Author: pointofreference

Ultimately, I found Joe Croy in St. Paul’s Cemetery in Arlington Massachusetts on a warm fall day 100 years after he’d been laid to rest. I’d been looking for him for years and one day all the pieces came together.

Joseph Patrick Croy was my father’s uncle; brother to Dad’s mother, he was also my father’s namesake. Like my Dad he was remembered for his sense of humor, although everyone I spoke to only knew him by his reputation as he’d died before my father and his sibling were born.

Joe Croy was born in 1881 in Cambridge Massachusetts to Basilio and Sarah (Maguire) Croy. The first obstacle to finding him was a birth record that identified him as Patrick Bernard Croy. Being born in 1881 allowed him to evade the 1880 census, while the missing 1890 Census allowed him to stay hidden. By the time the 1900 Census rolled around Joe had wandered off. He was remembered as a wanderer and the news-clipping below supports that claim.

 

A niece remembered hearing that he’d spent some time in the Coast Guard and may have ended up in New Hampshire. A nephew’s wife heard from his sister that he’d returned home to Cambridge for a short time to be nursed back to health after an illness. No luck with Coast Guard records but a “James” Croy appears in the 1910 Census living in New Hampshire and following that lead was successful as it was actually our Joe. This was confirmed by his subsequent marriage to a servant living in the same home.

I hit another dead end when I searched New Hampshire death records but discovered his widowed had remarried in 1914. On a whim I checked the  the Massachusetts death index for that time period . As it turns out, when he went home to Cambridge he was dying of Tuberculosis. He died on February 4, 1914

 

 

A Tale of Two Patrick’s

I have no idea where it originated but for as long as I can remember I’ve known that my great grandfather fell off a street car and into to the Charles river where he was swept away never to be seen again. Turns out this is the juxtaposition of two true stories about a father and son.

To clarify the lineage Patrick J. Hayes Sr. begat Patrick Hayes Jr, who begat Howard Hayes Sr.; who begat Virginia Hayes-my mother.

Now to dissect the story:

Patrick Hayes Jr was “found drowned” in August of 1901.

The story is detailed in the news clipping below and family lore suggest a strong possibility that stopping for a pint was the reason he “lost the last train for home”. Losing his way and falling into the river support the argument as well. He left behind a widow who was 7 months pregnant and three little ones.

 

 

Fast Forward to December 1901, when his father, Patrick Sr made the papers:

Cambridge Chronicle December 7, 1901

No way of knowing how these two stories were blended into one, but here’s another twist; on May 27^th 1950 Patrick Hayes Jr’s grandson Robert McDonald drowned attempting to swim across the Charles River with some friends. Robert’s mother, Catherine (Hayes) McDonald buried her son with his grandfather, although only Robert’s name is on the stone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From 1967 through 1972 my family lived in a home that was known locally as the Boynton House, 45 years later my curiosity got the best of me, again, and I decided to research the history of a home. Conventional wisdom was that, since it was known as the “Boynton House”, Boynton must have built it and it was thought to have been built around 1900.

Research began with land records rather than traditional genealogy. The State of Maine is a gold mine and I was able to go back to the 1880’s when Isaac Strong bought a piece of land from Sarah Eastman and D. Augustus Richards.

Sadly, Isaac died in 1888 and his wife Eugenia soon after in 1892. Their estate records confirm they left behind an elegant Victorian home, which in turn makes likely that the home was built in the 1880s rather than 1900.

 

Elkanah and Jennie Boynton began renting the property after Eugenia’s death in 1892. They purchased the estate in 1894 for $2400.00. Over the years the house was home to several families, but given their Forty-three-year residency, it’s no wonder the house became known as “the Boynton House”