Celia Crehan Clarke: A Strong Woman Surviving Adversity

 

What Ancestor Would I Like to Meet?

 

This week’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks prompt is which ancestor I would like to meet and this is an easy question for me.  The choice is a strong woman, my paternal great grandmother and I still have many questions about her. 

Whenever I see that Ancestry television commercial that features a woman saying she wants her children to know that they come from strong ancestors, I always think of Celia Crehan Clarke.

Celia Crehan was born in County Galway, Ireland and came to the US probably sometime in the 1880s.   That’s one question right there:  when and where exactly did she arrive?

She married Lawrence Clarke in Chelsea, a suburb of Boston on January 31, 1883 according to their marriage record.  Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, suggested the one photo I have of Celia is very probably a wedding photo.   I love this photo and have it in a silver frame, with appropriate documentation inside of course, and keep it on my dresser as a daily reminder about strong women. 

 Celia Crehan Clarke (1859-1898)

Their first child, Thomas Lawrence Clarke, was born in November 1883 in New York City.   Thomas was my grandfather.   What prompted their move from Boston to New York City? 

Celia and Lawrence had 4 children between 1883 and 1887:  Thomas, John, Hugh and Cecilia.  John has been a particular problem for me with close to negligible documentation; was John born in 1884 which is my best calculation so far?  John was somebody who appears to have been unsure of his birth year, with various birth years appearing in the few censuses in which he can be found.  Even his 1942 draft card shows a birth year of 1888, which is impossible given the other children’s births and the father’s death.   I sometimes think that the trauma surrounding John’s childhood made him not want to remember any details in adulthood. 

The two youngest children, Hugh and Cecilia, both died very young and only from cemetery records at Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens County, New York, can I conclude that they were probably born in 1886 and 1887 respectively.  The cemetery records have the year of interment and the age but not the date of birth.  There are no New York City birth or death records for these children and I would want to ask Celia why there are none. 

Similarly, there is no New York City death record – or it cannot be located - for the biggest trauma to this young family, which was the early death of the father, Lawrence Clarke, in October 1887.  Family Search shows a record in “New York, New York city Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949” database but numerous attempts with NYC Department of Records & Information Services (DORIS) have turned up the dreaded “not found” response.  I sometimes wonder if my DORIS account has a ’frequent customer’ flag on it.   The exact chronology of the series of deaths was deduced from the Calvary Cemetery records and it is hard to believe what Celia had to contend with in such a short period of time. 

First was the death of Baby Hugh in July 1887, which prompted Lawrence to purchase the cemetery plot.  Three months later, Lawrence is laid to rest in the very same plot.  Then Baby Cecilia is buried in 1888 at age 8 months.  

 

The address on 120th Street in Harlem where Celia raised her two boys for eleven years.  Photo from the 1940s obtained from New York City Historical Records Digital Collections https://www.nyc.gov/site/records/historical-records/collections.page

Celia raised the two remaining boys, Thomas and John, as a widow on 120^th Street in Harlem for eleven years until her untimely death from pneumonia at the age of 39 in February 1898.  How did she overcome the obstacles she must have faced?   Did she really work for Consolidated Edison, or “Con Ed” the electrical utility company in New York City, as my family history notes from the 1970s indicate?  These notes are fifty years old but all other information that I have been able to verify has turned out correct.  If she did not work for Con Ed, how did she support the boys? 

If I could talk with Celia, I would want her to know that these boys grew up to be happy and successful men with families of their own.  Thomas had a long career with the U.S. Army and John worked for the City of New York.  And I would tell her that granddaughters of both Thomas and John met in 2022 through a DNA test and talk on the phone every holiday and have zoom calls together!   That would be a fun conversation. 

Lastly, yes, I would have to ask Celia about her parents.   I have the names on her death certificate but there were many men with her father’s name in County Galway and I’m not sure my assumption is correct.   Finding that connection to Ireland would be the question at the top of my list and at the same time, I am grateful for what I have learned about Celia.