The Notorious Brawdy Family, Part 3 ("Keeping a Bawdy House")

This is a series of posts about the startling discoveries we made at GRIP  (July 2014) in the Intermediate Genealogy class. Our head instructor, Paula Stuart-Warren, chose a random Pittsburgh will for us to research and see what we could uncover about the family. She had no idea of the amazing stories we would find...

The larceny articles I shared yesterday from 1868 were about Martha's brother, Tom. It mentions that the mother (Barbara) is currently in jail for "keeping a bawdy house" or brothel. So, let's head back to Penn State's "Pennsylvania Civil War Newspapers" and Elephind and search the Pittsburgh Daily Gazette and Advertiser to see what we find. (I don't know why, but I get different results with the two search engines.)

On October 30, 1867 we find: Mrs. Brawdy Again

Mrs. Barbara Brawdy, the proprietress of an infamous den on Liberty street, which has frequently been "venillated" [?] through the city papers, still continues to prosper in her infamous business, it appears, notwithstanding the vigilance of the police, and the frequent expressed intention of the authorities to break it up. But a short time since she was before His Honor the Mayor, charged with keeping a bawdy house, and, we believe, was held to bail for her appearance at Court. This was all the Mayor could do in the matter. But some one else must be at fault, as we have not yet noticed in the Court proceedings any account of her trial. The character of the woman, and the reputation of the house she keeps, have so frequently been published, that every body must be familiar with it, and it is therefore [useless?] to speak of it here in a general manner; but as there is always more or less interest attached to particulars connected with such characters, we will relate an incident which is alleged to have taken place at the iniquitous establishment kept by this "virago," Monday evening, from which our readers can form some idea of her manner of conduction business, while it may also serve to teach strangers the impropriety of taking lodgings at what are termed "cheap boarding houses," unless they know the reputation of the houses at which they stop.

Monday evening two men, Mr. McIntyre and Mr. Anderson, from New Brighton, arrived in the city, and at the Union Depot inquired for a "cheap boarding house." The inquiry was heard by one of that class of men with whom our city is cursed to a considerable extent at present, who are too lazy to work, and to poor to live without it, and consequently resort to any means of obtaining a living without labor. It appears he was a "runner" for Mrs. Brawdy's house, to which he conducted them. Shortly after their arrival they discovered the character of the place, and resolved to leave it, but upon signifying their intention to do so, the door was locked and a demand of five dollars each made upon them. They refused to comply with the demand, when the door to an adjoining room was opened and half a dozen "roughs," armed with knives and pistols, confronted them and enforced the payment of the money, when they were allowed to depart.

Mr. Anderson yesterday morning appeared before Alderman McMasters and stated the case, when a warrant was issued for Mrs. Brawdy on  charge of keeping a bawdy house, upon which she was arrested, and after a hearing held in five hundred dollars bail for her appearance at Court.

Anderson and McIntyre are both respectable, hard working men and were led into the "trap," which is always open for the uninitiated, in the manner above stated. We rather think Mrs. B. will be brought before the Court this time, as the prosecutor has no desire to effect a compromise. His motives for prosecuting were not for the purpose of extorting money, or even receiving his own, but to bring the offender to justice. 

And on December 29, 1863 we find: Sentenced

Barbara Brawdy, for keeping a bawdy house, was sentenced to pay a fine for $200, and undergo one month's imprisonment in the county jail.

The Notorious Brawdy Family, Part 2 (Accused of Larceny)

This is a series of posts about the startling discoveries we made at GRIP  (July 2014) in the Intermediate Genealogy class. Our head instructor, Paula Stuart-Warren, chose a random Pittsburgh will for us to research and see what we could uncover about the family. She had no idea of the amazing stories we would find...

I already posted about how we tracked down the original will on FamilySearch. With quite a bit of effort, we eventually found the census records for 1850 (Baldwin Twp - surname transcribed as "Brandy" on Ancestry), 1860 (Pittsburgh, Ward 5 - father transcribed as "W Brandy" on Ancestry - all family members listed by first initial ) & 1870 (Borough of East Birmingham - mother transcribed as "Barbara Brady" on Ancestry) where Martha was living with her parents, Martin & Barbara, & her siblings. She also has her 8-year-old daughter, Jenny Cornita living with her. Remember, her name was listed as Jennie C Brawdy in the will, but here it is Jenny Cornita.

Photo posted by Liz Freeman on FindAGrave

We never found any other information about Martha's daughter, Jenny. But, we were able to find quite a bit more about the rest of the Brawdy family including:

• more census records for various family members
• a will for her brother, Martin
• two city directory listing for her mother, Barbara, listing her as a widow in 1865 & 1866
• a marriage record for sister Maria Jane who married Walter E Barnett before marrying Valentine Green (probable first marriage)
• a marriage record for brother Thomas M who married Catharine R Fitch
• a death certificate for sister Maria Jane who married Valentine Green (I believe this is a second marriage)
• tombstones for her mother, Barbara, & her brother, Martin
• possible death record for her mother, Barbara, at FamilySearch - however it says her parents are born in Ireland where others state Germany & it says she's only lived there 6 months & her previous residence was Chicago

But, the most interesting 'finds' were the newspaper records! Unfortunately, I can't take credit for these finds. But, another group found some incredible articles using a site I wasn't familiar with: Elephind.

Elephind states it's purpose: to make it possible to search all of the world's digital newspapers from one place and at one time. Elephind.com allows you to simultaneously search across thousands of articles using key words and phrases. 

The first article I'll share is from the Pittsburgh Gazette Gazette and Advertiser dated Monday, April 6, 1868. It is titled "Alleged Larceny of $200 - The Accused Committed for Trial."

Catherine Salzmen, the proprietress of  tavern in East Birmingham, made information before Justice Ammon on Saturday, charging John Schafer and Tom Brawdy with larceny. She alleges that the accused, who frequented her house, and were well acquainted with its arrangement, came in to the bar-room Saturday morning, and remained until she was called out, when they entered an adjoining room and took two hundred dollars from a bureau drawer. Brawdy and Schafer were arrested, and after hearing, were committed for trial in default of five hundred dollars each for their appearance at Court. The Brawdy family are becoming quite notorious in criminal affairs. The mother was, a short time since, convicted on a charge of keeping a bawdy house, for which she is serving a term of imprisonment. Subsequently a son was arrested and committed to jail to away trial on a similar charge, and now the third one of the family is committed on a charge of larceny.

Two months later, in a paper dated June 10, 1868, we find the results of the trial:

The Jury in the case of the Commonwealth vs. Thomas Brawdy, Jno Bell, and John Shaffer, indicted for the larceny of $185 from Mrs. Salzman of East Birmingham, reported yesterday, returned a verdict of not guilty and the accused were discharged.  

The Notorious Brawdy Family, Part 1 (The Russell Index)

This is a series of posts about the startling discoveries we made at GRIP  (July 2014) in the Intermediate Genealogy class. Our head instructor, Paula Stuart-Warren, chose a random Pittsburgh will for us to research and see what we could uncover about the family. She had no idea of the amazing stories we would find...

Our will was for Martha Jane Brawdy who died in Birmingham, Allegeheny County, Pennsylvania. A classmate quickly realized that this was a copy of the will written in the court book and not the actual will. So, we all headed over to FamilySearch to look for the actual will.

Here are the steps to finding the will:

1. Go to familysearch.org
2. Go to "search" then "records"
3. Click on the U.S. on the map and then "Pennsylvania" on the list
4. Click "start researching in Pennsylvania"
5. Go to the last item, "Pennsylvania, Probate Records, 1683-1994"
6. Click on "browse through 3,200,560 images (this number could change)
7. Click on "Allegheny" to get to the correct county
8. Click on "Estate index 1788-1971 surname B, first names K-Z" since the surname "Brawdy" starts with "B" and "Martha" starts with "M"
9. Image 6 is a Russel Index which shows how to locate the person you are searching for

Russell Index image from familysearch

I'd never seen a Russell Index before & it took a little while for me to understand it. I got some help and I was finally able to understand. So, let me try to talk you through it.

We are in the file where all of the surnames start with "B". This particular page is showing you how to locate first names that start with "K", "L", or "M". We need "M" for Martha Jane.

You start with the surname, in this case Brawdy. After the initial letter, B, you mark off any letters that aren't on the key - L, M, N, R or T. In our case we only have the "R" left. (If you have more than two letters left, you still only use the first two.) We are looking for just "R" in the first column. Once you locate the correct letter(s) in the first column, you use the second column if the first name starts with a K or L & the second column if the first name starts with an M. Ours is M (Martha), so we need to look for section 1140.

Now you have to kind of jump around the various images to locate the section where pages are numbered 1140. I first went to image 400 which was record 1415, BUT the first names started with R. I have went way too far. Image 220 is labeled 2013. I need to keep going back. Image 160 is labeled 1143. I'm getting close! Image 140 is labeled 1141. So, I'm just going to page back from here. (By the way, if you 'jump' to an unnumbered page, just scroll forward or backward a page or two until you see a number.)

from FamilySearch

I found the first page of the 1140 series on image #124 of 818. (Under the 1140 you will see a 1 for the first page in the series.) On the first page of a series, you'll find a list of commonly seen names and the 'special' pages these are located on. "Brawdy" is actually listed on this page and it says you can find the "Brawdy" surname on 2017.

Now, we need to find 2017 the same way - kind of jumping around until we land on the correct series. Remember to watch the first names and make sure you don't get out of the names with the first name starting with an M! (I found the first page of 2017 on image #228 of 818.)

from FamilySearch

We find "Brawdy, Martha J" as the 5th person on this page. It lists her residence as "Birmingham" and her Personal Representative as "Wm C Moreland Exr". Lastly, it tells you were to find the proceedings index: Volume 12, page 220, block 1.

Our next step is to go back to the "Allegheny" probate records & look for the "Proceedings Index" volume 12. (The entire title is "Proceedings index 1788-1971 vol 11-12.) Remember, there are TWO volumes here so you need to be looking in the later half of the images! Once again we will 'jump around' until we find page 220. I found it on image #690 of 929.

And, we have found Martha J Brawdy as the first image! It lists her executor, Wm C Moreland. It lists three documents, including the will which is located in Will Book #15 on page #68. This is where we'll start for Part 2.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Ahnentafel Roulette

Today's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge by Randy over at GeneaMusings is to play Ahnentafel Roullete. The 'rules' are as follows...

1. What year was one of your great-grandfathers born? Divide this number by 80 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."
2. Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel" - your software will create this - use the "Ahnentafel List" option, or similar). Who is that person, and what are his/her vital information?
3. Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

So, here goes!

1. I picked my great grandfather, Emil Wilhelm Peters who was born in 1877. After dividing by 80, I rounded the answer to 23.
2. Person #23 in my tree is my great, great grandmother, Elizabeth Bennett who was born in 1849 in Greene County, Missouri and died in 1914 in Sumner County, Kansas.
3. 3 facts about Elizabeth Bennett: 

Newton County marriage record for Miss Elizabeth Bennett & Josiah R Coppenbarger (image from ancestry.com)

• She married Josiah Randolph Coppenbarger on the 20th of February, 1873 in Newton County, Missouri at "the home of her father", Henry Bennett 
• She had 6 children: 3 sons & 3 daughters 
• She moved from Newton County, Missouri to Sumner County, Kansas within a year or two of getting married (they moved before the 1875 Kansas state census)

Elizabeth Bennett (seated) with husband & her 6 children
Photo posted on FindAGrave by JRS

As always, I uncovered something new while participating in this SNGF post. This time, I uncovered the marriage record for Elizabeth Bennett on Ancestry! I also see that I can order a copy of it, which I'll probably do as the online copy is poor.

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net

Home from GRIP 2014!

Last night I got back from GRIP (Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh) in Pittsburgh where I attended the "Intermediate Genealogy" course. What a neat week!

GRIP was held at La Roche College in the outskirts of Pittsburgh. It's a very nice, small campus. The building on the left was the main dorm building and on the right is the building where we had classes, meals, larger gatherings and even Maia's Books. As you can see, it is only a short walk if it rains - which it threatened to do but never did! In fact, the last two days were BEAUTIFUL with temperatures in the 60's in the mornings and highs only in the 70's! Gorgeous!

I stayed in a "double" room in the dorms, but used it as a private room. The rooms are a nice size for a dorm room and have a microwave, fridge, & a private bathroom! You can bring an ethernet cable and access the internet for free. Unfortunately, the a/c in my first room was broken and I ended up changing rooms after two days because they couldn't find a part. This room had actually been kind of dirty (hair in the bathroom drawers & some kind of gooey stuff in the cabinet under the sink). The second room was cleaner, but it was a handicapped room so I had less storage space. The beds weren't very comfortable and the pillow was very thin. They provided us with linens & a towel, floor towel, hand towel & one washrag (yes, one for the week!). Thankfully, a friend who lived in town brought me some more washrags!

Each day included several breaks and sometimes we would sit outside or walk around and enjoy the flowers and benches that are scattered around the college grounds. This amazing hibiscus was as large as a dinner plate!

Next door to the college is Sisters of Divine Providence, which I believe is a catholic church and convent. The first morning I slept with the windows opened since I didn't have air conditioning and I heard the chimes at 6 am, but I didn't hear it the other mornings when my windows were shut. We took several walks on these beautiful grounds.

We found a series of statues which, I was told, were the Stations of the Cross. As a protestant, I wasn't familiar with these though I've heard that phrase before. The angel is holding a cross which says, "In Cruce Salus" which means "salvation in the cross." Their are 14 stations which depict events of Jesus' crucifixion from his condemnation to being laid in the tomb. I wish I would have taken a photo of the station where Veronica wipes the face of Jesus & his face is left imprinted on her veil. I have written about the artwork of "Vernoica's veil" on another blog.

At the top of a hill was a beautiful cemetery for the nuns. I was amazed at how long many of the nuns lived, and also how many died each year. Often, there were four or five a year! I'm wondering how many nuns live in the convent, or if this is where some go to retire.

On the Sisters website was a neat article about the six pioneer sisters who immigrated from Germany in 1876 to teach German immigrants first in Ohio and later in Pittsburgh. As a genealogist, I loved how the article on the site ends: "The difficulties the pioneer sisters faced were many--insufficient housing, insufficient food, the challenges of learning a new language, adapting to a new culture, and more. Through it all, they maintained a firm trust in God's providence."

First Evening at GRIP!

I'm now in Pennsylvania at GRIP (Genealogical Research Instituted of Pittsburgh) where I'll be taking the week-long course, "Intermediate Genealogy: Tools for Digging Deeper", taught by Paula Stuart-Warren along with Debbie Mieszala and Joshua Taylor.

I got a private dorm room and it's pretty nice though a little dirty and my air-conditioning isn't working. I'ts about 8 pm, though, and it's cooling off and I have my window open so I should be OK through the night. And, I hope they get it fixed tomorrow!

I'm on the 'meal plan' so I get three meals a day in the cafeteria. Tonight we had salad, chicken parmigiana, ziti & marinara sauce, garlic bread, green beans & some dessert. It was pretty good for cafeteria food.

We also had our opening session where we met the coordinators & the teachers & some door prizes were given away. And, no, I didn't win any!

I've met several people and am enjoying hearing their stories. I also met Karen from "Karen's Genealogy Oasis" as I was walking back to my room from getting a snack!

My class starts at 8:15 and I have to get breakfast first. It's an hour later here so 8:15 will feel like 7:15. It's a good thing I'm an early riser!

Genealogy Fun - 16 Great-Great-Grands

Carrie at Under the Nut Tree Genealogy participated in an 'old' Saturday Night Genealogy Fun posted at Genea-Musings by Randy. The title is "Your 16 Great-Great-Grands." I thought it sounded like a great activity, so I'm going to participate, too.

Here are the steps:

1. List your 16 great-great-grandparents in pedigree chart order. List their birth and death years and places.
2. Figure out the dominant ethnicity or nationality of each of them.
3. Calculate your ancestral ethnicity or nationality by adding them up for the 16 - 6.25% for each (obviously, this is approximate).
4. If you don't know all 16 of your great-great-grandparents, then do it for the last full generation you have.
5. Write your own blog post, or make a comment on Facebook or in this post.

My results:

1. Alexander STEWART (1852-1922) born in Pennsylvania - mixture of German/Irish/French
2. Catharine Jane McCLINTOCK/McCLINTICK (1852-1929) born in Pennsylvania - some German
3. Augustus L MERRILL (1848-1920) born in Pennsylvania - unknown
4. Sarah Jane EASTWOOD (1848-1923) born in England - English
5. Charles PETERS (1847-1910) born in Germany - German
6. Guntherine Fredericka WERTHER (1847-1888) born in Germany - German
7. Josiah Randolph COPPENBARGER (1844-1934) born in Illinois - primarily German
8. Elizabeth BENNETT (1849-1914) born in Missouri - unknown
9. Rheinhard KAECHLE (1844-1900) born in Germany - German
10. Mary Magdalena "Lena" KARBACH/KOERBACH (1848-1938) born in Germany - German
11. Francis "Frank" ADAM (1826-1902) born in Germany - German
12. Francesca "Frances" HOLTHOEFER (1833-1907) born in Germany - German
13. James B DICKSON (1840-1902) born in Tennessee - unknown
14. Elizabeth Ann BOYERS (1842-1882) born in Mississippi - unknown
15. Reuben Houston WARD (1859-1906) born in Tennessee - unknown
16. Sallie Harried DICKSON (1860-1960) born in Tennessee - unknown

My "nationalities" from my great-great-grandparent are:
7 German
1 English
8 unknown (with a little more German, Irish & French thrown in).

My calculated percentages are:
44% German
6% English
50 % unknown (with a small portion of that being Irish & French)

Strangely, my DNA results show:
35% Scandinavian (which could include German)
30% Irish (which could include French & English)
20% Western European (which could include German & English)
10% Italy/Greece (which could include French)

Do we share common ancestors? I'd love to talk! Please write me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net