"Well THAT'S a unique way to die!"*

Ever since I learned that my great-great-grandmother's brother, Samuel Toner, died "suddenly" at age 18, I've given him remarkably little thought. Short life, no issue - what else was there to research? It had crossed my mind to wonder what had killed him, but I didn't order the death certificate (rather - ledger entry) to find out. Yesterday, I was searching for the Toners - each of them individually - on GenealogyBank, and I came across an item of note, published in the New-York Herald Tribune on 22 September 1870, the day after Samuel's death.

Samuel Toner, residing at the corner of Van Brunt and Tremont-sts., and employed at Smith's Flour Mills in Hamilton-ave., fell into a bin of bran, yesterday, and was suffocated.

That must have been an awful and frightening way to go, and such a shock to his family!

I figured that if his death had been significant enough to be a news item in the Herald-Tribune, it had probably merited more than just his death notice in the Brooklyn Eagle, and so I went to Fulton History and read the paper for Sept. 22. Sure enough, I found it, right there in small, faded type that makes a poor candidate for OCR.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 22 September 1870

It reads:

SUFFOCATED.--About eleven o'clock yesterday, a young man named Samuel Toner, 19 years of age, was found suffocated in a bed of bran in the flour mill of Mr. Smith, in Hamilton avenue. His body was conveyed to the residence of his parents, on the corner of Van Brunt and Tremont streets, and the Coroner was notified to hold an inquest.

I'm certainly glad I checked the second paper, or I'd have no idea to look for records of the coroner's inquest!



*My husband's response when I read him the death notice.

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.

Maynooth Records

Remember when we found what we think are records of the baptisms of William Toner and Mary Cullen? I went looking for some more records from Maynooth, and here are some of the potentially interesting things I found, at the very helpful Fáilte Romhat, a personal family history site that includes lots of records scanned and/or transcribed:

http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/kildare/laraghbryan.htm
In this Index of Griffith's Valuation, I found these Toner records of interest:

Toner      William     Kellystown                   Laraghbryan   Kildare
Tonor      Samuel      Tw. Maynooth, Nunnery Lane   Laraghbryan   Kildare
Tonor      William     Tw. Maynooth, Main Street    Laraghbryan   Kildare

Laraghbryan was the civil parish that Maynooth was a part of. We've heard that Richard's father was named William, though here we're not sure whether he was the Toner or Tonor here. Note too, that the other Tonor listed was Samuel; Julia's brothers were William and Samuel. Do you think that means anything?

There are also these records, that I'm interested in based on the other names - both maiden names of women and witnesses - at the weddings and baptisms from the Maynooth sacramental records.

Boland     Patrick     Tw. Maynooth, Back Lane        Laraghbryan   Kildare
Cullen     Michael     Greenfield                     Laraghbryan   Kildare
Cullen     Michael     Moneycooley                    Laraghbryan   Kildare
Hackett    Anne        Tw. Maynooth, Pound Street     Laraghbryan   Kildare
Hackett    John        Tw. Maynooth, Nunnery Lane     Laraghbryan   Kildare
Hackett    Mary        Town of Maynooth               Laraghbryan   Kildare
Walsh      Ellen       Tw. Maynooth, Dublin Road      Laraghbryan   Kildare
Walsh      Joseph      Tw. Maynooth, Leinster St.     Laraghbryan   Kildare
Walsh      Thomas      Blakestown                     Laraghbryan   Kildare

From there, I went here, where you can search and view the actual records of Griffith's Valuation.

The William Tone(o)r's here are one in Kellystown who holds his house, offices, and land directly from the Duke of Leinster as his landlord, and one in Maynooth who holds his lands directly from the Duke, and rents land out, in turn, to John Connor and James Quin(n). Might they be the same William Tonor/Toner? Or do we think there were two families with slightly different names?

If this link works, you'll be able to see a contemporary map of Maynooth, though I'm having trouble figuring out the lot locations and who lived/owned/rented where. I do note that there is a Cushion's Street in Maynooth; I wonder if this is any relation to the Mary Cushion who was Richard's godmother?

I'll see about looking up the rest some time when it's not 1:30 in the morning.

Brooklyn Churches! Excitement!

Some time ago, I posted about having come across baptismal records of the three eldest Toner children, Julia, Mary Ann, and Samuel, at St. Paul's Church in Brooklyn. I didn't know why only those three were baptized there, but it appears I've just figured it out!

Combining this Brooklyn Catholic blog I just found, which gives locations and founding dates for churches in Brooklyn with my knowledge of the addresses the Toners lived at and the very cool "My Maps" feature at Google Maps, I've created this map that shows family addresses in blue (will give addresses, family, and time period if you click) and church locations in green (will give parish name, address, and founding date if you click), I've realized that the Toners, it would seem, attended St. Paul's, and baptized their first three children there, until two much closer churches - St. Mary Star of the Sea in 1853 and Visitation in 1854 (1853 is the date given for Samuel's baptism, the latest Toner baptism at St. Paul's). I'll have to look a little closer to double check whether there are any other Catholic churches in or near Red Hook, but for now it looks like my first order of business is contact St. Mary's and Visitation and finding out how far back their parish records go (please let them go all the way back to 1853/4!), and either request a search or make a plan to go do some research myself (that part might not happen until this summer, of course). Finding baptismal records for the middle Toner kids there, and then, especially, for the younger Julia, our Julia, would be crucial. It's torturous to know that the family I've traced back the farthest is the one that hasn't quite necessarily 100% been linked to us, although I'm 98% sure.

My assumption will be that the Toner's attended Visitation (we know the Mulvaneys did), but since we know that the Madigans attended St. Mary's, both are worth the effort.

Anyway, check out the map, as I'll be updating it soon with additional churches and addresses. For my own reference, it will include the O'Haras and Quinns as well as the Mulcahys, Mulvaneys, Madigans, and Toners. I've just recently e-mailed St. Augustine's near Baltic St. to see if they can find any of the sacramental records of the O'Hara family, but if they're not there, I'll have to map and check all of the other local churches.

New York, Death Newspaper Extracts

In searching this collection on Ancestry.com, I have so far come across two death notices that appear to be of interest to us. Both are from the Brooklyn Eagle, though I haven't come across either in searching that site itself.

The first, from September 22, 1870, reads:

Sept. 21 Samuel J. Toner 18y s Richard & Mary Fremont-Van Brunt St.

which I believe translates to Samuel J. Toner, age 18, son of Richard and Mary Toner, died September 21, 1870. I'm not sure of the reference to Fremont-Van Brunt St. Does Van Brunt St. now, or did it ever, intersect with a street called Fremont? or Tremont? (It's a fuzzy image.)

It seems that Julia's brother Samuel died at age 18.

Possibly even more exciting is the next one, published August of 1874:

Aug 14 Mrs Judith Toner native Maynorth co Kildare Son Richard of Van Brunt St Bklyn

It seems that no, Julia was not named after her paternal grandmother, and that the older woman named Judith who lived with the Toner family in 1870 was, in fact, named Judith, and that she died in 1874, several years after that census was taken. Most important, however, is the fact that she was a native of Maynorth in Co. Kildare, Ireland! However - a quick google search reveals no such place. There is, though, a Maynooth in County Kildare. I'll have to do some more research to find out whether there ever was a Maynorth, and whether our Judith and Richard Toner came from Maynooth.

Now this looks like progress!

UPDATE: The actual death notices, from the Eagle itself,

Judith's reads:
TONER - August 14, 1874, Mrs. Judith Toner, a native of the town of Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. Her funeral will take place from the residence of her son, Richard Toner, Verona St, near Van Brunt, and 2 1/2 o'clock PM, on Sunday, August 16, 1874.

(Yes, the town in Ireland is Maynooth, not Maynorth, which is good, because Maynorth doesn't appear to exist.)



Samuel's reads:
TONER - Suddenly, Sept. 21st, Samuel J. Toner, in the 18th year of his age, son of Richard and Mary Toner. His friends and acquaintances are respectfully invited to attend his funeral, on Friday, at 2 1/2 o'clocj, without further notice, from his father's residence, cor. of Tremont and Van Brunt sts.

This doesn't say what Samuel died of, only that it was sudden, and so not the result of a long illness. We also learn that the Toners appear to have moved around the corner between 1870 and 1874, and are now living on Verona St., near its intersection with Van Brunt, whereas before they were living at the corner of Van Brunt and Tremont - unless Verona was previously known as Tremont? I only posit that because I couldn't find Tremont on a current google maps.