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.

Nicholas Conrad Obituary
Philadelphia Inquirer, 18 November 1942

CONRAD — Nov. 16, NICHOLAS, husband of the late Sophia Conrad (nee Levens), of 2069 E. Clarence st., aged 75 yrs.  Relatives, friends and Washington Camp, No. 15, P.O.S. of A., invited to funeral services, Fri., 1 P.M., Hackman Bros., 905-07 W. Lehigh ave. Int. Northwood Cem. Viewing Thurs., 7 to 9 P.M.

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Original Source Citation:
“Conrad, Nicholas,” obituary, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 18 November 1942.

This is how I discovered what became of Catherine Hornef’s sister Eva Amelia. I still don’t know what happened to her sister Mary.

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DIED SUDDENLY
Chester Times
Chester, PA
Saturday, April 12, 1913

Mrs. Catherine Carman, a former resident of Marcus Hook, died suddenly a day or two ago of apoplexy, at her home in Philadelphia. She was the sister of Mrs. Andrew Mahla ¹ and is very well remembered by Hook folks. Mrs. Carman will be buried on Sunday and it is likely some of the borough townspeople will attend. Mrs. Mahla was notified at once by telephone and was greatly shocked at the news. She left immediately for the distressed home, at 150 East Wilt street. The internment will [sic] of Mrs. Carman will be in Mount Moriah Cemetery. She was a woman of many fine qualities and her death is deeply mourned.

The obituary for my great-great-grandfather, James B. Garrison, ends on a sort of backhanded compliment, which makes me more curious about him actually. That and the report on his pension file that said he had a scar on his back from getting hit with an axe when young. Was it an accident? Did someone whack him on purpose? How serious was the cut from that axe blade? I haven’t found that in the paper yet, but here is his obituary:

JAMES B. GARRISON
After an illness covering nearly six years, James B. Garrison died at his home on Fayette street on Saturday afternoon at 2 o’clock, aged 72 years. The end came peacefully and relieved the patient from the suffering of his long illness. Mr. Garrison was a veteran of the Civil War ¹, having served with honor. He was the oldest employee of the Bridgeton Gas Light Company, having worked in the retort house ² at their plant for over thirty years. For a number of years he had the record of never losing an hour of his working time. Nearly six years ago he gave up his position on account of an illness that seemed to baffle physicians. By many he was misunderstood, but beneath the exterior there beat a heart that contained warmth and affection, and he will be missed by all who knew him in his daily living. He leaves a wife ³ and several children all of whom are grown.

Bridgeton Evening News, April 13, 1908, page 3.

1. Private, Co. H, 3rd Regiment, NJ Volunteers Cavalry.
2. Retort house is the building where coal was heated to manufacture gas. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasworks#Retort_house)
3. His wife, Emma M. Garrison, daughter of Ansel Irelan and Elizabeth Ayars, passed away in 1922.

One of my more exciting discoveries with the addition of the Bridgeton Evening News to GenealogyBank.com, the obituary for my Great-Great-Great Grandfather, Ansel Irelan:

Ansel Irelan, one of Bridgeton’s oldest citizens, died at his home on Atlantic street early this morning, after an illness of several weeks with kidney affection.
Mr. Irelan was born in this city 76 years ago last July and has lived here nearly ever since. He married Elizabeth, daughter of the late Addi Ayars, and six children were born to them, four of whom are living. His wife died several years ago and deceased has since lived in the old home, Atlantic just above Broad street. The children who survive him are Emma, wife of James Garrison; Mary Ann, wife of John Neukirk; Lizzie, wife of Joseph Westcott, and Ansel, Jr., the only son.
Deceased was a ship carpenter by trade and when the gold fever broke out he was one of the original “forty-niners” who left this city to seek their fortune in the Golden State – California. He in company with his brother, William Irelan, Capt. Charles Woodruff, Tudel Clark, the late Edward Collins and others, left Bridgeton for the gold fields.
He came back to Bridgeton and has since resided here, working at his trade of ship-carpentering until within a few years. When the steamer “Golden Gate” which left San Francisco with one million dollars in gold on her was sunk, Mr. Irelan, with his brother William, and others took the contract for raising the gold. This was a thrilling experience in his life and the company came near losing their lives from Mexican bandits.

I was able to confirm that William Irelan did indeed raise some of the gold from the “Golden Gate” steamer, although neither Ansel or anyone else in William’s company was mentioned. Nor were Mexican bandits mentioned in any account I have yet found. I suspect that may have been an embellishment as the story was told again and again back home in Bridgeton.

William stayed in California and his son, William Irelan, Jr., made a name for himself in Mineralogy. He was California State Mineralogist from 1886-1892. He has a biographical essay in A history of the new California: its resources and people (1903), in which his father is also mentioned.