I finally found evidence of a story my grandmother told me. When she told me how her grandfather Joseph Funston died, she said that the newspaper reported it as a suicide and that his sons were so incensed by this false reporting that they stormed down to the newspaper office to demand a retraction.
All of the newspaper articles I have found up until now never mentioned one way or another whether his death was an accident or suicide. Today I found a small item on the bottom of page 16 of the January 1, 1921 Night Extra issue of the Evening Public Ledger:

Joseph Funston, sixty years old, 2089 East Somerset street, was found dead in his room, early today. Gas was flowing from an open jet, with the door and windows tightly closed. Police say it is a case of suicide. In one of the pockets of Funston’s coat, the police found more than $50.

It’s worth noting that the death certificate differs in both the cause of death and his age:

Age: 70 years 1 month 3 days.
Cause of death: … Gas Poisoning probably accidental

We’ll never know the true story of what happened that New Year’s Eve night. Despite the response of my grandmother’s uncles it could very well have been a suicide, or perhaps after a little too much celebration he accidentally left the gas jet on. Whatever the case, I am wondering why he had $50 in his pocket, which is about $665 in today’s dollars, and more than I would expect my elderly boxmaker great-grandfather to be carrying around.

It pays to go back and search a source again. Some time ago, Ancestry introduced its Pennsylvania and New Jersey Church and Town Records database. When it first came out, I searched it for all of my Pennsylvania and New Jersey ancestors. I found baptisms and marriages and burials. It has been a great source for my genealogy.

I think they must continue to work on the index because lately new hits have been turning up in that database. For example, I recently found the marriage of Joseph Funston to Frances Miller. I mentioned my third great-grandmother Frances “Fanny” Funston  in my January bucket post as a big mystery. I knew Joseph divorced her, but then, to me, she disappeared. I was excited to find this marriage record and to at least be able to put a tentative surname to her.

Then, I found a marriage record of a George W. Bieber and Frances Funstone in 1865. Five years before the divorce of Joseph and Frances, but stranger things have happened. I looked for George and Frances Bieber in the census to try to confirm this was my Frances, but came up empty.

And there it stood, until an unrelated Funston researcher came across my bucket list and mentioned the Bieber-Funstone marriage and an 1870 census record I had found and filed years ago:

George & Fanny Beaver above Joseph & Sarah Funston, 1870 census

 At the time I had not noticed Frances Beaver directly above Joseph and Sarah Funston (her children). And thanks to a certain young pop star I know that the pronunciation of Bieber is similar to Beaver. So, it also pays to review sources you saved and filed years ago. Now that I was certain this was my third great-grandmother I felt energized to search GenealogyBank, another database that has been of immeasurable help to my research.

And I found this:

Fanny Bieber obituary, Philadelphia Inquirer 27 Sep 1873

BIEBER — On the 24th inst., FANNY, wife of Geo. W. Bieber, and daughter of the late John and Mary Miller, in the 44th year of her age.
The relatives and friends of the family are respectfully invited to attend the funeral, from her late residence, No. 1938 Trenton avenue, on Sunday afternoon at 1 o’clock. To proceed to Palmer Street Ground.

Fanny Bieber, formerly Frances Funston(e), was the daughter of John and Mary Miller,
and thus was Frances Miller when she married Joseph Funston. It all ties together and I feel confident that I have found my previously lost ancestor.

By appearances, Fanny did not have an easy life. She was only about fifteen when she married Joseph, a man ten years her senior. She remarried in 1865 while still legally married to Joseph, for reasons unknown. I do know that Joseph joined the military in 1861 at age forty-two and served four years, leaving Fanny to raise four children, ages 5-14, alone. I still need to review his pension file to see if I can glean some more information about this time period, but I have transcribed some of it here. According to court records, Fanny did not respond to Joseph’s 1870 petition for divorce and it was therefore granted in 1871. She was married to George Bieber for eight years and was only 44 when she died in 1873.

State of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia County, ss.

[Per]sonally appeared Joseph Elon Carman who hereby requests the Clerk of the Orphans’ Court, for the said County, to issue a License for the Marriage of himself to Annie May Funston and who being duly sworn according to law, doth depose and say:
that he was born in Phila. on the 6th day of April A.D. 1872; that he resides at no. 2521 Emlen St. Phila.; that he is by occupation bricklayer; that he is not related by blood or marriage to the person whom he desired to marry; that he has not been married before;
that Annie M. Funston whom he is about to marry, was born in Phila. on the 30th day of January A.D. 1876; that she resides at no. 2603 Hope St. Phila.; is by occupation in mill; that she has not been married before;
that he knows of no reason why the said reason may not be lawfully made.

Sworn and subscribed before me this 13th day of June 1895 (signed by Asst Clerk of Orphans’ Court)

[signed] Joseph E. Carman

Consent to the Marriage of a Child or Ward

I, Joseph Funston residing at no. 1910 Firth St. Phila. do hereby certify, that I am the father of Annie M. Funston residing at no. 2603 Hope St. Phila. who is now 19 years of age. That I have been informed of the intended marriage of my said daughter to Joseph E. Carman and hereby do consent to said marriage.

Given before me, this 13th of June A.D. 1895 (signed by Clerk of Orphans’ Court of Philadelphia County)

[signed] Joseph Funston

Duplicate

I, Jno P. Bagley hereby certify that on the 19 day of June one thousand eight hundred and ninety five, at Philadelphia Joseph E. Carman and Annie M. Funston were by me united in marriage, in accordance with License issued by the Clerk of the Orphans’ Court of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, numbered 77493.

[signed]Jno P. Bagley

—–

Original Source Citation:
Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, marriage license no. 77493 (1895), Joseph Elon Carman & Annie May Funston; Clerk of the Orphan’s Court, City Hall, Philadelphia.

Joseph Funston & Mary Nowack Marriage
Transcribed by Alex J. Conrad from microfilm

57311
Jos. T. Funston and Mary Nowack
Affidavit of Applicant for Marriage License
State of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia County

Personally appeared Joseph Thomas Funston who hereby requests the Clerk of the Orphans’ Court, for the said County, to issue a license for the marriage of himself to Mary Nowack and who, being duly sworn according to law, doth depose and say : 
that he was born in Phila., on the 17th day of November A.D. 1847;
that he resides at no. 2314 Hope St., Phila.;
that he is by occupation boxmaker;
that he is not related by blood or marriage to the person whom he desires to marry;
that he has been once married before, and the marriage was dissolved by death – 7 years ago in Phila.
that Mary Nowack whom he is about to marry, was born in Maryland on the —– day of (age 30 years) A.D. 1862;
that she resides at no. 2320 Hope St., Phila, is by occupation none;
that she has been once married before, and marriage was dissolved by death – Dec 25 1891 in Phila.;
that he knows of no reason why the said marriage may not be lawfully made
[Signed Joseph T. Funston]
Sworn and subscribed before me, this 14th day of January A.D. 1893 [signature of clerk]

————————
Duplicate
No. 57311
I, David H. Lovejoy, a clergyman of the P.E. Church, hereby certify that on the fourteenth day of January one thousand eight hundred and ninety three at Philadelphia Joseph Thomas Funston and Mrs. Mary Helene (Kessler) Nowack were by me united in marriage, in accordance with the License issued by the Clerk of the Orphans’ Court of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, numbered 57311.
[signed David H. Lovejoy]

Citation for this post:
Conrad, Alex J. “Funston – Nowack Marriage (1893).” Alex’s Family History Blog (15 May 2013). http://www.ctgcgenealogy.com/funston-nowack-marriage-1893/ .

Original Source Citation:
Clerk of the Orphans’ Court, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Marriage licenses no. 57008-57599 1893, FHL Film no. 1299892: license 57311.

I am not one for the whole bucket list idea, but as we pass from one year to the next I recognize there are some genealogical mysteries I would like to solve in my lifetime.  Here is an incomplete list in no particular order. Some are things that are likely never to be answered. Some are only a matter of time.

1. The disinheriting of Charles H. Ware.  In his will, Uriah Ware very explicitly excluded his son Charles. For the longest time, I was unable to prove the whereabouts of Charles after he left home. I have since discovered him in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania which seems a long way from Camden County, New Jersey. How did he end up there and why did his father disown him? I may never know.

2. What happened to Frances Funston? Joseph Funston was married twice according to his Civil War pension file. His first marriage to Frances ended in divorce. She was the mother of his children and according to what was found in the pension file, did not appear to contest the divorce. Joseph remarried right away. I have never found Frances in any record after the divorce in 1872, not alone or with any of her children who were by then grown. She likely remarried, but to whom I have no idea. (Update 7/17/14: I found her!)

3.  May Whitaker? When talking about her family, my grandmother always said there was a Whitaker in there somewhere. On death and marriage records for her uncles and mother, it was their mother who was listed as May (or Mary) Whitaker. I have her on the 1880 census with her husband Joseph and children, and with a Mary Partington who is identified as Joseph’s Mother-In-Law. Then she died in 1886. Did her mother remarry a man named Partington? Was the family wrong and May’s last name was really Partington? I have found no other records of her or her mother, under Whitaker or Partington. May was born in England around 1852. I have no immigration date so I do not know if she came over as a child or adult. Based on the ages of their children, she and Joseph married around 1871. There is still a lot more searching to be done on this one.

4. What ethnicity and religion were the Carmans? There are several Carman lines in the eastern United States. There was an Englishman who settled in Long Island and his ancestors stretched south into New Jersey and east into Pennsylvania. There was a German who landed in Philadelphia whose name became anglicized as Carman. My Carmans have been in the Philadelphia area a long time. My latest research suggests they were in Montgomery County in the late eighteenth century and likely well before that. Are they connected to the Germans, the English or some other Carman line? My 3rd great-grandparents were Catholic and their church was set on fire during the Riots of 1844. From what I read, it was the two Irish churches which were targeted while the nearby German church was left untouched. Were they Irish? My 2nd great-grandfather married a German Protestant. Was this when the Carmans became Protestant? The more I learn about this family, the more questions I have.

5. French! My grandmother had no idea where her Carmans came from and she knew there was a Whitaker but not who it was. Another thing she always used to say was that she had French in her, but she did not know from which line. My family ethnicity is fairly boring: lots of German, English, Irish, Scottish and way back on my father’s side a bit of Scandinavian  But mostly just lots and lots of Germany and British Isles. What I am trying to say is that French would be exotic. Ironically, the closest I have come to finding it has been through the only ancestors I have traced back to Germany: the Hornefs.  The area of Germany they lived in was near the border which by the little I have read moved around a bit. There was also the movement of people as Protestants sought safe havens. I have found church record indexes with their names in German and French. (Georg Peter/George Pierre) Is this the French my grandmother heard about? Since most of my grandmother’s ancestry has brick walls in the United States I may never know for sure.

6. The princess in the hogshead. I’ll end on this one, because it’s a bit silly. In the seventeenth century a young Swedish princess had to flee her home due to political troubles. She stowed away on a ship by hiding in a hogshead. The ship wrecked off the New Jersey coast and she washed up alive but destitute. A trapper, John Garrison, found her and eventually married her. And thus, all Garrisons in Southern New Jersey are descended from Swedish royalty. Or, so we claim. Who is ever going to prove otherwise? 🙂