That's not far off. She died of pernicious anemia, which is the result of a B-12 deficiency. The son who signed her body over to the undertaker (Henry J Flood, and I realized where I know that name from: he's the undertaker who buried Patrick) was Thomas Loughlin. This son wasn't on the 1910 census when she was living with second husband Thomas Renehan, kids John and Katherine Loughlin, and nephew Willie Mulvaney. Because he shares his father's name, and had moved out of his mother's home before his younger siblings did, I'm going to take a leap and assume he might be the oldest - though I wouldn't venture to guess whether he was older or younger than Charles Thomas Loughlin, the brother who died at 8 months old in 1876.

More death certificates

The other day, I sent away for death certificates for an Elizabeth L Renehan and a Louise Degan. Both are within the approximate age ranges of Julia Toner Mulvaney's sisters Elizabeth Toner Loughlin Renehan and Louise Toner Deegan. I'm not sure what this will tell us, if anything, but every so often I get that uncontrollable urge for more records! Records, records, records! The more, the merrier. And there they were, indexed online, only an online order form and a credit card away from my living room, so I ordered them. I don't know Louise Toner Deegan's husband's name, so I'm hoping to learn that from here, plus other assorted information. Really, though, I'm sure those are not the most important certificates I could have ordered.

I hesitate to order earlier ones, because they have less information, but they also concern the people I want to know more. We already have sketches of the lives of Elizabeth and Louise; I want a death certificate for Richard, to finally put an end to the question of when he died. (Problem: DCs are harder to find and more expensive when you don't know the date of death.) I want a death certificate for the elder Julia and her brother, especially to learn his age and his actual first name. John? James? Joseph? (Problem: DCs are harder to find when you don't actually know the person's name.) I want death certificates for the O'Hara side, for Grandpa JJ's parents, to learn their parents' first names. (Problem: DCs are really hard to find when you don't know the date of death and there are 382 men named John O'Hara in Brooklyn.)

So for now, I'm working with what I can get, just for the sheer joy of having the records, even if they add little to the actual corpus of knowledge.

I also recently ordered a military service record for a Richard Toner who served for NY in the Civil War. I have no idea at all whether this was our Richard, or what information would be contained therein even if it was, but for now I'm jsut excitedly awaiting that record in the mail, fingers crossed.

Charles Thomas Loughlin, 8 mos 8 day

Doing some more searching on the Brooklyn Eagle online, I came across this obituary for Charles Thomas Loughlin, age 8 months, 8 days, child of Thomas Loughlin and Elizabeth Toner. He died August 14, 1876. I believe this Elizabeth Toner is Julia's sister, the one who later - presumably after Thomas died - married another Thomas, Thomas Renehan, and had Willie Mulvaney living with them in 1910. We already knew Elizabeth had two children, John and Katherine, born around 1885 and 1894, respectively, and this shows that she apparently had at least one other. The 1910 census does say that Elizabeth Renehan hadn't given birth to any children, but I assume that that's simply not accurate. Since Elizabeth would have been, according to 1860 and 1870 census records, only about 20 when Charles Thomas was born (approximately January 6, 1876), I assume he was their first child, although I don't know that that's accurate.

October 10, 1938

So, I had these great, organized, well-planned out ideas to post things in reverse chronological order, from most recent to most ancient, so that things would eventually be laid out in an order that makes perfect chronological sense when viewed from the most recent to the oldest post.

Nevermind all that.

A few weeks ago, I sent away to the NY Municipal Archives for the death certificates of Julia and Patrick Mulvaney, Nana's parents. Julia's arrived this afternoon. I don't have a scanner, but I'm transcribing it for my own records, so I'll post it here, as well. It contains lots of information I didn't know, though it may not be new to all of you.

[Bureau of Records - Department of Health - Borough of Brooklyn]

Certificate of Death
[1938 October 12 PM 12:27]

Certificate No. 19700
1. Place of Death: Borough of Brooklyn 324 82 St., Private residence
2. Full name: Julia Mulvaney
3. Residence (usual place of abode): 324 82 St., Brooklyn

Personal and Statistical Particulars
4. Sex: Female
5. Color or Race: White
6. (Marital Status): Widowed
7. Date of birth: [blank]
8. Age of decedent: 68 yrs.
9. Occupation
a. trade: Housewife
b. industry: Own home
c. date decedent last worked at this occupation: June, 1936
d. total time spent in occupation: 45 years
10. Birthplace: USA
11. How long in US (if of foreign birth): [blank]
12. How long resident in City of New York: [blank]
Parents of Deceased
13. Name of father of decedent: Richard Toner
14. Birthplace of father: Ireland
15. Maiden name of mother of decedent: Mary Cullen
16. Birthplace of mother: Ireland

17. Informant: Thos. Mulvaney, son

Medical Certificate of Death
18. Date of death: October 10, 1938
19. I hereby certify that I attended the deceased from Aug. 1936 to October 10, 1938. I last saw her alive on Oct. 10, 1938: death is stated to have occurred on the date stated above, at 3:45 PM.
The principal cause of death and related causes of importance were as follows:
chronic hypertensive cardio-vascular disease (duration 2 1/2 years)
chronic thyrotoxicosis (duration 2 1/2 years)

Other contributory causes of importance:
cerebral embolism (duration 10 days)

Name of operation: [blank]
Date: [blank]
What test confirmed diagnosis? [blank]
Was there an autopsy? No

Signature: Charles Stern, MD
Address: 454 43 St., Bklyn

21. Place of Burial: Holy Cross Cemetary
Date of Burial: October 13th, 1938
22. Undertaker: Joseph Redmond, John Redmond
Address: 476 73 St.

Funeral Director's Certificate

I hereby certify that I have been employed, without any solicitation on my part or that of any other person, as undertaker to dispose of the remains of Julia Mulvaney by Thomas Mulvaney of 324 82 St., Bklyn, who is the son and the nearest surviving relative or next of kin of the deceased. This statement is made to obtain a permit for the burial or cremation of the remains of the deceased.
Signature: Joseph Redmond
Business address: 476 73rd St.
Permit No.: 219
If another undertaker in your employ is to take personal charge of the work in the care, preparation, or other disposal of such dead human body, give his name: John J. Redmond
State License No.: 192

Physician's Supplementary Certification
(Required in Connection with Telephone Application for Removal Permit)

If death has not been contributed to or caused by homicide, suicide, accident, acute or chronic poisoning, abortion, puerperal sepsis, or any suspicion of of those conditions, and the funeral director desires to obtain removal permission by telephone, the physician will execute the following certification:--
I hereby certify that the death of Julia Mulvaney who died on Oct. 10, 1938, at 324 82 St., Bklyn has not been contributed to or caused by any of the conditions mentioned in the above list.
Personal signature of physician: Charles Stern
Address: 454 43 St., Bklyn


I didn't try to use block quotes again, as last time I did that was the formatting nightmare two posts below, but hopefully it's easy enough to tell where the certificate begins and ends. It gets awfully clinical and distasteful towards the end, doesn't it?

Keeping in mind that death certificates tend to be the least reliable of vital records, because they are filled out by someone other than the person they are about (in other words, it's much less likely than a child or grandchild will accurately name the parents of the deceased on a death certificate, than, say, that the parents of a newborn will accurately name themselves on a birth certificate), what I learned from this (I'm deciding to trust Thomas Mulvaney) were most specifically Julia's parents' names, Richard Toner and Mary Cullen.

If Julia was 68 when she died in 1938, her birth was around 1870, which is in keeping with the age she gives on all the census records I've found her on (I never have come across the 1930 census for the family). However, when I search census records for Richard Toner in NY, with wife Mary and daughter Julia, the only records I come up with that seem even possible are these, from 1860 and 1870:



These two families are clearly the same, but their Julia is a full 19 years older than ours should be. She may even have already left home by the 1870 census, right around when our Julia should be just being born. I've heard a story or two about a Mulvaney woman lying about her age, but I would think that 19 years would be stretching it.

First, I want to ask whether anyone already knows the names of Julia's parents and siblings, and can let me know whether all this conjecture is misplaced.

Second, I'm going to let my imagination run wild for a minute. There's an older woman living in the home during both census years (she ages more than 10 years in the interim, though, so there's no guarantee that she's the same person). Her name is listed as Julia Toner in 1860, and I would assume that she's Richard Toner's mother. In this census, young Julia is listed, 9 years old. The older woman is listed as Judith Toner in 1870, and a toddler is listed, baby Judith. Assuming for a moment that she is the same woman, it seems possible that her name IS Julia, and that the census taker misheard Julia for Judith that day - in which case it's possible, I suppose, that little 2-year-old Judith could actually be Julia, too - and she'd be about the right age to be our Julia.

That of course, leaves the problem of having 2 daughters named Julia in the same family (and we'd have to hope that Occam's Razor doesn't apply to genealogy) - it could be explained any number of ways (Julia 1 died and they named the baby after her; Julia 1 got into some trouble, named the baby after herself, and left it with her parents; etc.) all of which are possible, and none of which are particularly likely.

It could also be, of course, that there were multiple Richard and Mary Toners in NY at the time, and that more than one of them had a daughter named Julia, and that our Toner family was skipped by the census that year. Or that I just haven't found them. Or that one of you will post a comment to the effect of "Thomas Mulvaney must have been mistaken. Julia's parents were named Bob and Sue," and I'll feel a little silly. Does anyone have any facts, documents, stories, opinions, or wild conjecture similar to mine to add to the story?