Jersey City Adventure Monday October 3, 2016

Cousin Carol and I had previously discussed making a trip to Jersey City to see if we could find some of the addresses of where our grandparents lived and where our grandfather is buried based on documents we found via research and papers her mother had.  Our grandfather, Paul, worked for the Delaware Lackawanna railroad and was killed at the train station February 3, 1923.  We were also hoping to find information about his death by researching newspaper archives.  Carol had googled the addresses and worked out a map and felt confident about making the journey into Jersey City, so we set off Monday morning.  She did a great job navigating, and we were very pleased with our outing.



The entrance to The Holy Name Cemetery where our grandfather is buried.  We stopped in at the office and showed an attendant a copy of the gravesite deed.  She directed us to the section where we should search.

There did not seem to be a logical pattern to the way the rows were labeled, but after walking the area we found site # 10 where Grandpa Paul lies.  However, there was no gravemarker for him.  "Why not?" is another question that will no doubt remain unanswered.

We stopped next at the main branch of the Jersey City library only to find the New Jersey room with all the historical archives was closed for renovation and would not be open for several weeks.  A librarian did call one of the archivists who was at another branch, and he was very informative.  The Journal newspaper had given its morgue to the library, so there was no sense in going to the news office.  We might also check with the Alexander Library at Rutgers, New Brunswick.

 Our grandparents' homes were no longer at the addresses we had.  One had been cleared to make way for the Roberto Clemente ball field; another had morphed into a shopping district.  The site where our grandfather had died was ironically at the Hoboken yard where last week's train disaster occurred.

Carol then drove us to Liberty State Park.

There we saw the stainless steel Empty Sky monument which was dedicated on the 10th anniversary of 9-11.

And the Central Railroad terminal which operated from 1892 to 1954.

Carol is reading about how the immigrants embarked here on their way to trains after leaving Ellis Island

Ferries depart from Liberty Park to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.  The upper part of Lady Liberty can be seen between the minarets on the roof in this picture.

Liberty Park was a perfect choice to end our day's ancestral search, and the weather helped make it a perfect day.