ANCESTOR NO. 3: LEO JEREMIAH KIRNER, AKA LEE FRANCIS KIRNER
Leo Jeremiah Kirner, my paternal grandfather, was baptized at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Jersey City, New Jersey, on December 27, 1896. The baptismal record showed he was born on December 13, 1896, to John Joseph Kirner and his wife, nee Mary Ellen Quinlan. The godparents were his mother’s half-sister Ellen McCormack and Francis Hennessy. [1] His middle name Jeremiah was for his mother’s father Jeremiah Quinlan, [2] who was drowned at the end of the Civil War, when the troop ship General Lyon sank off the coast of North Carolina in a storm. [3] The name Leo does not appear to have any particular family significance, however, it could be a clue about his grandfather’s German family of origin, as yet undiscovered. Leo was the sixth child in the family. [4] His father was a salesman, and the family lived at 34 Woodlawn Ave. in the Greenville section of Jersey City, just across the river from the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan. Ten boys were born to his parents, on...