Bradshaws in the Mist

I have always had a fascination with my Paternal grandfathers’ family; his father and mother, brothers and sisters.  I never knew any of them. They were all gone long before I was born.  My paternal grandmother’s family was everywhere in my home town of Chateaugay, NY.  We were surrounded by first and second cousins. Cassidys, Dwyers, Mccormicks and Murnanes.  My grandmothers sisters (Aunt Clare and Aunt Leona) were our next door neighbors. But there were no other Bradshaws.  The Cassidy family history was still going on all around us, being made day by day.  The only Bradshaws in town consisted of my immediate family, and the people buried in Saint Patrick’s cemetery.  My father had Brothers and sisters living in New York, but no living Aunts or Uncles, and no regular contact with his Bradshaw cousins.

There were few photographs of relatives on the wall at our house, not even recent ones.  My dad had few memories of his aunts and uncles, and it seemed that his father hadn’t shared much of the family’s past.

Like the fact that Aunt Anna had died in Providence, Rhode Island of a gunshot wound to the head, inflicted by a resident of her boarding house (with whom the newspapers suggested she was INVOLVED).  And that her sister (Aunt Margaret) and young nephew (Thomas Shea) were present when it happened.  My dad remembered hearing something about someone who had died from a gunshot wound, but never heard a lot of details. Wouldn’t you think such a terrible family tragedy would be remembered vividly for at least a couple of generations?

And then there was Aunt Katie who moved to Manchester to marry a man, and then divorce him on grounds of habitual drunkenness.  She moved back home,  and died in her early forties.  She’s buried in Saint Patrick’s cemetery.  My uncle John was told that she had never married.

Aunt Alice moved to Manchester, NH at the age of 16 (around 1890),  went to work for the Rowell family on River Road as a domestic servant,  and lived in Manchester for the rest of her life, eventually inheriting their house and fortune when the last of them died without children.

Will left to go out west, and never came back as far as my dad knew.

Richard moved to California.

John lived in the area for a while, working as a Pharmacist in Malone and Lake Placid,  before moving to the New York City

Mayme moved to Manchester,  got married and lived the rest of her life there.  I walk by the brownstone she lived in (1480 Elm) at least once a week on my way to pick up my lunch at Pappy’s Pizza.

Matt fought in world war I and survived being gassed.

Agnes moved to Manchester at some point to live with Aunt Alice.

Pat was the only one to stay.

The contrast with my grandmothers family (the Cassidys) is striking.  There were lots of them, and I’m sure a lot of them left Chateaugay in the mid to late 1800s never to return, but  there were still a lot of them left.   I had second cousins and second cousins once removed everywhere.

So why did the Bradshaws all leave?  Well,  we know for sure that my great grandfather drank a lot. We know that some of children left quite young.  Alice left at 16.    Maybe that was common at the time, but I have dark suspicions that maybe there was a reason they all left.

On the other hand, I have a vivid imagination.  Also I’m an engineer.  I’m paid to sit around and think of absolute worst case scenarios.

So.

I’ve got this burning curiosity to learn more about these people.  I’ve got access to the internet, and a membership in Ancestry.com.

I’ll keep you posted