ANCESTOR NO. 4 - AGNES V. FENNESSY

Agnes, my grandmother, was the second child and first daughter born to John James Fennessy and his wife Mary Kinane Fennessy. She was born on August 5, 1898, in Jersey City, New Jersey,^[1] just across the river from Manhattan. Her parents were first generation Irish Americans and had their daughter baptized as Agnes, no middle name, at St. Bridget’s Roman Catholic Church, where Mrs. Cullen and Margaret Oertal were her godparents. She already had a brother, Daniel Joseph Fennessy, born February 5, 1897, whose godparents were Ed. F. Nestor and Mary Sweeney.^[2] Agnes got a little sister, Marion, on June 15, 1904 (godparents Daniel Fennessy and Margaret Reddy). ^[3]A brother James was born sometime between June 1905 and 1906.^[4] The youngest in the family was Virginia, born on December 17, 1907^[5]. This small photo was dated 1907 and shows Agnes, age 9, and Marion, age 3.

 

 

 

The next photo of her brother Daniel Fennessy is dated 1910. Since he is holding a rosary, it is surely a Confirmation photo.

 

 

 

And below we see Agnes’ Confirmation photo dated 1911. Confirmation is the Catholic ceremony when the baptized child joins the church with adult responsibilities.

 

 

Agnes went to the parochial school at St. Bridget’s and graduated from the eighth grade in June 1912.^[6] 

It was sometime between 1912 and 1915 that Agnes’ little brother James died. He was not listed with the family in the 1915 state census that showed them renting at 252 Mercer St. in Jersey City.^[7] Then, Agnes was sixteen and working as a clerk. Sometime between 1915 and 1918 the family moved from the 252 Mercer St. apartment, where they had been since at least 1902,^[8] to another two-family dwelling that can still be seen today at 20 Delaware Ave.^[9]

Agnes met her future husband Leo Kirner by 1917; there is a photo of them on the Coney Island Express dated August 19^th, 1917.

 

Perhaps she met Leo in Manhattan. In 1917, she lived with nine other women in Blanche Haskell’s boarding house at 434 W 20^th in the Chelsea neighborhood in New York City.^[10]

Agnes’ brother Daniel joined the army by Labor Day 1917; we have a photo of them, with him in uniform.

 

The US joined the world war in April of that year. On December 14, a couple of weeks before Christmas 1917, Agnes’ grandfather Daniel Fennessy died in Brooklyn.^[11] She probably attended the funeral with her Brooklyn cousins.

The local paper, the Jersey Journal, started running articles about “la grippe” or Spanish influenza in March, but through August they were all datelined in Europe. By September, the epidemic had appeared in Jersey City. It attacked the young more than the old, so schools and other public places were closed,^[12] and on October 21, 1918, Agnes’ sister Marion died of it at age fourteen.^[13] It must have been heartbreaking to lose three family members in just a few years, and two of them just children. Agnes was fortunate to have her grandmother Bridget O’Rourke Kinane living in Jersey City during her lifetime. Here is Agnes dressed up in a military uniform next to her grandmother. She is apparently mimicking some long-forgotten personality. The photograph was dated June 1919.

Agnes’ beau Leo joined the navy on April 9, 1918.^[14] Instead of going off to war in Europe, he was stationed just an hour away at the Naval Training Camp at Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx from May 20, 1918 to March 13, 1919.^[15] His family lived at 44 Woodlawn Ave. in Jersey City.^[16]

He was calling himself Lee Francis now and probably got a three or four-day pass for Thanksgiving,^[17] the day when he and Agnes got married, November 27, 1919.^[18]

 Since her husband was in the military, Agnes lived with her family in 1920. They were now living at 20 Delaware Avenue, and she worked as a clerk in a warehouse.^[19]On February 23, 1921, Agnes and Lee welcomed their first child, Mary Kirner; Mary was baptized at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Lee’s parish on March 6.^[20] As she grew older they started calling her Mary Lee. In those days, women did not work outside the home after they married, and certainly not after they had children, unless their husbands were incapable of supporting the family. Lee had a cotton brokerage business and in 1922 the family lived at 36 Roosevelt Avenue in Jersey City.^[21] They moved again in a couple of years to 15 Lexington Avenue in the same city.^[22]

Agnes lost her 76 year old grandmother, Mary Mullaney Fennessy, to a stroke on November 15, 1924, which probably led to a subdued holiday season for the family.^[23] Sometime in the late 1920s, they bought a house at 55 Center Avenue in the small suburban town of Chatham, New Jersey; they had a widowed boarder, Sarah Van Ness living with them to help with the cost.^[24]Agnes had trouble conceiving another child, and it was eight years before she was pregnant again, but she lost a son, Leo Jr., in August 1929.^[25] That was also the year her grandmother Bridget died. 

Agnes lost her mother to stomach cancer on November 9, 1930; ^[26] she was only sixty-four. In spite of the Depression, the thirties were better for her. On March 15, 1931, Agnes had her third child, James Joseph Kirner.^[27]  On May 16, 1933, she won election to the Democratic party’s county committee, upsetting the incumbent by sixteen votes.^[28] In the spring of 1935, she and her husband registered to take the postmaster examination for the vacancy at the Chatham post office.^[29] Her daughter Mary was a teenager now and Agnes was an adviser to the Blue Triangle Club, a group for Chatham High School girls.^[30] At the same time, she was an adviser to the Girl Reserve Club of Morris County.^[31] Both groups were part of the YWCA. There were fifty girls in the Chatham Girl Reserves, about half of whom were supervised by Agnes, and two hundred girls in fifteen clubs in Morris County.^[32]

 In September 1940 Agnes was notified that she was to serve jury duty in Chatham from November 25 to the end of the term; she was the only woman on the six-person jury.^[33] It must have been an extra busy holiday season for her that year. Agnes became a mother-in-law when her daughter Mary Lee married George Louis Miller in New Orleans on January 25, 1943.^[34] They probably married so far away due to World War II which changed everyone’s lives in new and unexpected ways. George was in the Navy and after the wedding Mary Lee returned to Chatham and George returned to the South Pacific.^[35]

Agnes surely went to the funeral for her father, who lived in Jersey City with her brother Daniel, when he died of a stroke on May 3, 1944, at age 68.^[36] She was a member of a women’s group called the Rosary Society of St. Patrick’s Church at that time.^[37] She was still active in local politics, being one of the volunteers conducting the November election in Chatham’s First District.^[38] Perhaps she was a little too busy; the local paper reported her emergency appendectomy of September 11, 1946. ^[39]

Meanwhile, her son James graduated from Chatham High School and then nearby Rutgers University. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, so when he married on May 2, 1953,^[40] Agnes and Lee drove down to the Air Force base at Bainbridge, Georgia, for the wedding.^[41]  In those days it was much more common to drive a long distance than to fly. Her son and new daughter in law were transferred to northern California so she lived far away from the grandchildren that appeared. Nevertheless, they traveled to California to see their first grandchild in in May 1955.^[42] Her son and his family also travelled back to New Jersey to visit, but sometime between 1953 and 1955 Lee and Agnes had moved from Chatham to Summit, the next town to the east.^[43] The next big change in Agnes’ life occurred on January 31, 1959. Her husband Lee went to the dentist’s office and had a massive heart attack in the waiting room. Her daughter Mary had moved to Park Ridge at the northern border of New Jersey, and her son Jim was in California.^[44] Luckily her daughter lived close enough to be of help, also she still had her sister Virginia living nearby.

The next year she took a cruise on the Ocean Monarch, stopping at the Bermudas, probably her first trip out of the U.S.^[45]This might have been a lifelong dream; one of her long-held possessions was a souvenir of a Boston Cruise in August 1935 on a ship called the Dollar Liner President Garfield.

After that, her life was very different. She lived with her daughter Mary Lee Miller, a school librarian, and her granddaughter Missy, first in River Vale, then in Park Ridge, by the northern New Jersey/New York border. She used to send us a stuffed rabbit, and a giant chocolate Easter egg every year. She visited us once when I was small, and we visited her only once after I was old enough to remember. Agnes’ brother Dan died in Point Pleasant, New Jersey on April 13, 1968.^[46] He had married late in life and did not have any children of his own.^[47] Agnes’ sister Virginia never married and did not have any children either. She had worked as a technician for the Jersey City Medical Center near the place where she had been born.^[48] I lost contact with my grandmother after the early 1970s. I had moved out of the country during the time when she moved and in those days, it was not easy to find a person’s new address. When my letter to her was returned by the post office, I assumed that she had passed away. In reality, she lived on until August 3, 1991, the last surviving member of her immediate family.^[49]That lost opportunity was my first research find, a shocking one that was the start of a thirty-year genealogy adventure.

 

 

 

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^[1] "New Jersey, Births, 1670-1980," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCBG-4PT: accessed 8 August 2017), Funnesey, 05 Aug 1898; citing Jersey City, Hudson, New Jersey, United States, Division of Archives and Record Management, New Jersey Department of State, Trenton.; FHL microfilm 494,241.

^[2]  Baptism record, St. Bridget’s Roman Catholic Church, Jersey City, New Jersey, p. 41 (1897). FHL microfilm 1,403,267.

^[3] Baptism record, St. Bridget’s Roman Catholic Church, Jersey City, New Jersey, p. 7 (1904), no. 157, FHL microfilm 1,403,267.

^[4] "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKYJ-G8B: accessed 18 October 2017), James Fennessey in household of John Fennessy, Jersey City Ward 5, Hudson, New Jersey, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 121, sheet 13A, family 202, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 890; FHL microfilm 1,374,903.

^[5]  "United States Social Security Death Index," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VMP2-CZL: accessed 20 May 2014), Virginia Fennessy, Nov 1985; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).

^[6]  “St. Bridget’s R.C. School Commencement,” Jersey Journal (Jersey City, N.J.), p. 9, col. 45; digital images, GenealogyBank (http://www.genealogybank.com: accessed 13 August 2017).

^[7] "New Jersey State Census, 1915," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV9Q-G9NH: accessed 18 October 2017), Agnes Fennessy in household of John Fennessy, Jersey City, 5 ward, 6 district, Hudson, New Jersey, United States; citing sheet #21A, household 390, line #8, New Jersey State Library, Trenton; FHL microfilm 1,465,533. All the children were enumerated but James. Agnes told her grandchildren she had a brother that died in childhood.

^[8] “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 29 August 2017), entries for John Fennessy at 252 Mercer St. in Jersey City in 1902, 1904, 1906, 1908-1909, 1915.

^[9] “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 29 August 2017), search for 20 Delaware in Jersey City in 1918 shows the Fennessy family and the Martin family. 20 Delaware Avenue, Jersey City, N.J., Google Maps (https://www.google.com/maps: accessed 29 August 2017), Street View Aug 2013.

^[10] New York City Directory, 1917, first pages missing, 743; “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 25 August 2017), entry for Agnes V Fennessy, New York>New York>1917, image 576 of 1759; also search of this directory using only the address given for Agnes shows 10 other people, all female clerks/teacher, except for “Blanche Haskell, bdgh”.

 

^[11] "New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WN2-HNR: accessed 21 August 2017), Daniel Fennessey, 14 Dec 1917; citing Death, Brooklyn, Kings, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,324,316.

^[12]  “State Health Head Warns of Influenza Here”, Jersey Journal (Jersey City, New Jersey), 21 October 1918, p. 1, col. 1; digital images, GenealogyBank (https://www.genealogybank.com: accessed 27 August 2017).

^[13] Department of Health of the State of New Jersey, death certificate, 13026 (1918), Marion Fennessy; Bureau of Vital Statistics, Trenton, N.J.

 

^[14] “U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963,” database with images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 21 August 2017), image 291 of 4069, entry for Lee J. Kirner.

^[15] War Service Certificate no. 287891, United States Navy, Lee Francis Kirmer [sic], collection of the author.

^[16] “1910 United States Federal Census,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 18 October 2017), entry for Leo J. Kirner in household of Joseph J. Kirner, Jersey City, Ward 7, Hudson County, New Jersey, ED 0145, p. 5B, dwelling 74, family 122.

^[17] “Holidays and Observances,” 1919, Timeanddate.com (https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar: accessed 29 August 2017).

^[18] Marriage Certificates, Indexes and Registers, 1878 – 1948; Control # SHEVS003, reel 368; “Marriage Certificates, 1919, HI-KL (groom);” New Jersey State Archives, Trenton, New Jersey, Lee F. Kirner-Agnes Fennessy.

^[19] "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4RT-Z57 : accessed 11 September 2017), Agnes Fennessy in household of John Fennessy, Jersey City Ward 8, Hudson, New Jersey, United States; citing ED 204, sheet 3A, line 31, family 54, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 1046; FHL microfilm 1,821,046.

^[20] “New Jersey, Births and Christening Index, 1660-1931,” database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 11 September 2017), entry for Mary Kirner, birth, 23 Feb 1921, christening 6 Mar 1921. Note: father named as Leo Kirner, child as Mary Kirner. Mary went by Mary Lee when I knew her.

^[21] R. L. Polk & Co.’s Jersey City Hoboken and Bayonne Directories 1922-1923, (New York City: R.L. Polk & Co., 1922), 665; digital images, “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” New Jersey > Jersey City > 1922, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 18 September 2017), image 345 of 1055.

^[22]Polk’s Jersey City and Hoboken Directory 1925-1926, (New York City: R.L. Polk & Co., 1925), 594; digital images, “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995,” New Jersey > Jersey City > 1925, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 30 September 2017), image 300 of 758.

^[23] City of New York, Borough of Queens, death certificate no. 4838 (1924), Mary Fennessey, Municipal Archives, New York City.

^[24] 1930 U.S. census, Morris County, New Jersey, population schedule, Chatham, Enumeration District 10, sheet 1B, dwelling 19, family 27, Kerner, Agnes B.; digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X4FQ-7XL: accessed 30 September 2017), citing NARA microfilm T626, roll 1373.

^[25] Archdiocese of Newark, Catholic Cemeteries: A Ministry of the Archdiocese of Newark, database, (http://www.rcancem.org/find-a-loved-one-search/: accessed 30 September 2017), search for Kirner in Holy Name Cemetery, entry for Leo Kirner Jr.

^[26] (N.J.) State Department of Health, death certificate no. 7934 (1930), Mary Fennessy, N.J. State Bureau of Vital Statistics, Trenton. For her age, which was 61 on the death certificate, see her infant baptism at “New Jersey, Births and Christenings Index, 1660-1931,” database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 12 October 2017), 16 June 1866 (birth), 24 June 1866 (baptism), entry for Mary Canaan.

^[27] State Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, birth certificate 78, Union County (1931), James Joseph Kirner; New Jersey State Bureau of Vital Statistics.

^[28] “Primary Vote Cast in Chatham Last Night was Light,” The Chatham Press (Chatham, N.J.), 20 May 1933, p. 1, col. 1; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com: accessed 11 October 2017).

^[29] “Eight Candidates Registered for Postal Tests,” The Chatham Press (Chatham, N.J.), 3 May 1935, p. 6, col. 4; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com: accessed 11 October 2017).

^[30] “Legion Auxiliary Notes,” The Chatham Press (Chatham, N.J.), 22 November 1935, p. 5, col. 3; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com: accessed 11 October 2017).

^[31] “Along the Way,” The Chatham Press (Chatham, N.J.), 22 November 1935, p. 3, col. 3; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com: accessed 11 October 2017).

^[32] “Along the Way,” The Chatham Press (Chatham, N.J.), 6 March 1936, p. 3, col. 1; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com: accessed 11 October 2017).

^[33] “Jurors Drawn for October Court Term,” The Chatham Press (Chatham, N.J.), 27 September 1940, p. 1, col. 2; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com: accessed 12 October 2017).

^[34] "Louisiana, Parish Marriages, 1837-1957," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKJZ-4XY7: accessed 16 October 2017), George L Miller and Mary Lee Kirner, 25 Jan 1943; citing Orleans, Louisiana, United States, various parish courthouses, Louisiana; FHL microfilm 2,320,610

^[35] “Along the Way,” The Chatham Press (Chatham, N.J.), 5 February 1943, p. 3, col. 1; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com: accessed 16 October 2017).

^[36] (N.J.) State Department of Health, death certificate no. missing (3 May 1944), John Fennessy, place of death Jersey City, Hudson County; N.J. State Bureau of Vital Statistics, Trenton. Informant was Daniel Fennessy, whose given address was the same as his father’s.

^[37]  “Closing Party for St. Patrick’s Rosary Society,” The Chatham Press (Chatham, N.J.), 8 June 1945, p. 1, col. 2; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com: accessed 13 October 2017).

^[38] “Elected Officials in Boro and Township,” The Chatham Press (Chatham, N.J.), 20 July 1945, p. 1, col. 4; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com: accessed 15 October 2017).

^[39] Mrs. Edmund Clarke, “Along the Way,” The Chatham Press (Chatham, N.J.), 13 September 1946, p. 5, col. 3; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com: accessed 16 October 2017).

^[40] Decatur County, Georgia, marriage certificate referencing Book M, p. 604 (1953), Kirner-Downs; private collection.

^[41]  “Along the Way,” The Chatham Press (Chatham, N.J.), 22 May 1953, p. 5, col. 3; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com: accessed 17 October 2017).

^[42] Mrs. Edmund Clarke, “Along the Way,” The Chatham Press (Chatham, N.J.), 6 May 1955, p. 3, col. 4; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com: accessed 17 October 2017).

^[43] Mrs. Edmund Clarke, “Along the Way,” The Chatham Press (Chatham, N.J.), 6 May 1955, p. 3, col. 4; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com: accessed 17 October 2017).

^[44] “Lee Kirner,” obituary, New York Times, 2 February 1959, p. 25. Col. 2; digital images, Times Machine (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/02/02/issue.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=ArticleEndCTA&region=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article: accessed 20 October 2017). “Lee Kirner,” obituary, The Chatham Press (Chatham, N.J.), 6 February 1959, p. 1, col. 4; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com: accessed 20 October 2017).

^[45] “New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1966,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 24 October 2017), entry for Agnes V. Kirner, 26 August 1960, Ocean Monarch, image 92 of 1161.

^[46] “Daniel Fennessy”, obituary, Red Bank Register (Red Bank, N.J.), 15 April 1968, p. 4, col. 6, digital images, Red Bank Register Newspaper Archives, (http://209.212.22.88/data/rbr/1960-1969/1968/1968.04.15.pdf: accessed 5 November 2017).

^[47] Per emails from Dan’s stepson’s wife dated 5, 7, 13 January 2004.

^[48] “Virginia A. Fennessy,” obituary, The Record (Hackensack, N.J.), 18 November 1985, transcription, GenealogyBank (http://www.genealogybank.com: accessed 6 November 2017).

^[49] “Agnes Vera Kirner,” obituary, The Record (Hackensack, N.J.), 5 August 1991, transcription, GenealogyBank (http://www.genealogybank.com: accessed 6 November 2017).