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Breaking Through SUCCESS STORIES WITH "BRICK WALL" SOLUTIONS The Man Who Would be Found By Na n c y Ro n n i ng It was about a week after he died in 1969, that I went to my father’s apartment in Brooklyn, New York to clear out his things. Because of a family situation I really didn’t know him very well, and I knew little about his family, except that his mother’s family had come from Kildare in Ireland, and that her maiden name was Kelly. But there, in that top, right hand drawer of his chest on chest dresser, I found two things. I found a ladies’ pocket watch, and the Civil War discharge of Anson Kelly, private in the 17th New York Regiment, born in Dublin, Ireland. Anson Kelly was my father’s mother’s father—my greatgrandfather. Life intervened. I married, had children, they grew up and I grew older. Anson Kelly remained in the background until a high school assignment brought a question from my elder daughter. “I have to write about an ancestor for History class,” she said. The paper was due at the end of the semester. I quickly wrote to the National Archives for Anson Kelly’s military records and found that he had enlisted in New York as a drummer boy after being rejected in New Jersey “on account of my youth.” He fought in the stalled Peninsular Campaign, and was shipped to David’s Island to recuperate from illness due to exposure during the long rain filled days and nights on the muddy ground of tidal Virginia. The paper got an A-, and more years passed. Anson Kelly was shelved, if not forgotten. When my daughter and her sister were both in college and I was left with only the family dog, Anson Kelly surfaced in my consciousness. Perhaps he wanted to be found! I began to look into genealogy, took a beginner’s course, and joined the NYG&B. I found Anson Kelly in the census at the New York Public Library (no Ancestry at that time) and at NARA in New York City. I am ashamed to admit it, but it was at that time that I really read and reread every word of the pension file, and finally, in 1998, sent to Trenton, New Jersey for Anson’s death certificate. His cause of death was blocked out (as per New Jersey regulations), but his place of burial in Camden, New Jersey, was clearly listed as Saint Patrick’s Cemetery. By now, it was the age of the Internet, and I looked for Saint Patrick’s Cemetery on the net. Nothing! How Anson Kelly’s Civil War Service Discharge could a cemetery in a major city be missing I joined a New Jersey listserve and repeatedly asked for the location of Saint Patrick’s. Nothing. Until one day I received a response that explained that Saint Patrick’s originally had been located behind the Cathedral in Camden, but in order to make room for a new building, all the bodies were moved to Calvary Cemetery in Cherry Hill. In the best tradition of the “Genealogy Road Trip,” I packed the camera and headed for Cherry Hill. The woman in the cemetery office was very kind, but “No, there is no record of an Anson Kelly.” Unwilling to get right back in the car, I roamed around for a while and was about to leave when two cemetery workers passed by and asked what I was looking for. When I replied that I was looking for Anson Kelly, but he was not buried there, one of them replied, “Sure he is. I put a flag on his grave every Memorial Day. The VFW people won’t do it because the Civil War wasn’t a foreign war. But I don’t think that’s right, so I do it.” I was amazed. How did he know 56 © Ev e r t o n’s Ge n e a l o g i c a l He l p e r Ja n ua ry/Fe b r u a r y 2009
Breaking Through Anson Kelly’s headstone so much about Anson Kelly He led me to a beautiful headstone, engraved with shamrocks and bearing the regiment number and the names of children buried with him. How could this not have been in the records The worker said that he had some old books from the transported graves, and we checked, but Anson Kelly’s name was not in that book either. There is absolutely no record of Anson in any cemetery. And I found him. Perhaps he wanted to be found. From his pension record and census I really knew a great deal about Anson Kelly—his children’s names, his many ailments, his widow’s petitions. The New Jersey Historical Society provided sparse obituaries from the Camden Telegraph and the Review. Both gave the date, his address, and said “suddenly.” It was time to move on, and I moved my investigations to his ancestors from Kildare. I was pretty much finished with Anson—or so I thought. That changed one day in 2007 when the Reference Librarian from the Ridgewood Public Library announced at the monthly meeting of the GSBC that she had a trial subscription to NewsBank, a database that has backfiles of many newspapers. I sat down and typed in “Anson Kelly,” a great name for searches because it is so unusual. Up popped two hits, both from February 2, 1898, with headlines which began “Smothered in Mud “(The Philadelphia Inquirer), and “Found Suffocated in Anson Kelly’s death—from The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper. From Early American Newspapers, an Archive of Americana Collection, published by Readex (Readex.com) a division of Newsbank, and in cooperation with the American Antiquarian Society. Used by Permission. Mud” (Daily State Gazette). The long headlines of The Inquirer continued “Sick Man Met Death in a Camden Swamp” followed by “Anson H. Kelly Wandered From Home While Suffering From Grip. Dog Found the Body.” A man walking his dog reported that the dog had run off and returned with a man’s hat in his mouth. Upon investigation the man found the body of Anson Kelly, face down in the mud. “Suddenly!” The article described Kelly as a night shift employee of the Pennsylvania Railroad whose job was to supervise the floats used in transporting freight cars between Camden and Philadelphia. Poor soul! Amazing that the dog found him! Amazing that I found this when I had thought my newspaper research finished with his obituary. Perhaps he just wanted to be found. Once again, I was finished with my Anson Kelly research, and headed off on a TIARA trip to Dublin to research his ancestors. I was in the National 1969 Discharge Found 1991 Military Records Requested 1998 Death Certificate Requested 2000 Gravestone Located 2007 Cause of Death Discovered 2008 Baptismal Certificate Discovered 2008 Twin’s Existence Revealed Ja n ua ry/Fe b r u a r y 2009 Ev e r t o n’s Ge n e a l o g i c a l He l p e r © 57
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