Thanksgiving Meme and a Game of Tag

In honor of Thanksgiving, Julie at Genblog invited bloggers to post 2 things they are thankful for. Here is her invitation.

It is a bit of a challenge to limit it to just 2 things, even if I limit my answer to genealogy. But, here goes:

1.Family. My husband and daughters are great, and they put up with my genealogy binges. I'm grateful for my parents, aunts and uncles, and all the things I learned from them, especially stories about the ancestors I never knew. My in-laws are great, and I've learned about their family stories too. I'm grateful for my cousins--the ones I've known all my life and my new internet cousins. I am very thankful for my rediscovered cousins. On both sides of my family, our genealogy research has reunited family groups that had lost touch over a generation or two. It was great to meet cousins I didn't know I had, and hear stories from them that I had also heard in my family.

2. Photographs. I love photographs--looking at them, taking them, and scrapbooking them. I've received alot of pictures from my mom, my aunt(dad's sister,) and my husband's grandma. And I've taken alot of pictures myself. Now I am scanning them and posting them online. I hope that someday I'll find photographs online of some of the ancestors I don't have pictures of. And I hope that some of the mystery photos I post will be seen by people who have been hoping to find those photos too.

And now, I'm tagging Paula.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Bestick Family of Newark, NJ

This is a picture of my great-grandmother Mary Ann Bestick Brady. She was born in Newark, New Jersey on 12 February 1838. Mary was the middle of 3 children born to Timothy Bestick and Ellen McSorley.

During the Civil War, Mary married Captain Garret Brady of the 2nd New Jersey Volunteers. They had 5 sons and a daughter. For many years in the 1860s and 1870s they lived at 143 Academy Street in Newark.

After her husband Garret died in 1886, Mary received a widow's pension based on his Civil War service. By 1900, Mary had left Newark and moved to Chicago with 2 of her sons--James and Garrett. Here is an inscription she wrote in a prayer book she gave her son Garrett in 1899.

In 1908, Mary returned to Newark. She died in East Newark on 22 October 1908. Mary is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in East Orange, along with her husband Garret and other family members.

According to her obituary, Mary's funeral was from the home of her niece, Mrs. William Condon. Nothing further is known about the identity of the niece. Mary's younger brother James had no children. The fate of Mary's older sister, Catherine, is not known. Mary's wedding announcement indicated she was an only daughter, so her sister may have died before Mary's wedding in 1862. Mrs. Condon may be a daughter of an unknown sibling of Mary's husband Garret. Mary's obituary stated "Bridgeport papers please copy" because relatives of her father Timothy Bestick lived in Bridgeport, CT.