Surnames

Baldwin Family Mystery Update…. Disappointment

I recently ordered a vital records search from the New York City Vital Records office.  I ask them for several birth, marriage and death records associated with Sadie Donnelly, John Reilly and both Nelson Baldwins.  I just received the first response that is in response to the two marriage records I requested.  The first record I request was a search for Sadie’s marriage to John Reilly on April 30, 1893 in Brooklyn.  They were unable to find the record of the marriage.

I also requested a search for a marriage to Nelson Baldwin in Brooklyn, but I requested a three year search based on the information I found in the 1910 Federal Census.  I requested the search be conducted for 1908, 1909 and 1910.  They were unable to find the record of the marriage.

So my next thought is to look in Queens for vital records and to start tracking down potential Catholic churches for record of a church wedding.  They were living in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, so I plan to start there for possible neighborhood churches.  I also plan on contacting the cemetery where Sadie is buried for any potential information that they may have.

Biography of Sadie Donnelly

Sadie Donnelly was born to Patrick and Bridget on December 14, 1875 in New York. She is my 2nd great-grandmother on my paternal grandfather’s side of the family. She married John Reilly on April 30, 1893 in New York. She gave birth to 5 children while married to John: Arlington, Madeline, Lawrence, Helen and Adele. Both Helen and Adele died in infancy or as young children. Lawrence was the only one of her children who married as an adult. Madeline was engaged, but her fiance was killed overseas during World War I, and she never ended up marrying.

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Blue Willow

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Blue Willow is a China pattern that has been a common thread throughout my life. Both my mother and my paternal grandmother were collectors. The pattern is a beautiful one with a poignant story of eternal love represented in it artwork.

The story represent two young lovers – the daughter of a wealthy man and a man of whom the father did not approve. He forbid the lovers from seeing each other and locked his daughter behind the garden fence. The young lovers eloped, even though she was betrothed to the man her father chose for her. Her father chased after them. As they crossed the bridge, the gods, enamored with their dedication to each other, turned them into doves, so they could be together for eternity.

We ate on blue willow dinner plates almost every night for dinner. My grandmother’s was decorated almost enitirely in blue willow (including a plastic covered blue willow patterned couch and table lamps). Many times during my childhood, I read and re-read Doris Gates’ juvenile book Blue Willow.

I currently have only one piece of blue willow in my home. It’s a teapot that my father bought my mother while they were on their honeymoon. I plan to find the right place for it in the house, and keep my mother’s ashes in it.

Biography of Michael Reilly

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Right now I’m obsessing over my 3rd great grandfather, Michael J. Reilly. He was born in 1846 in Ireland and probably came to the United States with his parents, John and Ann, when he was about 5 years old. They settled in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. He met and married May Ann Ambrose, a native of New Jersey, who was the love of his life. They had seven children, of whom only four survived to adulthood. As an adult, he worked as a sailmaker. Even after his children were adults, he helped raise his grandchildren – my great grandfather Lawrence Ambrose Reilly, and his brother Arlington and sister Madeline. A couple of this children, David and Elizabeth, remained single and lived at home as adults. He died in 1926 in Brooklyn at the age of 80.

The Baldwin Family Mystery

New York Subway Map, CIrca 1918, Library of Congress
New York Subway Map, CIrca 1918, Library of Congress

 

My 2nd great-grandmother Sadie Donnelly Reilly was a nickle-snatcher – a subway token clerk in New York City.  She was raising three children in Brooklyn, the youngest of whom as 2 years old when her husband disappeared.  John Reilly was riding the ferry one day when he allegedly fell overboard.  No body was ever recovered, and he was declared dead, leaving Sadie to raise their children alone.

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