Sunday Search: Just Around The Corner

 Barren Hill Cemetery

This past week I was finally able to find the marriage license of my great great grandparents, William McKannan and Susan Laura Corner. It proved to be a difficult task as like many first generation Irish Americans the McKannan surname has been recorded in a myriad of different ways. While I was familiar with the current spelling and the way by which it was recorded for my great grandparents and grandparents in the 1940 census, McKenna, this new document brought to light another possibility, McCann. However, every single one of the other details in the document where accurate leaving no doubt in my mind that I had finally found one of the family records that had eluded me for nearly a decade.

Marriage License - 9 December 1890

When looking at this record I was surprised to find that the marriage actually took place on 9 December 1890, only five days prior to the birth of my great grandfather William Jacob McKannan when my grandmother was seventeen years old. Seems as though there may have been a little rush to the alter to say the least but the marriage did last for the rest of their lives so there must have been more of a connection beyond the simple fact of an unplanned pregnancy. Additionally, as I researched the details of their lives, it was fascinating to see the full lives that they had especially with regard to my great great grandmother.

1880 Census

Susan Laura Corner was born in Philadelphia on 20 August 1873 to Jacob Corner and Tamise Culp. Growing up the daughter of a farmer in Whitemarsh Township, Montgomery County, she experienced loss at an early age as her twin sister, Emma Flora Corner, passed away on 17 September 1875. It is unclear how they met but by the time Laura was 16 she was pregnant and by the time she was 17 she was married to William who was six years her senior.

   

Sunday Times Advertiser - 22 January 1928

While my great great grandfather was working for the Pennsylvania Railroad (eventually becoming yardmaster at Morrisville), Laura was busy first raising her family and then, later in life, increasing her social activity among many of the organizations in the Trenton area. This is one of those situations where she may not have had an occupation listed in the census but she did work and she worked hard. This resulted in her being mentioned in the various Trenton newspapers over 140 times during the approximately 30 years prior to her passing in 1949. While she was a founding member of the Get Together Club (seemingly started after her husband’s passing in 1933, she was also active with her Bible Study Class, a member of Iska Council No. 33 (Improved Order of Red Men), a member of Laurel Temple No. 3 (Knights of the Golden Eagle), and, most prominently, she served as District President of the Patriotic Order of Americans and, later, appointed as Director of the National Patriotic Order of Americans Home and Orphanage in Lambertville. In the latter she also held various roles in Camp No. 6 ranging from Orator to Publicist to Trustee.

Sunday Times Advertiser - 2 December 1934

It seems as though both William and Laura slowly moved up in their respective social circles over the course of their unlikely marriage. They had at least 3 children, William, Mary, and Reuben and were married for 43 years at the time of my great great grandfather’s passing after a six year illness (still uncertain as to the cause of this illness). And, by the time she took her final breath only her daughter, three grandchildren, and four great grandchildren remained. Beyond the simple documents that have been found she is remembered as a good hearted, happy, giving, thoughtful, and intelligent mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and community leader. And, in the end, that is really all that any of us can hope for.

Trenton Evening Times - 3 November 1949

Do You Really Want Me As A Juror?

 
Today is the date that I was told to report and like any other day during the work week I woke up early, grabbed my stuff and got in the car. Last month I went to pick up the mail and as I flipped through the envelopes one stood out to me. Crap! I got called for jury duty. While many might try to feed you the lines of ‘serving the community’ or ‘supporting the legal system’ I firmly believe that it is a complete waste of time and I shouldn’t be required to burn one of my vacation days to simply fill a seat. Plus I have to drive to Norristown and supposedly park in a temporary lot while the juror parking garage is under construction. This is sounding like it is going to be so much fun!

 

Hopefully some of my displeasure came across in my answers to the questionnaire that I filled out last week (they should pay me for the time it took to fill out that list of crap). And that was even after I waited and had accepted my fate before filling it out. The interesting thing about most of the questions that they ask is that if you think about them long enough you can honestly answer them yes or no. Here are just a couple of the yes or no questions that can be found on the form:

 

Do you have any religious, moral, or ethical beliefs that might prevent you from serving as a juror?

 

When you first read it you think that as a moral, ethical, and grounded person you should check yes but if you put some thought into your response, as I did, I had no choice but to honestly answer no. As a proud Jew (Israeli actually), if someone were to go on trial who is proven to have any kind of tenuous affiliation with a terrorist organization (i.e. Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood, etc.) or white supremacist group, regardless of whether or not it has anything to do with the crime, I would immediately assume them to be guilty. Right or wrong that is honestly how I would react. Plus I have a huge gripe with the extreme liberals and hippies in this country so the same type of scenario could play out that way too. Don’t be offended regular non hippie liberals that is not directed at all of you.

 

In general, would you have any problem following and applying the judge’s instruction on the law?

 

Well… in general, using the Supreme Court as a means of measurement, I am certain that I would completely disagree with a judge’s instruction on the law about half the time in a number of different kinds of cases. If this were specified as a means of applying the letter of the law to a case I would say no. However, this is specifying the generality of the situation so that I have no other option than to respond with yes. While I am obviously by no means a legal scholar, I have my views and there are numerous laws that I disagree with which could, albeit not guaranteed, influence my ability to serve and follow said instruction. Therefore, in general, I might take issue with certain instructions. Also see the previous question and response because there is the potential that one of the instructions could be to ignore such affiliations that are not pertinent to the case at hand.

 

While it could have been simply a lack of cases there is a good possibility that my honesty on the questionnaire is why I was not required to report. Instead, I got to go to work and earn the money that gets taxed to hell so that we can have these overburdened and sometimes broken systems in place. But at least I didn’t have to burn a vacation day!

 

Another Weekend Apartment Hunting

Today was an interesting day of apartment hunting as my wife and I drove around our target area quite a bit. We left the apartment around noon and made our way to a development that we had already seem two apartments in before with no previous success. They are nice apartments, condos actually, and we even demonstrated interest in one of them before the owners pulled it off the market in favor of selling. This time around, the place met most of our needs but it was priced above our comfort level. It would be possible to pay the rent but it just wasn’t enough to motivate us to move.

From North Wales we headed over to Lansdale which was actually closer to Hatfield to take a look at a two story townhome. The price was right if not a little high but, again, it wasn’t a place that motivated change. It was a solid home but it was at the top end of our budget, too far out, and wasn’t really an increase in usable space over what we have now. Time to move on and go a little further away from where we started our search and look at a house in Hatfield.

Driving up to this next location you could see the potential that the property clearly has but once we entered we both could tell that this was not going to be the place for us. With ragged furniture still scattered throughout the main floor from the evicted tenants, the owner was in the back of the house cleaning the kitchen area and slowly moving the overflow out the door. Heading upstairs, the ‘second bedroom’ was unusable as the roof got in the way of being able to actually utilize the space (turns out that there was no head up there either). So, after looking around, this would have given us a lot more outdoor space but would have been a downsizing in living space and a higher price over where we are now.

One more chance and one more trek across the area as we drove from Hatfield down to Dresher to take a look at the last property of the day. The converted farmhouse offered a lot of the quirks that make 150 year old properties interesting but it was the smaller of the two units in the old house. Perched above a busy street and across from an old hotel it was rather quiet for the location. It was clean and the layout was pretty good but, in the end, the square footage was lacking and the storage space was nearly nonexistent.

We managed to see four properties throughout the day but nothing that would meet our needs. It is looking more and more likely that we will end up renewing the lease at our current apartment building. Again, not the ideal, but after to failed attempts to secure a new place and numerous tours this seems like our best option at this point. We still have another full week and weekend to find a place but we are fairly certain that there will be no move this year.

Again, not ideal but we knew that this was a possibility when we started this weekly search. It also makes me more curious to wonder where we will be next summer. Maybe we can save enough to buy a house. I guess we will have to just continue waiting and see how things go but I am guessing that we will end up having better luck finding a rental this time next year. By that time we will really be ready to find a new place.