Funeral Card Friday - Thomas H. McCormack

On Thursday, December 4, 1941, the funeral of Thomas H. McCormack, son of the late John McCormack and Bridget/Theresa (Kane) McRae, took place at his home in Brockton. Thomas passed away three days prior. Interment took place in Calvary Cemetery, Brockton, Massachusetts.

Thomas was the half-brother of my great-grandfather, Fred McRae. 

Thursday, December 4, 1941 , Brockton Daily Enterprise - Page Two

Mystery Monday - What's Your Name?

Throughout my time researching, I occasionally come across a piece of information that will conflict with another piece of information I already have. An example of this would be the name of my great-great grandmother.

Throughout my research, I have come across two different names for her - Bridget & Theresa.

I first found her name in the obituary of her son, Frederick McRae (my great grandfather). Her name is listed as "Bridget (Kane) McRae"

Brockton Daily Enterprise - Wednesday, February 28, 1951

Her name was also listed as Bridget in a 1900 United States Census.

United States Census, 1900

However, when I looked up Fred's birth certificate, her name came up as Theresa Kane.

Names written on Fred McRae's birth certificate. Dated May 10, 1892.

I went to an Irish Festival where there was a genealogy booth. I told the genealogist my dilemma and she recommended that I go by the name I found on the birth certificate because it would be the most accurate. And I went with it.

Later on, I found the marriage certificate of her marriage to my great-great grandfather, James R. McRae, at the Massachusetts State Archives and her name was listed as "Theresa McCormick (Kane)". The McCormick part is correct because she was previously married to a McCormick.

Names written on marriage certificate. Dated February 19, 1887.

On the birth certificate of Walter McRae, the second son she had with James, her name is listed as Theresa (although Theresa is misspelled in this document and written as Tressa). 

Names written on Walter McRae's birth certificate. Dated Aug 17, 1889.

However, the name Bridget started coming up again when I went looking for her death record. After looking through the records at the Brockton Public Library, I found her. She died on December 9, 1926 and was listed in the book as "Bridget T. McRae". The complete accuracy of her death record is questionable though because they listed her mother as Maria Horne, when in fact Maria was actually the mother of her husband, James. 

And her obituary and death notice listed her as "Bridget T. Kane" as well. 

Friday, December 10, 1926 , The Brockton Times - Page 3

Friday, December 10, 1926 , The Brockton Times - Page 13

I frequently use the genealogy website, familysearch.org, and have recently discovered that my great-great grandparents had another child before Walter. His name was also Fred E. McRae. However, he died in 1991, a year before my great grandfather, Fred McRae, was born.  On both his birth and death records, his mother is listed "Theresa Kane".

Names written on Fred E. McRae's birth record. Fred was born on December  11, 1887.

Names written on Fred E. McRae's death record. Fred died on  April 5, 1891.

I also found a census record from 1880 during the time of her first marriage and it lists her name as "Bridget" although it is actually misspelled on the census as "Btiget".

The death record of Thomas H. McCormick has his mother listed as "Bridget Kane".

In the obituary of Mary A. McCormick, her name is given as "Bridget" but once again, the question of accuracy comes into play because of several other typos in the obituary (ex. Kane is spelled as Cain).

Thursday, November 13, 1958 , Brockton Daily Enterprise - Page Two

On Mary McCormick's birth certificate, the name of her mother is also listed as "Bridget".

Names listed on Mary McCormick's birth certificate. Mary was born on January 30, 1879.

This whole name conflict remains one of the biggest mysteries and whether her name was in fact Bridget or Theresa may never be known.

Tombstone Tuesday - There's More Than Meets The Eye in Calvary Cemetery

The city of Brockton, Massachusetts has many cemeteries and if I look around hard enough, I can probably find someone of relation in each one. But the one that holds, how should I put this, the most distinction to me is Calvary Cemetery. Located on North Cary Street, Calvary Cemetery is the eternal resting place to many ancestors of mine.

Among the many ancestors laid to rest there, one of them was my great-grandfather, Fred McRae. Now finding his grave was tough when I first went looking for it a few years because there was a wreath covering the names. But once I found it, I saw that there were three other people buried with him: his sister, Mary McCormick, their boarder (Mary and Fred took in a lot of boarders), John Doherty, and Fred's adopted grandson, Kevin Newell.

Mary McCormick (1879 - 1958)
Fred J. McRae (1892 - 1951)
John E. Doherty (1897 - 1962)
Kevin F. Newell (1952 - 2001)

Now around the headstone where two in-ground stones. Towards the front right of his stone was a memorial commemorating Fred's time in the army during World War I. And towards the back left of the headstone was a little in-ground stone with one word on it, "MOTHER" (I'm going to save the story surrounding this stone for  Mystery Monday).

Marker commemorating Fred's time in the military during World War I.

So after all was said and done and I had copied down the information I needed and took pictures, I left, thinking nothing more of it.

Over the years, I continued my research and made some very interesting discoveries. After looking at the death certificate of Fred's father, James R. McRae, I found out Mary was actually a step-daughter to James (half-sister to Fred). On a 1900 U.S Census Record, I found the names Edward and Thomas McCormick (spelled McCormack on the census). Now I had originally assumed that Thomas or Edward was Mary's spouse and the other was a brother of said spouse.

But after reading the obituary of Fred's mother, I found out that Thomas and Edward were actually Mary's brothers (Fred's half-brothers). Also on the obituary was another child named Ben! I was quite suprised by this.

But now the big question for me was - what the heck happened to them all?!

One problem I had been having was not being able to find Mary's death date (She died in 1958; records at the library stopped around the 1940's and the records at the city hall were too much (there's a fee just to look).) So yesterday, I decided to call Calvary because I thought maybe they could give me her burial date. And wasn't it quite a shock when the man told me that the grave was actually a ten-person grave! I was stunned and even more so when the names he read off to me included Thomas McCormick (spelled McCormack on the records there), Edward McCormick, and Benjamin McRae!

Bingo! I found them!

But now, the one thing that puzzles me is why they are all buried there but only Mary, Fred, John, and Kevin's names appear on the headstone. Hmm . . . maybe, I should have saved this story for Mystery Monday as well.

Ben McRae                         (Burial June 10, 1932)

Thomas H. McCormack       (Burial December 4, 1941)

Child of mgt                         (Burial January 7, 1944)

Child of James Newell          (Burial September 3, 1946)

Edward McCormack             (Burial August 31, 1950)

Fred McRae                         (Burial March 2, 1951)

Mary McCormack                 (Burial November 15, 1958)

John E. Doherty                   (Burial December 14, 1962)

Kevin Newell                         (Cremation June 27, 2001)