Hello! Thanks for joining me today!
My great-grandmother, Lillian Wisniewski, had an older sister named Cecelia (Wisneski). Cecelia was born around 1899-1900, probably in Allegheny or Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. She had older and younger siblings and lived with her family in Bethel Township, Allegheny County, PA in 1910. At that time her father Frank and older brother Stanley worked in the local coal mine.
In November 1918, Cecelia eloped with Jacob Caskey (alternate spelling Kasky), a young man who had just registered for the WWI draft. He was a pipe fitter helper in the steel mill in Pittsburgh. They were married in Wellsburg, West Virginia, where she provided her name as Cecelia Wesley, her age as 21 (older than reality), and her residence as Castle Shannon, PA (which is in the Bethel Township area, and where my great-grandmother eventually got married).
I believe Cecelia was pregnant at the time of their marriage, as by the 1920 Census, recorded on January 6, 1920 (14 months later), she had a 9-month old daughter, Esther. Their small family lived on the same street as Jacob's father and siblings, as well as another family of Kaskys. Jacob's father, Albert Kasky, was an immigrant from Russian Poland.
Jacob and Cecelia had another daughter, Ruth, born around 1923-24. A few years later, tragedy struck. Cecelia died of septicemia following a self-induced abortion at the age of 28.
By 1930, Esther and Ruth, ages 11 and 6, are both living in an Orphans' Home in Jefferson Township, Butler County, PA. Ruth also remains there as a 17-year-old in 1940. Their father Jacob, is a patient in the mental hospital of the Pittsburgh City Homes and Hospitals (Mayview) in 1930 and 1940. He is NOT on the census for Mayview Hospital in 1950, but I also haven't yet found a death certificate for him. I don't know whether Jacob was admitted to Mayview before or after Cecelia's death. I also don't know for what condition he was being treated (and I use those terms loosely considering the time period).
Esther married Richard Hana in June 1939, and is living with him and an infant son, Richard Jr., in the 1940 Census. It appears they may have also eloped, having been married in Winchester, West Virginia, and given that Esther was under 21 but did not have a guardian to give consent. She may also have been pregnant at the time, given the age of her baby in April 1940.
Interestingly, Richard Hana was born in Washington, PA, and Esther and their children lived there at least until 1950. Washington is the town where the Wisniewski family settled in 1930, and most of them lived there or in nearby towns through the 1950s or 60s. I have often wondered how much contact Esther and Ruth had with their Wisniewski grandparents, Frank and Mary, and their many aunts, uncles, and cousins. It seems that it was a fairly tight-knit family, as most of them lived near one another for decades, even after marrying and having their own families. I wonder why no one took Esther and Ruth in so they could avoid the orphanage. Times were difficult, and perhaps there just wasn't enough food and space to go around. Or perhaps Jacob made the choice before he entered the mental hospital, and there may have been little opportunity for Cecelia's family to be involved.
In 1950, Ruth Caskey was living in Pittsburgh as a lodger in a lodging house, working full time as a cashier in a retail food store. From then on, the records are sparse. What I do know, thanks to Find A Grave, is that Esther, Richard and Ruth are all buried in Clermont County, Ohio. Richard died at the age of 48 in 1959. Esther remarried at some point to a man named Clarkson Crume, a veteran of WWII and Korea. He is also buried in Greenlawn Cemetery in Clermont County. Ruth was buried with the surname Gray, but I have not found a record of her marriage (assuming that was the source of her surname change). Her grave does say her birth surname was Caskey.
I wonder what led the Caskey sisters to move to Ohio in the 1950s? Richard Hana was an instrument engineer in a chemical plant in PA at the time of the 1950 Census. Perhaps he had a new opportunity for work in the Cincinnati area. Plenty of questions remain. Maybe one day I will connect with descendants of these cousins and learn more about their lives.
This is all so very interesting! Thanks for all your hard work to find this information!
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DeleteThanks for reading and commenting! Update: I heard back from the Concordia Lutheran Ministries - they're going to search the orphanage archives for records or photos of Esther and Ruth and send what they find to me!
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